Housing for displaced people is still largely conceived through camps and shelters, particularly during emergencies. Similarly, when returnees arrive in war-torn cities, responses often rely on prefabricated or temporary solutions that prioritize speed over quality of life. In this talk, Ayham Dalal argues that shelter is an imagined \u201cabstract space\u201d in the Lefebvrian sense devoted from social relations and politics, whereas dwelling is a driving force that leads the socio-spatial transformation of space. Using examples from refugee camps in Jordan and Germany \u2013 how they were initially planned and how they got appropriated, he argues that emergency shelter cannot remain a purely technical fix. Rather, housing refugees and displaced people should utilize inclusive planning to build on refugees\u2019 spatial knowledge, cultural practices, and urban identities. It also warns architects and designers from the risk of abstracting shelter into a covered space, detached from basic needs for safety and the transgressing between the public and the private. Finally, Ayham Dalal calls for a rethinking of humanitarian and urban planning approaches. Safeguarding refugees\u2019 right to dwell and appropriate space requires acknowledging the limits of official planning systems and embracing more community-based, flexible, and just urban responses. Only then can displaced populations be integrated not as passive recipients of aid, but as active co-producers of inclusive urban life<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ayham Dalal is a lecturer in architecture and urban design at the German University in Cairo. His work examines the intersections of urban planning, forced migration, urban informality, and shelter design. He is the author of From Shelters to Dwellings: The Zaatari Refugee Camp<\/em> (Transcript, 2022); the co-editor of two books on camps in Germany and the MENA region; and the co-director of the award-winning film \u201c13 Square Meters\u201d. Dalal has won several research awards and held positions at the Technische Universit\u00e4t Berlin, the University of Oxford, Vassar College, and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). His current research explores the impact of forced migration from Sudan and Gaza on the urbanization of Cairo, and the the influence of sectarian identities on Syrian cities and their reconstruction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n