The 2nd edition of the Building 4Humanity Design Competition (B4H-DC) — 2019 Taiwan Prize has been launched. The inaugural Building 4Humanity Design Competition (B4H-DC) was held in 2018. The 2018 B4H-DC focused on mitigating disaster risks worldwide through design. It received more than 60 submissions. A total prize money of over 11,000€ was awarded to nine teams.

In 2019, the Second B4H-DC aims to address the notion of having architecture as a social and cultural facility, by seeking design ideas that would contribute towards the social inclusion and integration of Syrian war refugees in the Turkish border city of Reyhanlı. The competition has two separate categories: it welcomes submissions from students and recent graduates, as well as experienced professionals.

The evaluation committee will be presided over by two prominent architects and educators - Juhani Pallasmaa and World Architecture Community's President Prof. Suha Ozkan. The full committee will compose of distinguished practitioners and scholars from several countries will be announced soon.

Participants can be registered to the competition until October 1, 2019. Details are explained below:

Background

Over 5.6 million people have fled Syria since the outbreak of war in 2011, seeking safety in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and beyond (UNHCR, 2018). Turkey alone has accommodated a staggering number of more than 3.6 million Syrians over this period of time. At least 90% of these people are living outside of refugee camps in urban or peri-urban areas, of which 70% are women and children. It is estimated that 40% (about 380,000) of Syrian children currently have no access to education and basic health care services.

Background

Reyhanlı is a small Turkish town bordering with Syria in the province of Hatay located on the southeast of Turkey. As the main gateway from Turkey to Aleppo in Syria, the town has become the main entry point for Syrians seeking asylum during the escalating conflict. As a consequence, in the last 8 years, the population of Reyhanlı has nearly doubled, progressively absorbing hundreds of thousands of Syrians who do not envisage a restoration of peace in their home country in the short term.

Although featuring a quiet urban environment, Reyhanlı is not entirely free from the risk of war aggression. In May 2013, Reyhanlı experienced two bombing attacks in the same day, killing 52 people and wounding 146 people. Since 2011, it has also been the target of many rocket attacks that have caused further casualties, with the most recent ones being in January 2018.

In addition to terrorist attacks, Reyhanlı has experienced social problems due to the sudden rise in population. These problems pertain to poverty, unemployment, shortage of water and electricity, a lack of infrastructure, insufficient public facilities for housing, health, education and recreation. These problems are the sources of increasing tension between Turks and Syrians in Reyhanlı.

Design Challenge

To date, nearly 120,000 Syrians have settled in Reyhanlı under temporary protection. In view of the urgent needs for social inclusion and integration, this competition invites students to propose radical but applicable design ideas for transitional shelters with 5,000 square meters of indoor floor area that could be used for accommodating 400 Syrian settlers, particularly for the wounded elderly, war widows and orphans. The design might consider using an area of up to 800 square meters for welcoming or receiving guests, administering first aids, and providing other basic services, such as food, healthcare and indoor leisure activities. The urban fragments dedicated to the proposed transitional shelters must be confined to a piece of land with 7,000 square meters in the north side of the location, and must observe a vacant area of 10meters in width in front ofthe construction site (see the image satellite with the plot limits). It should be designed primarily for serving Syrians, but must embody the spirit of integration and meet the aspirations of local community through architecture, urban and landscape design.

The professional category will need to consider, in addition to the requirements for the student category, combining the transitional shelters with another facility: a social and intercultural service centre with 15,000 square meters of indoor floor area. The centre should be proposed for both Turks and Syrians in order to meet both the communities’ needs and aspirations, serving as a foundation for the process of social inclusion and integration between Turks and Syrians. This centre should be envisaged as a meeting point between people and cultures, with a view to promoting cultural exchange, sharing lifestyle knowledge, enhancing social bonds, engaging Syrians into the city’s social, economic and cultural life, and building resilience for the community as a whole.

All participants are encouraged to critically investigate the site in conjunction with an in-depth consideration for its immediate and wider context. Specifically, considerations should be given to:

- selecting specific target groups, users and beneficiaries;

- configuring a specific architectural program;

- conducting architectural design;

- specifying processes and features of construction; and

- describing organization and management of the proposed building complex.

International Framework and Resources

The new facility should also aim to meet the principles and main guidelines provided in global agendas:

• The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely Goal 11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable¹
• The Paris Agreement² within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
• The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction³
• The Legal and Protection Policy Research Series of the UNHCR, such as Rights of Refugees in the Context of Integration: Legal Standards and Recommendations⁴.

Special attention should be given to the term “integration” as explained in Chapter 1: The right to integration assistance of 1951 Convention : “The term integration (‘assimilation’) has also been interpreted as referring to the process of laying the foundations for the refugee to become familiar with the customs, language and way of life of the country of asylum, so that without any feeling of coercion, he/she may more readily be integrated into the different aspects of life in the country of refuge. This may be accomplished through such means as, inter alia, language and vocational courses, lectures on national institutions and culture, and by creating opportunities for stimulating contacts between refugees and the host population. As such, any definition of “integration”, as well as integration frameworks or programmes should reflect an approach which promotes acceptance and respect for the refugee’s way of life and culture, while also providing assistance for their functional and cultural adaptation into the host society.”

• Social exclusion is a multidimensional phenomenon not limited to material deprivation; poverty is an important dimension of exclusion, albeit only one dimension. Accordingly, social inclusion processes involve more than improving access to economic resources.

1.https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/cities/

2.https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement

3.https://www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/sendai-framework

4.https://www.unhcr.org/protection/globalconsult/44bb90882/12-rights-refugees-context-integration-legal-standards-recommendations.html

• Social inclusion is defined as the process of improving the terms of participation in society, particularly for people who are disadvantaged, through enhancing opportunities, access to resources, voice and respect for rights.
• Measuring social exclusion is challenging due to its multidimensional nature and the lack of standard data sources across countries and for all social groups at highest risk of being left behind. Despite limitations, the existing data allow for a meaningful analysis of key aspects of exclusion. The report presents these data while illustrating data gaps.
• While inclusion is a core aspiration of the 2030 Agenda, conceptual and analytical work on what constitutes inclusion, as well as efforts to improve data availability, are needed.

Suggested reading

• Transitional shelter guidelines⁵, by Shelter Centre, 2012
• Transitional shelters Eight designs⁶,by International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• Children in an urban world, State of the world’s children⁷, by UNICEF, 2012
• Cities need to welcome – not resist – refugees⁸, by Robert Muggah, 2018
• Designing appropriate interventions in urban settings: Health, education, livelihoods, and registration for urban refugees and returnees⁹, by UNHCR, 2009
• Mean Streets: Identifying and Responding to Urban Refugees' Risks of Gender-Based Violence¹⁰, by Women’s Refugee Commission, 2016
• Perspectives, Expectations and Suggestions of the Turkish Business Sector on Syrians in Turkey¹¹, by Prof. Dr. M. Murat ERDOĞAN, 2015
• Syrians-Barometer-2017¹², by Prof. Dr. M. Murat ERDOĞAN, 2017
• Syrians in Turkey: Social Acceptance and Integration Research (English content after page 38)¹³, by Prof. Dr. M. Murat ERDOĞAN, 2014
• Urban Refugees from ‘Detachment’ to ‘Harmonization’¹⁴, by Prof. Dr. M. Murat ERDOĞAN, 2017

Site

The area of design site is around 25,000 square metres, situated in the south western outskirts of Reyhanlı. The site is adjacent to parkland, agriculture land, a newly built regional hospital and terrace housing (https://goo.gl/maps/1oE3aD6wJTz, latitude: 36°14'40.95"N, longitude: 36°33'36.39"E).

5.https://www.humanitarianlibrary.org/sites/default/files/2014/02/20120522_tsg_onlinedoc_0.pdf

6.https://www.ifrc.org/PageFiles/95186/900300-Transitional%20Shelters-Eight%20designs-EN-LR.pdf

7.https://www.unicef.org/sowc2012/

8.https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2018/10/global-refugee-crisis-role-of-cities/571876/

9.https://www.unhcr.org/en-au/4b2789779.pdf

10.https://www.womensrefugeecommission.org/gbv/resources/1272-mean-streets

11.https://mmuraterdogan.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/syrians-eng-mme.pdf

12.https://mmuraterdogan.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/syrians-barometer-executive-summary.pdf

13.https://mmuraterdogan.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/turkiyedekisuriyeliler-syrians-in-turkey-rapor-tr-en-19022015-1.pdf

14.https://mmuraterdogan.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/mmu-urban-refugees-report-2017_en.pdf

Participating Institutions and Roles

Commissioning body

- Taipei Economic and Cultural Mission in Ankara, Turkey

- Ortadoğu Vakfı (Middle East Foundation), Turkey

Organizers

- A.M. Architekturmuseum, Germany Alliance of Architectural Modernity, TaiwanAlliance of Architectural Modernity, Taiwan

- Building 4Humanity, Designing and Reconstructing Communities Association (B4H-DC competition holder), Portugal

- Department of Architecture, Shih Chien University, Taiwan

- Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Beira Interior, Portugal

- The Research Centre for Architecture, Urbanism and Design (CIAUD), Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon Portugal

Competition Directors: CHIU Chen-Yu (Turkey), Nuno MARTINS (Portugal), and WANG Chun-Hsiung (Taiwan)

Director of Executive Team: HUANG Shao-Yu

Manager of Executive Team: Selin Şahin

Timeline:

Announcement of the competition: May 9, 2019

Deadline for questions: June 31, 2019

Responses to questions published: June 28, 2019

Deadline of registration: October 1, 2019

Closing of the submission period at 11:59 PM (GMT+03:00): October 10, 2019

Announcement of the qualified submissions: October 28, 2019

Opening the Exhibition of the qualified submissions: November 18, 2019

Jury review: November 19-21, 2019

Project presentations, award ceremony and colloquium: November 22, 2019

Eligibility criteria

- The student category competition is open to all postgraduate, graduate, undergraduate students and recent graduates (graduating in 2019 summer).

- All students and recent graduates should be under 31 years of age.

- Multidisciplinary teams are highly encouraged.

- The maximum number of team members is 5.

Submission

All submissions are free of charge. Submissions must comply with the following requirements:

- Making online registration: Participants need to provide information about their team via online registration form.

- Preparing the registration file: One single pdf for each entry comprising proofs of student status and age of all team members.

- Submitting the registration file (pdf) and design project (pdf) online: Only individuals or teams that have submitted a complete registration file by the deadline will be eligible to participate in the competition. The Organizing Committee will review the registration file and send a specific ID number to each entry compliant with the competition’s requirements. In order to ensure impartiality of the evaluation process, all applicants are required to not publicly disclose their respective entries in any part until the announcement of competition results. Failure to do so will result in disqualification.

- Submitting the design project: Three A1 posters (orientation: landscape; file format: pdf, with print- quality resolution; language: English). The posters need to at least include the following information responding to the required social integration:

a. Diagrams of the target groups, users and beneficiaries; 

b. Diagrams of the programs and functions;

c. Diagrams of the climate- and geography-responsive design, construction and management; 

d. Site plan;

e. Plans, elevations and sections;

f. Perspectives or renderings.

- One A4 project report (font: 10-point Times News Roman; format: pdf; language: English, Turkish or Arabic). The report needs to at least address the following themes responding to the requirements of social integration, resilience and sustainability:

a. Target groups, users and beneficiaries;

b. Architectural programming;

c. Design strategies;

d. Construction strategies; and

e. Management strategies.

- Only professional teams need to submit a video recording, 3D animation or 3D motion graphics with duration of no more than 3 minutes that describes and summarizes their proposals. They may include very short pieces of relevant interviews with local stakeholders, or with relevant stakeholders from elsewhere.

Evaluation criteria

- The projects will be assessed against the following five equally weighted criteria:

- Rationale of selecting the target groups, users and beneficiaries according to the analyses of socio-cultural context of the site;

- Validation of architectural programming based on the needs and aspirations of the target groups, users and beneficiaries;

- Quality, adequacy and intelligence of the architectural proposal and its design strategies for social integration, and Syrians’ engagement into the the daily life of the city;

- Clarity and applicability of construction and the coherence of its strategies in the building, rebuilding or resettlement processes; and

- Feasibility and sustainability of building management and its strategies for considering local resources, social integration, community-based activities, livelihood, and governance.

Publication Opportunities

All qualified projects submitted will be showcased in the completion social media. The best 20 projects in each category will be published on the competition website. The awarded projects, including honorary mentions, will be published in selected technical magazines.

Prizes

Student category

1st prize: 3,000 USD + award certificate

2nd prize: 2,000 USD + award certificate

3rd prize: 1,000 USD + award certificate

Honorary mentions (several) with award certificate

Professional category

1st prize: 5,000 USD + award certificate

2nd prize: 3,000 USD + award certificate

3rd prize: 2,000 USD + award certificate

Honorary mentions (several) with award certificate

Top image courtesy of B4H-DC

> via B4H-DC