Guidelines for Humanitarian Architectural Shifting Priorities
Completion: April, 2021
Context: TU Delft, The Netherlands. Individual Academic Paper, MSc2 Architectural History Thesis
Supervisor: Maria Novas
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In the 1990s in the field of philanthropy by design there is a rise of two intertwined desires. First, a desire by architects to manifest their socio-political commitment in the problem-solving potential of architecture. Second, a desire by the humanitarian field to manifest its abstract ideal into architectural action by establishing new international rules. Besides attracting the efforts of leading architects like Shigeru Ban, this results in the implementation of humanitarian architecture practitioners in the constitution of official guidelines by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Resulting in the institutionalisation of standards that guarantee improved quality in the practice of refugee shelter design. This implies the recognition for a need for official measures to dignify the user and guarantee essential comfort beyond basic survivalism. Through the case study of 1994 UNHR Shigeru Ban’s Paper Emergency Shelters for Rwanda, the thesis explores how the UNHR guidelines that resulted from the 1993 UNHR First International Workshop on Improved Shelter Response and Environment for Refugees (FIWISRER) begun to increase performative standards of refugee shelter design specifically in the context of post-civil war Rwanda. It concludes with a reflection on the limitations of this practice and how it has evolved since the Workshop.
