From Shelters to Dwellings: The Zaatari Refugee Camp

Ayham Dalal

Open Access Published by transcript Verlag 2022

From Shelters to Dwellings

The Zaatari Refugee Camp

Ayham Dalal

Volume 3 in the series Re-Figuration von Räumen

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839458389

Overview
Contents

About this book

The importance of a »dwelling« is often taken for granted - yet it is a human necessity. But how can a shelter within a refugee camp ever become a dwelling? Ayham Dalal investigates this question by bringing »dwelling« to the centre of refugee camps' studies. He argues that the transformation from shelter to dwelling is a creative and imaginative process, in which social relations are carved into space whilst politics, time and materiality are negotiated. The book shows that in order to dwell, refugees have to dismantle the machinery of the camp and reassemble it differently. Drawing on fieldwork in Zaatari camp, Ayham Dalal offers a unique architectural insight into dwelling as a complex human phenomenon situated at heart of our precarious modern living.

Author / Editor information

Ayham Dalal is an architect, urban planner and artist born and raised in Syria. He holds a PhD in architecture from Technische Universität Berlin and is currently an adjunct assistant professor at the urban studies program at Vassar College in the USA. Between 2018 and 2021, Ayham was part of the CRC1265 »Re-Figurations of Space« at TU Berlin, and a research associate at Ifpo Amman (2017-2021). His research focuses on displacement, mobility, culture, identity and their impact on urban space.

Reviews

"Ayham Dalal gives an original and new perspective on refugee camps in the Middle East, centered on refugees' experience. I highly recommend reading his book for everyone who is interested in the transformation of refugee camps and the crucial role of refugees in adapting to constraints." (Kamel Doraï, CNRS Researcher, MIGRINTER, University of Poitiers) "In this fascinating study, Ayham Dalal explores how refugee camps are planned, constructed, lived, and then transformed by residents. It is a richly illustrated, engagingly written account that takes seriously the idea of refugees as architects who can transform and appropriate their own homes. Dalal's book offers a fresh perspective on camps and is based on an impressive, granular research: a rare example of a detailed ethnographic and architectural study of emergency shelter." (Tom Scott-Smith, University of Oxford)

Supplementary Materials

Leseprobe

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	1
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	5
List of Acronyms Open Access Download PDF	11
List of Arabic Words Open Access Download PDF	13
Introduction Open Access Download PDF	19
Theoretical Overview Dwelling and the Birth of Shelter Open Access Download PDF	45
Part One: Dismantling
Interlude. Syrians in Jordan and the Construction of Camps Open Access Download PDF	61
Chapter 1 Zaatari Camp and its Planning Open Access Download PDF	67
Part Two: Reassembling the Social
Introduction. The Social Ordering of Space Open Access Download PDF	89
Chapter 2 Visual Privacy Open Access Download PDF	97
Chapter 3 Family Relations Open Access Download PDF	109
Chapter 4 Culture, Knowledge, Memory and Identity Open Access Download PDF	121
Outro. From the Social to the Material Open Access Download PDF	143
Part Three: Reassembling the Material
Chapter 5 The Caravan Chapter 5 The Caravan Open Access Download PDF	153
Chapter 6 Tents, Zinco and Cement Temporariness and the Politics of Materiality Open Access Download PDF	175
Refugees as Architects Open Access Download PDF	195
Conclusion Open Access Download PDF	203
Acknowledgements Open Access Download PDF	209
Bibliography Open Access Download PDF	211

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: transcript Verlag
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 222
Keywords: Jordan; Syria; Refugees; Dwelling; Fleeing; Architecture; Space; Urban Studies; Refugee Studies; Urban Planning; Geography

eBook

Published: July 27, 2022
ISBN: 9783839458389