Trasylum Project: Resting in the Mountain

Abstract

Both now and in the future, the displacement of people due to forced migration is one of architecture’s most complex issues. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) the number of forcibly removed refugees at the start of 2014 exceeded 50 million. As international border conflict and political oppression continue to dominate headlines around the world, transiting significant refugee populations is becoming a major task for governments and aid organisations. Refugees often face a dangerous journey and current refugee architecture fails to assist and support this movement and the associated trauma of leaving a homeland.

The border threshold is a critical point in a refugee’s journey. Between the exodus and resettlement phase there is an infrastructure gap which leaves refugees highly vulnerable to refoulement (being returned to where they have come from), mistreatment and suffering during the movement across extreme environments. In order to explore these issues fully the thesis concentrates on one current example of border migration and conflict in Asia. Like many ethnic groups across Asia, the Tibetan people in particular have been under significant political and cultural persecution for decades. Since 1949 after the People’s Liberation Army of China annexed Tibet and the political influence of China became more apparent to weaker nations like Nepal, their situation has become more desperate and isolated, with most Tibetan refugees now travelling via the Himalayas and Nepal to get to Dharamsala, India, home to the Tibetan Government-In-Exile and their leader the Dalai Lama.

The aim of this thesis is centred on the following research question: How can architecture assist in the safe movement of refugees across dangerous landscapes and provide a culturally sensitive threshold that works to relieve trauma and uncertainty while in transit?

The objectives of this thesis are to investigate a new typology of refugee centres so that they 1) assist large groups of asylum seekers in transit; 2) provide both a physical and cultural threshold that prepares them for migration and entering a foreign environment; 3) protect the authenticity of culture and facilitate a spiritual dimension; 4) appropriately engage with the local site conditions and environment; 5) develop an atmosphere that can assist with trauma and uncertainty; 6) mitigate the prison-like conditions that currently exist in refugee architecture.

Overall, this thesis argues that by placing a refugee reception on the border of Tibet (China) and Nepal (on the Nepalese side) under the protection of a United Nations research and emergency response centre, potential improvements in the probability of a safe journey and less traumatic migration into a new region could occur. In addition, the research aims to reconsider temporariness in the refugee crisis, discussing the need to develop an architecture that is more appropriate for the long-term condition of refugee settlement.