Finding Shelter, Defining Shelter
The Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement hosted an event for the Festival of Ideas on Wednesday 16th October 2019 on the theme of Finding Shelter, Defining Shelter for displaced populations.
This event was organised by Dr Mark Breeze for the Cambridge Emergency and Displacement Group (CEDG), a strand of the larger Centre for the Study of Global Human Movement. Mark is a professional documentary film maker and his experience includes working as a producer, architectural consultant, and field director for the Discovery Channel and Dreamworks. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the award-winning architectural documentary Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero. His independent film work has been exhibited at the Royal College of Art, London, and the Barbican, London;
The event focused on the two questions; What is 'appropriate' shelter for refugees? What ultimately is shelter?
Using an exclusive preview of Mark’s new documentary 'Shelter Without Shelter', a documentary based on research in 9 European and Middle-Eastern countries, the interdisciplinary panel discussed some of the latest research and issues in refugee shelter.
The panel included (from left to right):
Dr Mark E Breeze - Director of Studies in Architecture, St. John's College, Cambridge
Dunya Habash - Research Officer, The Woolf Institute, Cambridge
Dr Georgia Cole - Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies, Newnham College
Dr Tom Scott-Smith - Associate Professor of Forced Migration, Oxford University Refugee Studies Centre
Jenny George - Doctoral Researcher, Dept of Engineering, University of Cambridge
A large audience gained insight into the conditions that migrant and refugee families and individuals live in, whether in the margins of European cities, in overcrowded displacement centres or long-term refugee camps. The film and following discussions highlighted the complexity of both physical shelter design and camp layout especially when ‘a one size fits all’ approach is followed irrespective of differing circumstances of location, inhabitant requirements, climate, longevity of stay. The panel offered a more nuanced and detailed understanding of refugee sheltering, and helped us understand the very real impact of shelter policies on the lives on refugees.
Watch the documentary trailer shelterwithoutshelter.com