Honorable Mention
2019 Skyscraper Competition
Muhammed Aydem, Burak Arifoglu, Omer Faruk Demir
Turkey
In 1992, Edward Said wrote that the ever-increasing scale of displacement in the world marked the 20th Century as “the age of the refugee, the displaced person, mass migration”. Since then, there has been an even more unprecedented increase in the number of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced persons worldwide. According to the UNHCR reports, by the beginning of 2018, 71.4 million individuals left their places to live elsewhere. This number included those who were forcibly displaced due to war, famine, natural disasters, political conflicts, violence, or human rights violations, as well as returnees and stateless persons. If this were the population of a country, it would be the 20th largest in the world.
We see this as an increasing problem of homelessness, not defined only by lack of shelter or space, but also by a lack of belonging to a place. We believe that architectural design should be able to offer solutions for people who find themselves, voluntarily or involuntarily, in such a condition. How can these people create their own lives without being restricted by states, authorities, institutions, or established socio-cultural norms of thinking and behaving. How can they transcend the borders that they are faced with? Can the borders of countries be interpreted again to provide a space where people can create their own lives and establish their own belonging? Read the rest of this entry »