Architectures and Spaces of Migration

The symposium Architectures and Spaces of Migration explores architectures and housing practices in the context of migration, exile and flight from an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective. Architecture and migration have long been regarded as almost antagonistic principles, and were conceived as entities that hardly could be reconciled. While architecture was analyzed as a site of permanence and place, migration was associated with mobility, movement, or displacing (Cairns 2004). Especially in the light of growing refugee movements, a changed stance emerged, manifesting itself in exhibitions such as "Architectures of displacement" at New York's MoMA in 2017. Especially when applying an expanded and updated notion of architecture that includes the unplanned, unofficial, variable, and temporary, and thus discusses questions of appropriation, use, and design (Cupers 2013), a broad field of inquiry spans. Following up on a previous conference of members of the networks - Design Dispersed. Forms of Migration and Flight - the focus is now on the lines of connection between migration, flight, exile, and (urban) architectures and practices of dwelling in the 20th and 21st centuries. With this 'scaling', historical emergency shelters or the flight and exile experience of Bauhaus architects will be considered, as well as the architectures of refugee camps, shelters and design concepts between housing and clothing, housing and furnishing practices of migrants, and questions of the visibility of migration in urban centers as addressed, for example, in the German Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. The symposium aims to discuss architectures and housing practices in the context of migration, exile, and flight from an inter- and transdisciplinary perspective based on three thematically overlapping fields. "Architectures of Migration" focuses on architectures and urban structures created by and for migrants. How does it relate to a design production of 'home'? What characterizes their architectural practice? How does aesthetic place-making take place? But also the places of departure of transnational migrants are of interest for a line of movement of migration. Especially in the 'countries of origin' the building activity of the diaspora leads to a new architectural mix. Questions about translations and reinterpretations follow, as do those about social and political dimensions of design, including in arrival cities (Saunders 2013). What distinguishes these?

Finally, the level of "architects as cultural agents and brokers" (Pinther 2016) focuses on the design actors themselves. Here, the migration of architects in exile, and the localization of a 'Looking Both Ways' in their work will be addressed.

The "housing and furnishing practices of migrants" also result in a specific field of research: housing, as a supposed place of the private, however, sets up attributions of ethnicity, body and nation: How is a knowledge of housing (Nierhaus 2014) formed that is fed by demands and structures of desire from both contexts of origin and arrival? What role do conditions such as the temporality of housing and precarious financial situations play? In addition to the functional division of space, the representational function of the spatial arrangements and possible rearrangements with regard to gender and generational division, but also aspects such as furniture (re)use, technical equipment, light sources and management are to be investigated. How are these arrangements and housing practices represented in various media with regard to the visual representation of migration (e.g. housing magazines, films, blogs, Instagram)? To what extent does this result in knowledge transfer between communities? And do these processes lead to new, changing housing practices and designs in both arrival and origin contexts? Can we speak of recurring parameters in housing knowledge with the inclusion of historical analyses?

16.09.2022

Space: IG-Architektur, Gumpendorfer Str. 63B, 1060 Vienna

9.30 Welcome and Introduction

9.45–10.45 Camps and Squats. Infrastructures of Arrival between Control and Autonomy
Niki Kubaczek and Monika Mokre, Vienna 

10.45–11.10  Coffee break

11.10–11.50 Vienna Arrival City
Fabian Wallmüller, Vienna

11.50-12.30 Practices of Solidarity
Michaela Geboltsberger, Vienna

12.30–14.00 Lunch break 

14.00–15.00 RE:Ukraine System. Architectural Response to the Challenges of War
Slava Balbek, Kyiv via zoom: https://akbild-ac-at.zoom.us/j/92246852954?pwd=a0xMeGF4bm01ZGtSTUJQdmN5M0kvZz09
Meeting-ID: 922 4685 2954 Kenncode: 255=0&

15.00–16.00 Conviviality as Potentiality: Decolonial Epistemologies and Trans*Flows
Marina Grzinic, Tjaša Kancler, Jovita Pristovšek and Sophie Uitz, Vienna/Barcelona

16.30–18.30 Favoritenstrasse and Track 21 – Contemporary Solidarity Housing Projects, diverse Housing. City walk
Irene Nierhaus, Vienna

17.09.2022

Space: Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, IKL, Karl-Schweighofer-Gasse 3, room 2.11, 1070 Vienna 

14.00–14.45 Collecting Migration
Vida Bakondy, Vienna

14.45–15.30 Architectures and Spaces of Migration in Turkish Satire Magazines
Esin Akkaya, Vienna

16.00–18.30 Urban Planning, Migration and the Production of Space. Intersectional housing in the 16th district, Ottakring. City walk
Amila Širbegović and Danilo Jovanović, Vienna