Arrival Architectures

Abstract

Governments worldwide formulate design policies in an attempt to define the complex relationship between political programmes and the design of the built environment. In a rapidly changing and highly interconnected world, those policies typically refer to architectural typologies affected by contemporary events such as increased migration. Particularly the typology of arrival architectures, those spaces dedicated to the reception and accommodation of asylum seekers, comes to the fore against the backdrop of sudden refugee movements amid the most recent events of global scope. The research seeks to discuss the relation between decision makers and designers in the definition of reception conditions in the so-called countries of arrival with a focus on Europe, investigating their spatial condition through the theoretical and legislative framework and then contrasting it with the built and lived reality inside those structures.

Keywords: design policies, reception conditions, arrival architectures, forced migration, European Union asylum practice