No Home from Home

No home from home; the architecture of the Palestinian refugee camp.

Reefat Al Areer described the Palestinian home as a generational space, where destroying a home means destroying a bloodline. The Palestine shelter in the Palestine refugee camp is unique within the refugee history and discourse as it was not designed for resettling and rebuilding lives in a new place, but as a place from which to consolidate a movement for return. Therefore, from the onset, the Palestine shelter/home has been one of resistance before it was one of refuge, which is why Palestinian refugee camps have been places of destruction even outside Palestine.

Join us for an evening of lectures and discussion on the spatial and architectural meaning of the Palestine refugee camp, led by Samar Maqusi.

Bio:
Samar Maqusi is a Research Associate at University College London’s Person-Environment-Activity Research Laboratory (PEARL) working in tandem with the RELIEF centre. Her work looks into the politics of space-making inside the Palestine refugee camps from their inception as scattered relief tents to the highly dense and urbanized architectural form they have become today, mainly focusing on Lebanon and Jordan. More recently, she has been investigating modes of sociality and vitality in refugee camps inside a burdened Lebanon. Previously, Samar worked with UNRWA (UN Agency for Palestine refugees) as an Architect/Physical Planner, focusing on programmes of shelter rehabilitation and camp improvement.

This event has be organised by Unsettled Subjects supported by the Section for Architectural Workers, Architects for Gaza and The University of Westminster