While many countries in the world receive an increasing number of refugees, the spatial practice related to hosting refugees on the move, in transit, and in various forms of habitation has found diverse, new and improvised forms. These forms reflect a vast landscape of negotiating spatial practice along formal regulations, informal initiatives, enforced policies and spatial exploitations.

The spatial maneuvers by refugees, authorities and the public and private stakeholders need to be understood within a broader field of spatial discourse. The diverse reinterpretations of values of belonging and attachment are constantly negotiated and the architectural field needs to challenge both the ongoing praxis and take part in shaping the premises for the future accommodation of attachment within the socio-spatial context for a growing refugee-originated population. Because of the new urban contextual challenges, the architectural profession has a responsibility to re-think the functions related to shelter, site and settlements in crisis responses.

This symposium will be centered around thematic sessions that will question and reshape research and practice agendas, challenges and strategies for the identification of innovative approaches from various disciplines to respond on current refugee crisis. The symposium will highlight academic inquiries, real projects and policy making.

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