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Department of Architecture

 

 

What kinds of spaces are formed when the movement of displaced people is suspended? Controlled refugee camps and detention centers, alongside makeshift encampments and spontaneous settlements, manifest the various spatial expressions of the global control over movement. Following the Festival of Ideas' focus on 'movement', the panel will discuss the spaces of today's 'migration crisis', where people 'on the move' are suspended.

We will ask: how are these spaces created and managed? what is the meaning of form, function and materiality in these camps? what are the differences between the shelters, the communal buildings and the public areas formed in these spaces? how do these spaces influence their residents and the human relations created in them?

The panel is chaired by Dr Irit Katz, an architect and a researcher form the Department of Architecture in Cambridge, who specialises in refugee and migrant camps. The panel members will include:

Dr Tom Scott-Smith, Associate Professor of Refugee Studies and Forced Migration, the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Specialises in the study of humanitarian relief and its impact on the lives of refugees.

Gráinne Hassett, an architect and founder of The Calais Builds. Created a number of key projects at the Jungle camp in Calais including the youth centre, vaccination centre and women and children's centre.

Beshwar Hassan, a musician from Iraqi Kurdistan. Arrived to the UK in September 2016 after experiencing 14 months living in the camps along the migration routes to and within Europe.

Dan Ellis, Chair of Cambridge Calais Refugee Action Group (CamCRAG).

Organising regular convoys to the camps in northern France (Calais, Grande-Synthe and others), working with fundraising, donations and shelter building.

Bookings via www.festivalofideas.cam.ac.uk – bookings open 10.30am on Monday 26 September.

Date: 
Tuesday, 18 October, 2016 - 17:30 to 18:30
Event location: 
St John's College Old Divinity School, All Saints Passage St John's College, CB2 1TP