Viewing From The Sidelines: Tackling Temporality Impacting Displaced Refugees by Humanizing Border Design

Every day, you follow a routine that brings comfort- be it work, errands, or family care. Now, imagine the unthinkable: your stable world collapses around you, leaving you homeless and adrift. Stripped of job and shelter, what’s the best option? To leave and seek answers in unfamiliar places while grappling with the profound isolation and discrimination that comes from being displaced. As architects, our role is to communicate people's dreams and realities, striving for a sustainable future while fostering dialogue and care. This thesis focuses on the architectural response to the increasing displacement along the Türkiye-Syria border, exacerbated by ongoing political conflict and the devastating earthquake that occurred on February 6, 2023. As of 2024, Türkiye hosts approximately 3.2 million Syrian refugees and over 222,000 other displaced individuals, all facing uncertain futures in unlivable situations. This thesis challenges the temporality of refugee camps by proposing permanent designs that break down barriers and create shared spaces, designed for them and to be built by them. By integrating themes of empowerment for refugees, fostering community growth, and self-sustainability, the aim is to develop a paradigm shift that allows differences to dissolve and new cultures to arise. Throughout the design development, new typologies are formed, an introduction to Pocket-Neighborhoods, a sequence of phases allowing for refugees to attain the skillset to make their own homes, and the overall design scope of an ongoing site plan for an ever-expanding refugee city.