CREATIVE ASSEMBLAGES

In the establishment of refugee camps in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, UNHCR and the different host Governments provide initial housing infrastructure ranging from poles and tarps to actual tented structures that teams of technicians assemble (or help refugees assemble) within the camps’ boundaries. Weeks or months later, the refugees begin to appropriate these structures, building mud constructions with tarp or iron sheet roofs that correspond with the initial three by four metres footprint of their shelters. These semi-permanent materials and the passing of time reinforce the tacit assumption that the camp will become a home and allow and/or press refugees to make self-improvements to the shelters, transforming them into ‘semi-permanent’ homes with attached kitchens and extra rooms, fences, kitchen gardens and other new features. 

The evolution of the physical spaces of these self-built homes – the number of rooms, style of openings, furniture, flooring, ceiling, and exterior spaces – depend on many variables, including time, host government policies, space and resource availability, cultural backgrounds and traditions, and number of family members (their ages and capacities). We measured, drew, and represented the spatial variability of the different refugee homes, focusing on the variability across cultural backgrounds and origins of different refugees.