Architecture for refugees: designing dignity in displacement 

By Minseo Jung

“Becoming a refugee is never a choice.

 But how we respond is.

So let us choose solidarity. Let us choose courage. Let us choose humanity.” 

Above is the speech from 2025 World Refugee Day when António Guterres, Secretary-General of UNHCR, reinforced the plight of refugees, stressing that their world is unfair and unstable. At the end of 2024, UNHCR reports show there are 123.2 millions of forcibly displaced people worldwide and their provided material show only increasements in numbers. Such a task fleeting over borders requires scrutiny in solution; regarding humanitarianism, global morale/responsibility, and capability.

The factor of all above combined is widely perceived to be architecture. Most refugees are shouldered by the hope for security, going through the rough to arrive at makeshift shelters. Irit Katz, an architect and academic at Sheffield University, stresses how humans have a need to feel at home and to inhabit a place where we feel we belong. Whether or how architects create binding energy with this ‘need’ will determine not only the numbers given by UNHCR, but the very fates of millions.

What makes a space home? The concept of home is built on emotional connection, often made from the passing of time. Refugee camps are built on the belief of being temporary. According to UNHCR, the average time spent in so-called temporary places named as ‘refugee processing centers’ or ‘transit centers’ is 17years. The average stay of a homeowner is told to be 12-13 years by the First American Data & Analytics. Thus the significance of places for refugees that go beyond conventional ideas of refugee shelters has become an increasing topic for designers and architects, also for humanitarian organizations like UNHCR and the UN migration agency, IOM.       Current situations are "just good enough to keep them alive in a miserable twilight of half-existence," said Argentina Szabados, IOM's Director for Southeastern Europe, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Brian Kelly, the IOM's emergency and post-crisis adviser said "camps are horrific places.", and Italian architect Raul Pantaleo described the space to be “all gray” depicting the gloom and dehumanizing traits. Architecture for refugees has been stagnant, the topics for discussion have stayed around for decades. However many hold hope as the experts in the field openly value a united stance. At the summit organized by the Institute of Humanitarian Affairs, gathered experts announced that refugee sites “must also give people an opportunity to develop, to be healthy, to learn.”

Design, color, representation, material, flexibility, spatial efficiency. The list of ideas to preserve humanitarian life never ends. Architect Pantaleo advocates for use of color as it has a deep impact in our subconscious minds. A nurse who had worked in refugee sites pointed to the significance of plants, not bountiful amounts, but how one is enough as the symbol of new life. That such small visuals have the power to mold emotion and hope continues to bring the list of ideas for better refugee sites. 

Despite climbing awareness, refugee sites continue to face constraints. As the UN high commissioner stated, host countries cannot shoulder that responsibility alone. Individual makeshift camps cannot function properly. Global interdependence is needed most yet countries cut back on donations, on the behalf of eliminating “ bureaucracy”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees warned that “brutal funding cuts in the humanitarian sector are putting millions of lives at risk. The cost of inaction will be measured in suffering, instability and lost futures.” It is not charity, it is global ethics–which designers and architects are struggling to save.