Architecture on the Move: (Re)Creating a Place in a Displaced World

Abstract

Refugees, irregular migrants, and other people on the move often plan to remain in their spaces of refuge only temporarily, yet they invest time and efforts in these ephemeral environments. Based on the work of Hannah Arendt on refuge and the human condition, and by focusing on actions of homemaking in the makeshift Jungle camp in Calais, this paper examines the meaning of the “moving architecture” of “moving people,” as they attempt to create a place for themselves in their unstable world of displacement and human mobility. By analyzing the spatial transformations of emergency shelters and camp environments conducted by their inhabitant-fabricants, the article argues that actions of place-making and homemaking materialize a political call of the displaced of their need for an elaborate human place in the world, even if this place makes part of a temporary environment of displacement and refuge.