Interview with Ricardo Mayor on the role of designers and architects crafting our social tissue. We explore how the tiny house model was adapted to respond to the current refugee crisis. From how new production models can empower citizens and change our relationship with refugees, to ultimately changing the way we design cities.
We are all familiar with the current refugee crisis. Images of camps, temporary settlements and people living in the streets of big cities have become ordinary. We all know there is a problem, that cities are incapable -or unwilling- to deal with it. But what if we could design a solution that not only offers refugees decent living conditions but helps us to connect and improve our relationship with them?
French and Spanish architecture firms Quatorze and D.A.T Pangea took on the challenge. The result is In My Backyard (IMBY), an initiative that builds tiny houses to temporarily install in people’s backyards to host refugees. We discussed with the architect behind the IMBY project from D.A.T Pangea and speaker at the Ouishare Fest Barcelona 2017 Ricardo Mayor, to understand how tiny houses can change more than just our backyards.
Architects and urban planners have a huge responsibility designing the places we live, ultimately changing our interactions and social tissue. in your experience, how can we design cities – and all that is in them- to foster a more just and collaborative society?
It’s not an easy question. I would say that any construction project has to start by thinking and considering throughout the production process the users. With IMBY we wanted to answer the question of how, starting from design and production methods, we could build a house that could foster social integration and civic engagement in a sustainable model. And this can only be done by empowering the people.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…
