Union: long-term refugee city

Abstract

The past few years have had a global refugee crisis. Historical events have proven to produce more refugees than the current disasters. So why are we facing the most overwhelming refugee crisis today? It is because most refugees tend t`o linger even after crises such as war are resolved, so the cumulative population of refugees from over 75 years back is higher than ever before. Refugees settle in concentration camps that are designed to be overpopulated in a very rapid manner to protect people from unanticipated emergencies like natural disasters and wars. Over a million refugees have gone through three generations in said concentration camps, yet we continue to fund refugee camps instead of raising money to build a more permanent home for the generations upon generations that call their host country home. This thesis focuses on resettling Syrian refugees, currently residing in the Oncupinar Refugee Camp in Kilis, Turkey, to a more long-term city. Providing the population with essentials to pursue a stable, proactive, and social life is the primary goal of this research. The research was conducted by studying different aspects of the crisis, from the history of refugees globally, to historic and modern city designs. The information and current situation and conditions provoked this thesis to consider possible solutions that the architectural industry could provide. After completing thorough literature review on physical development, ranging from a larger urban context, to the more detailed and specific aspects of design elements and principles, in general, and for refugees in particular, a set of possible principles is provided that all feeds into a prototype city to test out the results of this research.