Re-Designing Refugee Communities, Settlement Design, Large Community Site Design

Discussion in 'The big picture' started by Marcus Busby, Sep 19, 2015.

  1. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    It's a good question, and often one of the first questions people have asked.

    There are a number of answers... one of them is to apply the model to such a setting - ie a narrow, winding valley with cliffs on both sides, on a steep slope... or if this model is not suited to such a site, to use a different approach, or select a different site...

    Another answer is to say

    What is presented above, (or please find a link to images here, or images below) is a systems model for autonomous settlement planning, and it is not a Masterplan. A settlement that is designed and or implemented using this systems model is not necessarily, and in fact quite unlikely to manifest with the exact same form as the GCoT diagram. Therefore, a Masterplan would likely possess a different form according to the extant "landscape*" features.

    The two designs above, one a masterplan by Mazlin Ghazali, the other a 3d sketch model by Chris Bence, are shared with the intention to assist people to visualise a development with a fractal or recursive or modular form, both the urban form and mosaic differ from the one proposed as the GCoT systems model.

    *landscape defined as: Geographical construct that that includes not only the biophysical components of an area but also social, political, psychological, and other components of that system (Sayer et al. 2007, cited in 4 Returns from Landscape Restoration

    please also see later response post #96 link here

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Mar 16, 2016
  2. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    "Let refugees construct their own cities"

    The integration of refugees worry fact for big problems and unrest, political scientist Ulrike Guérot said in Germany radio. It appeals to consider refugees as guests world - and let them build their own cities in the host country. This is an interesting approach in the face of competition for cheap housing and jobs.

    "Lassen wir Flüchtlinge eigene Städte nachbauen"

    Ulrike Guérot im Gespräch mit Peter Kapern

    Die Integration der Flüchtlinge sorge faktisch für große Probleme und Unruhe, sagte die Politikwissenschaftlerin Ulrike Guérot im Deutschlandfunk. Sie appelliert, Flüchtlinge als Weltgäste zu betrachten - und sie ihre eigenen Städte im Gastland bauen zu lassen. Dies sei angesichts der Konkurrenz um billigen Wohnraum und Jobs ein interessanter Lösungsansatz.

    link to original article in German:

    https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/inte...-nachbauen.694.de.html?dram:article_id=346590
     
  3. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    CONFERENCE ON INTEGRATION
    ASHOKA INNOVATION


    Germany is not alone in its challenge of integrating great numbers of refugees. We have international role models that can provide us with their valuable experiences with migration. At the Innovation Conference on Integration on 18th March 2016, Ashoka will bring these international entrepreneurs together with potential partners and decision makers from the fields of social services, economy, politics, administration and foundations. Together, they confront the challenges of migration that the German society faces today.EVERYONE IS A CHANGEMAKER is the aim and motto of Ashoka.

    https://www.hello-festival.com/
     
  4. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    Innovation Conference on Integration

    [​IMG]
    Conference on the challenges of migration

    (Find the factsheet about the conference here.)

    Having received thousands of refugees in Germany we are gradually facing the challenges of integration.We will have to focus resources and energy on effective and powerful concepts. But we do not have to reinvent the wheel: there are well established ideas proven in Germany and abroad that can be spread.

    Ashoka, together with competent partners, has searched for the most reliable concepts attempting the integration of refugees – from language acquisition and integration into the employment market through to interfaith understanding – in the worldwide Ashoka network. In a multistage selection process 15 outstanding national and international concepts were identified as especially relevant für Germany. The leaders of these innovative concepts – we call them “Social Entrepreneurs” – get support to spread their solutions in Germany. Therefore we will match them with stakeholders from business, social welfare organizations, politics and administration who are willing to support or adopt the new concepts and will bring these players together at the Innovation Conference on Integration. Here they will lay the foundations of strategic partnerships for the scaling of the innovative ideas. In preparation for the conference the Social Entrepreneurs already will have advisors working with them on the transferability of their concepts to the German context and subsequent to the conference Social Entrepreneurs and their partners will be accompanied during the implementation process.

    When and Where?
    18 - 20 March 2016, Arena Berlin, Germany
    Aims
    The Innovation Conference on Integration shall contribute to the dissemination of international and national innovative and established solutions for the challenges of migration. Therefore Ashoka matches decision makers from business, social welfare organizations, politics and administration with founders of successful social organizations working the topic area of migration – for the scale or the improvement of existing approaches and for mutual inspiration.

    Preliminary Conference Programme
    You can find the programme of the confernce here.

    Selection process
    Together with competent partners Ashoka has searched for the most reliable concepts attempting the integration of refugees – from language acquisition and integration into the employment market through to interfaith understanding – in the large worldwide Ashoka network. In a multistage selection process 15 outstanding national and international concepts were identified as especially relevant für Germany and invited to the Innovation Coference on Integration.

    In preparation for the conference the Social Entrepreneurs work with McKinsey consultants to ensure the transferability of their concepts for the German context.

    Invited Social Entrepreneurs – three examples
    Find all invited social entrepreneurs here.

    David Lubell, Welcoming America (USA)
    With Welcoming America, David Lubell is addressing the fears of U.S. born residents regarding immigrants. He helps cities to set up welcoming committees who then develop concrete plans to turn residents from fearful to neutral to welcoming, using a number of simple but highly effective frameworks.

    David Lubell is already in negotiations with several cities in Germany that would like to use his model and participate in an exchange program with cities in the U.S.. David Lubell advised the White House on its Building Welcoming Communities Campaign and would be interested to help German ministries set up similar initiatives.

    Mary Nally, Third Age / Failté Isteach (Ireland)
    With Third Age, Mary Nally is building structures that keep older people engaged in their communities by bridging gaps between generations and disparate populations. In Ireland, she has been mobilising her network of tens of thousands to provide language learning for refugees.

    Mary Nally has a well-documented model that is easy to adopt by other organizations. She is looking for implementation partners in Germany, such as welfare organizations, operators of retirement homes, or other social entrepreneurs who work with older people.

    Inge Missmahl, ipso e-care (Germany / Afghanistan)
    With ispo ecare, Inge Missmahl pioneers an online psychosocial intervention process as a means to help traumatised people in crisis or refugee situations. The WHO accepts this intervention as effective.

    Inge Missmahl would like to empower immigrants with a background in psychology, medicine or social work in Germany to provide psychosocial counseling to other refugees. To that end, she would like to partner with welfare organizations and health insurance providers. Inge Missmahl also offered support to welfare organizations to set up trainings for their employees on trauma and how to handle it in day to day operations.

    After conference
    13 selected, especially effective concepts present themselves at the Ashoka Conference. But this is just one part of the job – the important steps of implementation follow the conference. Together with our partners we will accompany the social entrepreneurs through this process. For a knock-on financing we initiated the innovation fund for integration. With your donation into the innovation fund for integration, you facilitate the spreading of the best solutions in Germany. You can donate here.

    Do you have questions?
    Please contact us at [email protected]

    More about the Hello Festival
    https://www.hello-festival.com

    Partners
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG] [​IMG] [​IMG]

    Media Partner
    [​IMG] [​IMG]
    [​IMG]



    https://germany.ashoka.org/integration/en
     
  5. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
  6. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate


    "How would a town planner, how would an urban manager, manage 100,000 people? How would he manage 100,000 very poor people? It is, in a way, the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro or it is the Bronx of a few years ago" Kilian Kleinschmidt. @KilianK
     
    Last edited: Feb 26, 2016
  7. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 10, 2006
    Messages:
    3,046
    Likes Received:
    200
    Trophy Points:
    63
    Gender:
    Male
    Location:
    E Washington, USA
    Climate:
    Semi-Arid Shrub Steppe (BsK)
    Every post you make in this thread Marcus, sends me into hours of contemplation. Co-mingling ideas of basic necessities (water, food, warmth, sanitation), meaningful activity (centering around creating homes, infrastructure, commerce), and how to provide key elements of opportunity to displaced persons combine with Permaculture and the design ideas you present to form a somewhat fuzzy (in my mind) but increasingly complete template for an approach to enable these folks to create their own communities.

    If a group of humans are provided with processed foods, flimsy tent-type shelter, and institutional environment, with no opportunity to improve their situation .... well, we can see the results in nearly every refugee camp around the world. Perhaps an apt description of this would be a "dead-end handout".
    However, if a group of humans are provided with the means, vision, and opportunity to create a new life, a thriving community would be more likely to develop ... an "enabling helping hand".
     
    Marcus Busby likes this.
  8. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2016
  9. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    #RefugeeCities are next-step legal solutions to turn the #RefugeeCrisis from a burden to a benefit.

    Refugee Cities weblink : https://goo.gl/nIdGxr

    Twitter Tweet Link : https://twitter.com/RefugeeCities/status/700066548833079296

    Copy and Paste of Refugee Cities Webpage:


    Our Response


    [​IMG]Refugee cities would be special-status settlements in which refugees would be legally allowed to engage in meaningful, dignifying, and rewarding work.

    Displaced people could thus provide for their families and contribute to the economic and social development of the host countries and their homelands.

    Refugee cities present a pragmatic and feasible next-step solution to the problem refugees face. Rather than waiting to see if refugees will be allowed to work anywhere, refugee cities offer them the opportunity to develop their potential in a defined spacenow, while displaced, and in the midst of the political standstills over nationwide integration efforts.

    [​IMG]For host governments, a refugee city would provide a solution that:

    • Addresses the reality of refugees streaming across their border, whether the host country has welcomed them or not
    • Brings host countries closer to compliance with the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, improving their international reputation, and
    • Turns refugees from being a burden to a benefit – from a drain on public resources and source of social unrest to productive generators of income, jobs, and foreign investment.
    Communities surrounding the refugee city would benefit from increased investment and economic activity in the area. That activity tends to produce “spillover” benefits: new businesses with which to exchange goods and services, new consumers, and development of surrounding infrastructure.

    Practically speaking, we envision these settlements being implemented in 3 stages:

    1. DEVELOPMENT
    2. GOVERNANCE
    3. EVOLUTION

    We encourage you to look at all three stages to get a more complete picture of the process.

    << The Problem
     
  10. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    It's looking more and more like there exists an ethical and incredibly positive approach to remediating the challenges currently faced by displaced persons - creating opportunity and also employing people's skills and abilities. And, hopefully, when it is safe to return home, people will be able to rebuild their lives and communities with renewed inspiration, for long term stability...

    Also it is truly great that so many are sharing a similar vision. This means that by bringing organisations and their experts together, such as PRI and the Global Permaculture Network, Commonland Foundation, Switxboard, Refugee Cities NGO.. this kind of approach is realisable, in the best interests of everybody - those working to help the displaced persons, those displaced and their home country's economic recovery, whilst also the communities, their environment and governments, of host countries, it also puts something on the horizon for returning home - that people can return and rebuild with new skills, new collaboratives and new, or renewed hope
     
    Last edited: Feb 27, 2016
  11. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    Permaculture as a Refugee Camp Design
    original link: https://challenges.openideo.com/cha...lture-as-a-camp-design-and-knowledge-exchange

    Permaculture design provides resilient systems for energy & food security,
    while providing teaching opportunities & knowledge exchange.


    Written by Chantel Welch

    Updated on 15:34, Mar 30, 2015


    [​IMG]


    Shovels await our community building exercise at the Sonoran Permaculture Guild in Tucson, Arizona, USA.

    Permaculture \ˈpər-mə-ˌkəl-chər\ “an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

    In the past few years, gardening has begun to play a role in therapy, both mental and physical. Used in the United States to treat war veterans returning with post-traumatic stress disorder, to rehabilitate juvenile offenders, and to create "safe zones" for children dealing with emotional issues, gardens and green spaces are becoming widely regarded as a legitimate, drug-free means of therapy.

    As climate change continues to affect communities, and resources (energy, water) fluctuate in scarcity, lessons learned through permaculture design will allow refugees to bring desired and competitive skills to the market.

    Permaculture design has the potential to provide those living in camps with:

    * Green spaces, which provide security and build community

    * Food security, as families can access both individual and community gardens

    *Opportunities for skill building: construction, community planning, harnessing natural energies (solar, wind), and water cistern construction are all a part of the design process, providing people with the chance to gain valuable and transferable skills.

    Permaculture has potential to rehabilitate the land, leaving it more productive and beneficial to the host community.

    Finally, this design can be used as a model for other communities within the host country, allowing for knowledge exchange between refugees and host country nationals, and promoting a larger community beyond the walls of the camp. Pop-up vocational classes on building and maintenance of systems will allow former students to become trainers, building confidence and skills for future use.

    continued on : https://challenges.openideo.com/cha...lture-as-a-camp-design-and-knowledge-exchange
     
  12. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    A refresher..

    Sharing thoughts of where this looks to be - to my mind, and hopefully 9anda1f and others may also share their thoughts

    ------------------------------

    Working with the approach, skills and personnel of events planning and events management such as those employed in the realisation of a large music festival,

    plan and deliver a coordinated effort of skilled and voluntary builders, growers, farmers, engineers, designers, architects and also caterers, musicians, poets artists, as well as medics, doctors, lawyers and so on, found within and both the communities of displaced persons, and also the communities of the host countries or global regions to which people have fled, (europe, australasia, asia, africa, arabian states etc,) to create an event.

    The event is the building of temporary to semi-permanent to permanent settlement, fed by good music, entertainment and good honest food and clean clear water - fresh from the mothership - Earth. Some call this ecosystem service.

    Many have voiced the idea that a festival such as Glastonbury Festival of the Arts, or Burning Man Festival is like a small city popping up in the landscape, within a matter of months, together with shops, restaurants, cafes, events and all the rest, to host a temporary population of 100, 200, sometimes 300,000 people.

    That is done with the Festive spirit, the celebratory spirit - because it is adorned with expression and creativity, as well as necessity and hard work, the necessity and hard work is fuelled by incredible teams of caterers and good food, all being nourished by this, are also nourished by the celebratory atmosphere created by the artists, musicians, poets, entertainers from all cultures and genres and all driven by the event - the event of the realisation of a huge sharing of celebration.

    With the guidance of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals - The agreed Global Goals for Sustainable Development, such an event can transform where we are now, into where we would like to be, and that is the nature of collaborative design and realisation, of united, universal visions such as those described by the United Nations, the representatives of Europe and the representatives other Nations - truly embracing the directive of Unity and Diversity - in unity and diversity new and old common-unities - communities exist with all the expression and creativity found within the most developed cultures and settlements - the depth of expression found within well-established communities, which whilst we may consider this as a result of long-term establishment - a heritage or historic foundation, it remains ever-present and within the scope of any (re)united people who share hope and aspiration to improve and progress with good will and care of themselves and of the wider community, global common-unity at heart.

    Together We Can fix this - environmental concerns, economic concerns, and most important for us, our social, global community concerns. Pressures on Governments can be reduced, removed even in many of the most pressing areas of concern, and international efforts towards the realisation of peace, can be addressed and aided by a united movement to ameliorate local to global landscape* concerns. People can be involved - employed, and share the fruits of the movement, the transition from where we are now, to where we wish to be - ranging from the food we eat day to day, to the long-term benefits derived form landscape restoration and stabilisation agriculture - the foundations for economic recovery and economic growth - with a renewed direction, directly reflecting and within the 17 globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals.

    *landscape defined as: Geographical construct that that includes not only the biophysical components of an area but also social, political, psychological, and other components of that system (Sayer et al. 2007, cited in 4 Returns from Landscape Restoration

    - see the 4 Returns and 3 Zones described by the Commonland Foundation above...
     
  13. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
  14. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    Minority Report designer Alex McDowell applies filmmaking techniques to refugee-camp design

    23 February 2016

    link to original article: https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/23/a...ng-technique-refugee-camp-design-barack-obama/

    [​IMG]

    Production designer Alex McDowell is exploring how the "World Building" technique he developed while working on Hollywood movies could be used to develop sustainable solutions to real-world problems including refugee housing.

    The project has attracted the attention of the White House and the UN, who want to make developing solutions to the refugee crisis a priority in the sunset of his presidency.

    The World Building technique, which builds conceptual models of situations and then tests them by inserting human "characters" and observing their behaviour, could find solutions missed by the traditional top-down processes led by governments, aid organisations and even architects and designers, McDowell believes.

    "World Building is the intersection of design, storytelling and technology," McDowell told Dezeen at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town. "It's the storytelling part that I think is missing from a lot of the conversations around these real-world issues."



    Related story: Refugee tents are a waste of money, says Alejandro Aravena

    With the World Building approach, "you start with the world and the conditions of the world, and then you get a broad overview and then you run the human narratives through that," the British designer said.

    By contrast, the traditional approach to building refugee camps follows a generic model, which is bound to fail, argues McDowell, who heads 5D Global Studio in Los Angeles and teaches at USC School of Cinematic Arts.

    "You get massive UN initiatives, hundreds of people in a room talking about it, from a political standpoint, or from a social, or health. You don't hear people actually trying to focus on how do you get it right."

    Earlier this month the World Building Institute organised a series of workshops during the Berlin International Film Festival to apply the methodology to refugee cities.

    [​IMG]
    Attendees of the World Building Migratory Narratives: Envisioning the Future World of the Refugee Camp workshop included refugee expert Kilian Kleinschmidt and Puneet Ahira, an advisor to president Obama. Image courtesy of Berlinale Talents
    Titled World Building Migratory Narratives: Envisioning the Future World of the Refugee Camp, the workshops focused on an imagined refugee scenario set 20 years in the future, with rising sea levels in the South Pacific driving millions of people out of their homes and to a vast refugee settlement in Darwin, Australia.

    Workshop attendees then developed a range of characters who might find themselves in the settlement, and used their personal narratives to consider ways that inhabitants could collaborate and harness technology to create a permanent community with a vibrant economy.

    Workshop attendees included refugee expert Kilian Kleinschmidt, Google's head of VR filmmaking Jessica Brillhart, designer Talia Radford, and Puneet Ahira, an advisor to US president Barack Obama, who is understood to be preparing to launch a personal initiative that will focus on refugees.



    Related story: Design is about people – including refugees

    Obama's initiative is driven by concern over the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe plus fears of future mass migrations triggered by war, oppression and climate change.

    "He's going to launch an initiative that's going to talk about the refugee camp and about the future of refugees," said McDowell.

    The workshops are part of a larger, year-long initiative called Spaceship Earth 2036, directed by the World Building Institute in collaboration with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, which will launch at the 2016 Science of Fiction Festival at USC in October. The festival will explore how storytelling techniques can lead to better understanding of issues including rising sea levels, migration and urbanisation.

    The impetus for the Berlin workshops came from a Dezeen interview with Kleinschmidt, who stated that "refugee camps are the cities of the future" and pointed out that the average length of a refugee situation is 17 years, suggesting that refugee camps are more akin to permanent settlements than transitory ones.

    [​IMG]
    Dezeen's interview with humanitarian-aid expert Kilian Kleinschmidt, in which he said refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", was the driving force behind the World Building workshop

    In the Dezeen interview Kleinschmidt gave a number of anecdotes showing how entrepreneurial refugees can be, and how the solutions they come up with can be better than those imposed by external agencies.

    "In Kilian's view, the camp is really the beginning of the city," said McDowell. "If you flip the model, this kind of massive migration of populations is permanent; it's a constant state. So that's the premise. If you take that as the provocation, then how does that change what architecture needs to be? What about services? What about waste management? What does governance look like? How do you stop this being a kind of top-down governance with the UN or a local government coming in and just dictating?"

    He added: "How do you allow people to become sustainable, not only in the way they live their lives but actually in how they govern themselves? And how does their culture survive? Because one of the dominant pieces of feedback that we're getting is that people's identities get killed in these camps."

    The same problem afflicts the design of cities, McDowell believes. "The problem with those utopic, large-scale architectural visions is that people forget to run human narratives through them," he said. "So if you take Brasilia or Chandigarh, there's always the human missing from that. I think almost by definition architecture does that. It's always going for utopian vision, and assuming humans will work it out later."

    McDowell first developed the World Building technique for Minority Report, the 2002 sci-fi movie directed by Steven Spielberg.

    McDowell – who was the film's production designer – and his team first designed the futuristic city in which the action takes place and then developed the script by placing fictional characters into the city and predicting how they might react to various situations.

    In an interview with Dezeen last year McDowell said that the film "certainly influenced the future" and led to over 100 patents for technologies featured in the movie, including gestural interfaces and voice activation, that were a direct result of using World Building techniques in the film's development process.



    Related story: Minority Report made today's technology possible, says production designer Alex McDowell

    McDowell subsequently developed the technique, using it for several more movies and launching the World Building Institute to explore how it could be used in areas beyond filmmaking.

    Based at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the institute is "founded in the belief that storytelling is the most powerful system for the advancement of human capability" and advocates World Building as a new approach to problem-solving.

    "World Building designates a narrative practice in which the design of a world precedes the telling of a story," explains the World Building Institute's website. "The richly detailed world becomes a container for narrative, producing stories that emerge logically and organically from its well-designed core."
     
    Last edited: Mar 1, 2016
  15. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    Berlin's Tempelhof Airport to become Germany's largest refugee camp 26 February 2016

    link to original article : https://www.dezeen.com/2016/02/26/berlin-tempelhof-airport-to-become-germanys-largest-refugee-camp/

    [​IMG]
    Berlin is to extend the refugee camp at the decommissioned Tempelhof Airport, making room for 7,000 people in and around one of the German capital's most iconic buildings.

    The city's government has changed a law to allow extra refugee shelters to be built on a section of Tempelhof's vast airfield – which has previously been used to host events including the DMY Berlin design fair.

    This overturns a 2014 public vote that sought to preserve the open space as Berlin's largest public park.



    Related story: Berlin residents block Tempelhof airport plans

    The government says that expanding the Tempelhof camp is the only way to avoid homelessness among refugees, but the move has met fierce opposition in the cabinet.

    "We don't want anyone who has experienced war and terror to have to sleep on the streets," MP Daniel Buchholz told parliament during the debate on 28 January 2016, when the motion was passed.

    It was first announced that the former airport would become an "emergency refugee shelter" for at least 1,200 refugees in September 2015 – and no longer accessible to the public due to security concerns.

    Europe's refugee crisis has seen the displacement of millions escaping war and suffering in the Middle East and North Africa. This has led to the creation of makeshift camps at railway stations and international borders.

    These include the "Jungle" camp at Calais, which was part-built using materials left over from street artist Banksy's Dismaland theme park but is being partially cleared by the French government.

    Tempelhof was first built in 1927, then reconstructed on a massive scale by the Nazi government in the 1930s. It acted as the centre of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49, when western allies dropped supplies into West Berlin after the USSR cut of road and rail links.

    The terminals arcing hangers have been often used to host large-scale events, including concerts, exhibitions and trade fairs. The World Architecture Festival was due to host its event at Tempelhof in November this year, but has relocated due to uncertainty over the site.

    Currently the giant spaces are occupied by tents and partitioned spaces, each accommodating around 10 people. There are no cooking facilities, and the refugees have to take a bus to shower at a separate tent, according to German news site Deutsche Welle.



    Related story: Minority Report designer Alex McDowell applies filmmaking techniques to refugee-camp design

    Following the law change, five further temporary structures will be built on the site, as well as sports areas, a kindergarten, a school and other facilities.

    However, the law also stipulates that these buildings must be taken down by 31 December 2019.

    In an interview with Dezeen last year, humanitarian-aid expert Kilian Kleinschmidt said that governments should stop thinking about refugee camps as temporary places. Earlier this month, Minority Report designer Alex McDowell explained how he is applying a design technique used on feature films to develop future cities in the face of huge refugee migrations.

    Related story: Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says humanitarian-aid expert


    Governments should stop thinking about refugee camps as temporary places, says Kilian Kleinschmidt, one of the world's leading authorities on humanitarian aid (+ interview). More »

     
  16. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    “Whatever you’re planning on doing in the camp, it’s important to include #refugees in the process.” UNHCR Innovation tweet

    https://innovation.unhcr.org/why-en...al-to-improving-the-quality-of-life-in-camps/

    Why engaging refugees is crucial to improving the quality of life in camps
    By UNHCR Innovation, February 24, 2016

    [​IMG]

    On his days off, Abdiwali Mohamed can usually be found on a football field, either juggling a ball or organizing tournaments. For this avid Manchester United fan, there’s a lot more to football than working out and having fun. It can bring enemies together, nurture friendships and help erase differences between people, he says. And in Dollo Ado, such benefits cannot be overlooked.

    Born and raised in this rural area located in the southeast of Ethiopia, Mohamed has seen his community struggle to cope with a massive influx of refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Somalia – more than 200,000 refugees have now been temporarily resettled in five camps managed by UNHCR, and the population is growing. In this isolated part of the world, basic resources like water and firewood are scarce, and disagreements frequently arise between newcomers and host populations, even though the latter share the same ethnicity (the Somali people can be found throughout the Horn of Africa).

    “These two groups speak the same language, they practice the same religion and they have the same culture, but they come from different backgrounds, which can lead to some clashes,” he explains.

    But Mohamed isn’t one to ward off a challenge....
     
  17. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    The Guardian view on the refugee crisis: little time left to find a solution
    Editorial 1st March 2016

    There are more and more refugees at Europe’s gates, but teargas and barbed wire are not the answer

    link to original article : https://www.theguardian.com/comment...time-left-to-find-a-solution?CMP=share_btn_tw


    [​IMG]
    Macedonian riot police patrol at the border with Greece at Gevgelija. Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters


    Europe is approaching the point where the only way to control desperate migrants could soon be the regular use of physical force. Scenes of violence this week on the Greek-Macedonian border, where refugees breached a border fence with a homemade battering ram, and in Calais, where police fired teargas at people protesting against the demolition of their shelters, suggest we are close to a line that we absolutely must not cross.

    Europe is already guilty of causing the deaths of many migrants by giving them, in effect, no alternative except to risk their lives at sea or on the tracks leading into the Channel tunnel. That is bad enough, and a stain on the record, but to actually battle with migrants in this way is worse. Who can doubt that, if it continues, there will be deaths and injuries? Another kind of violence, in the shape of attacks on those who have reached a supposedly safe haven and are in hostels and centres in Germany and elsewhere, compounds the offence.

    Nothing has changed about Europe’s migration crisis, including the continued failure to find an answer to it, except that it is getting worse. The United Nations high commissioner for refugees reported on Tuesday that about 130,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean in the first two months of this year, more than the total in the first half of 2015. Winter and high seas have not stopped them, and when the weather gets better there are almost certainly going to be even more on the move.

    The numbers involved are huge and the resistance in Europe to taking so many is serious and becoming more entrenched. The answer, on paper, is to share the burden fairly between European countries, on the one hand, and between Europe and the region from which most refugees come, on the other. The first difficulty is that the more generous countries, which also happen to be those that are the preferred migrant destinations, soon felt overwhelmed. They began to impose some controls.

    Other countries had been ready to manage migrants when they were merely passing through, but, as soon as they grasped that the flow might stop, leaving them with large numbers to care for, collective panic set in. The increasingly large proportion of migrants who were not Syrians, but from Afghanistan, Iran and African countries, complicated the problem. Border closures followed, and now Europe is backed up like a railway after a bridge has gone down.

    Advertisement
    The second difficulty is that European countries, and other wealthy states, have been almost criminally lackadaisical in providing the help and money they solemnly promised to countries neighbouring Syria – countries that have taken far more refugees than Europe. They are trying to make up for that now, but it is very late in the day.

    The next few weeks are crucial. Before a migration summit on 18 March, national leaders and EU officials face a major challenge. At an earlier summit with Turkey this coming Monday, they will continue to press Ankara to restrain the flow at its end, but it would be foolish to depend too much on that prospect. Yet they have to ease the migration bottlenecks fast. As Chancellor Angela Merkel has said, Greece must not be left alone to struggle with larger and larger numbers because states further north are shutting their doors.

    Third, the EU has to at least begin to agree on some form of burden sharing. There are some ideas, like tradeable migrant quotas, that, although distasteful, are worth exploring.

    Fourth, Chancellor Merkel has to survive the serious political test represented by coming state elections. The chancellor did not create the refugee crisis, although some think she exacerbated it, but she does now own it. It is hard enough to see how Europe will cope with her still in command; harder still if she were further weakened. It is difficult to be optimistic, but perhaps there is some hope in the thought that sometimes the very gravity of a crisis compels its solution.
     
  18. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
  19. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    "Europe, stop meowing. Legal migration is a blessing '
    Kilian Kleinschmidt Ex-manager of refugee camp in Jordan denounces the West and praising initiatives migrants.

    by Caroline de Gruyter
    March 3, 2016

    link to original article (in Dutch): https://www.nrc.nl/handelsblad/2016/03/03/europa-stop-met-miauwen-legale-migratie-is-een-1595010

    link to original article (English via google translate) : https://translate.google.com/transl...le-migratie-is-een-1595010&edit-text=&act=url


    [​IMG]
    Kilian Kleinschmidt (center) makes a tour of refugee camp al-Zataari in Jordan, where more than 80,000 Syrian refugees live.


    "We have to learn to live with migration. Worldwide there are 230 million people adrift. Becoming more and more. Also in Europe. There is no point in resisting it. yet they will come. So let us set it and make the best of it! Get to city planners there! Give refugee computers! "

    Over 25 years, the German Kilian Kleinschmidt (Essen, 1962) refugee work done for the UN. In Somalia, Pakistan, Sudan and Bosnia he saw drama on a large scale. But he also saw something else: the boundless positive energy released when people leave their homes under duress, let go their own way.

    Give them take a chance, many who. They want to feel at home

    Kleinschmidt, who settled with his wife and child in Vienna last year and since then advises ministers and aid agencies, including Lilianne Ploumen, was until recently manager of the largest refugee camp for Syrians in Jordan, al-Zaatari. He is a passionate man, and not the romantic kind - rather a survivor, someone with a hundred ideas a minute who always looks somewhat lost in a suit.

    In a Viennese corporate office full start-up types with laptops tells this man, who lives on a motorcycle to Africa tore without motorcycle license, why Europe needs to think differently. First he talks about al-Zaatari, where 80,000 Syrians live. They called him "the desert lion. The Jordanian government and aid agencies, says Kleinschmidt, wanted to organize everything temporarily.

    "Only tents. No electricity. If nothing, everything was scarce. Donors gave 40 percent of what they had promised. Jordan was the Syrians would rather lose than rich. Everyone was tense and frustrated. When I arrived, there were clashes with the police. Some Syrians sat there for years. No wonder many wanted to go to Europe. I changed everything. I showed them themselves set up their camp. They bestraatten mud path, set up tents in a circle instead of in a row. They started travel agents, hairdressers, bicycle makers and caterers. Skirmishes took place for activity. Al-Zaatari is not an ideal city but a real city, a city that belongs to them, a breeding ground for innovation and hi-tech. If European politicians ask what they need with refugees, I say: Stop complaining and meows about everything is over and never come back, and go look at Zaatari Get the vibe go to work... That's how you do it. Also in Europe. "

    You can transfer that vibe on European politicians?



     
  20. Marcus Busby

    Marcus Busby Junior Member

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2014
    Messages:
    210
    Likes Received:
    18
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Gardener Carpenter Landscaper Builder Designer
    Location:
    United Kingdom
    Home Page:
    Climate:
    Temperate
    Above article continued...

    Now 25 years rescuer
    Kilian Kleinschmidt (Essen, 1962) took the early 80s as a hippie to the Pyrenees and made goat cheese. Then he went by motorbike through the Sahara, where he met assistants. 25 years he then worked for UN aid agencies in Uganda, Rwanda, Pakistan and Jordan.

    Kleinschmidt, UNHCR left in 2015 because "they build temporary camps, and I think we should drop cities." As a consultant in Vienna he tries "new perspective on migration" to promote. He's on TV, TEDTalks do and advised Austrian, German and Dutch ministers.

    "Some people look at you with a look: that is crazy. The Austrians, for example. The only thing they say is: 'We need to stop migration, we are flooded. Others respond thrilled. On German ministries, they say, "Welcome, be as disruptive as you can." In Brussels, with President Juncker: same story. In The Hague they understand. I was last in Ploumen Minister, for a briefing with 70 officials. What a good response. Super!"

    They did not say, 'We are being flooded?

    "Of course not. They understand that walls, blockades and minimal care as a deterrent not work. They understand that you can not close kitten thousand Greek islands. And then: in Libya are 200,000 people waiting to get on boats. The Ukrainian mafia puts a big smile new smuggling routes across the Black Sea, with the help of the Russians. Illegal migration can only counter with legal migration. In The Hague they know. I'm not the first to tell it. Everyone recommends governments to: allow refugees from war zones in their own region asylum applications in Europe. Then you have plenty of time to register them and to check or correct their stories. they are eligible, then fly them to Europe. You should do the same with migrants. Why do migrants here, risking their lives? Because there is work in Europe. Germany to forgive 600,000 jobs. If you want to get rid of the chaos with boats and smugglers, you must also allow workers to come legally. Advertise those jobs in Africa, in the Middle East. If someone is believed he may come. With the plane."

    Work Visa?

    "Exactly. And in Europe you migrants and refugees have a place in society. Give them take a chance, many with both hands. They want to feel at home. They want a better life. many Syrians were in a bare tent in al-Zaatari. Their possessions they had left, but they were on their cell phone again to find out how they could build fountains. In a tent, yes. A Syrian was satisfied when he can drink tea and smoke shisha with its own fountain. I've never seen so many fountains as that in al-Zaatari. There was hardly any water in the camp, but it splashed everywhere from the fountains. They arranged that simply. Likewise, many had electricity, while the United Nations had no money to give them to. Otherwise, their phones were not working. Do you know Dubai? Do you know who that control the trade in raw materials? No? Somali migrants! Somalia is the largest supplier of livestock in the region. Camels, goats. Somalis from Mogadishu determine phone prices in Dubai with their cousins there. This is the new world. Dubai is 80 percent immigrant. He is booming, thanks to migration. Somalia also a part of the money that migrants in Dubai earn they send to relatives in Mogadishu. "

    They were in The Hague and Berlin welcomes legal migration?

    "Certainly! They are open-minded. "

    So they say out loud.

    "No, but to get behind the scenes, the Germans are working legally 700,000 Syrians in Turkey. Seven hundred people a day, little by little, so that you can manage it on both sides. Italy does, Netherlands will also do it. Canada has 25,000 flown since Justin Trudeau was prime minister. "Welcome home," said Trudeau, and gives all of them a Canadian passport. Europe must do the same. If you let people come legally, they are not illegal. So you decide who you download. Easy to explain to citizens. Politicians do not. Therefore, the public discourse in Europe is going in the wrong direction. Large parts of Spain and Italy are empty. All of Europe urbanization is so fast that they close hospitals, schools and rural post offices. If there refugees live, you can give these regions a great boost. "

    Why politicians publicly say different things than against you?

    "They shudder at the extreme right and just dare to say the best refugee refugee who does not. Europe is deeply sunk. When Kenya wanted to clear a piece of Dadaab, the largest refugee camp in the world, Europeans sermons loved: think of your international obligations! You violate the Geneva Convention! Now Europe itself refugee gets, she is not able to do what they asked at the time of Kenyans: dignified care. We are spoiled, arrogant and negative. And we have ourselves with it: migration creates opportunities and let us all be. "

    What opportunities?

    "In 2030, 2040 live 75 percent of the world's cities. All cities are asking: how do we organize it? That business is in. Mayor Van der Laan of Amsterdam has its best people at Zaatari sent to devise innovative approaches to sanitation, housing. I am guided virtual reality chief of Google. Companies in Baden-Wurttemberg build residential areas in Kurdistan. You have masses networks such as FabLab and Techfugees, providing worldwide refugee and migrant services, three-dimensional printed prosthetics to housing or personals. Syrians are handy with computers and do great inventions. Silicon Valley is on top and is investing in incubators. In those camps, yes. Refugees is not something temporary, as everyone thought. Many never return. Stadtlichkeit the future, not Staatlichkeit. The average refugee living seventeen years in a camp. You have to make the best of it. "

    Migration billion industry?

    "With bomb positive energy into it."

    How do you convince people this?

    "In Austria, conservative county supervisors push refugees to socialist communes, and vice versa. You have dicks as brugman! I'm in talk shows and seminars around the world. I try to help everywhere. So things were in a shelter near Vienna in the soup. I asked, "Why sleep as many outside?" Says the church: "Sorry, regulations. Then you ever trust things a bit and can suddenly do. I was goatherd, that helps. "

    Everyone is talking about more 'reception in the region. " Is that good?

    "Of course. Ploumen was last in Zaatari. If people can develop because they have less reason to come to Europe. In 2014 they reached the World Food Program so broke that highly skilled of food have been withdrawn. Though highly skilled are not hungry. That must never happen again. We need to give more relief. At the same time we must also look at other development. When I was in Mogadishu, Western donors were a year trying to build a water pump on the market. Useful: there was no water. But then came the Turks. They put travel agencies, computer companies, shopping malls and hotels down. Turkish Airlines took a few flights a day. Thrice guess who profited when peace broke out in Somalia. The best development is investing in migration. "

    Email the editor
     

Share This Page

-->