Lecture: Urban Refugees in the Middle East and Germany: A Comparative Approach

8 February 2016, 5 pm

Conference Hall, Zentrum Moderner Orient, Kirchweg 33, 14129 Berlin-Nikolassee

Lecture by Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz (TU Berlin), chaired by Prof Ulrike Freitag and Dr Nora Lafi

Refugee camps or asylum seeker centres have been criticised for their  resemblance to spaces of confinement and control, for their tendency to compromise civil rights, and their inability to guarantee civil dignity. Whether organised by global humanitarian organisations or European municipalities – guidelines and policies are set by a techno-managerial logic. But a visit to almost any of the hundreds of refugee camps that exist worldwide confronts us with a complex reality and forces us to rethink our preconceptions. Instead of ordered tent cities, we are more likely to find streets, markets, shops or public buildings surrounded by makeshift buildings: urbanised settings, often only distinguishable from the host environment by the ubiquity of UN flags or the logos of international NGOs. The lecture will draw on research conducted since 2008 in urbanized Palestine refugee camps and the more recent experience of urban refugees in Germany.
How can we learn from these conflicts to rethink refugee accommodation in European cities? How can architects and planners help to enlarge the sphere of self-provisioning and emancipation of refugees, which rebuild lost dignity and enrich our cities at the same time?

Prof. Dr. Philipp Misselwitz is an architect and urban planner based in Berlin. He was educated at Cambridge University and the Architectural Association London and received his PhD from Stuttgart University for his research on urbanization processes of Palestinian refugee camps.

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