RAPID SHELTER DISPLACED PEOPLE               SPRING 2024

ARCH 5500/8500 . 3 CREDITS . TUES & THURS 11 AM -12:15 PM 1.

Instructor: Earl Mark, ejmark@virginia.edu
Student Instructional Assistant(TA): Madeleine Zahn (see Canvas for Email Address)

Rapid Shelter Displaced People is an independent projects and interdisciplinary seminar. It is open to graduate and undergraduate students from any discipline by petition on SIS. The interdisciplinary makeup of the class is intended to promote a wider range of project types and perspectives. Through interdicisipinary thinking the goal is to reframe the provisioning of rapidly deployed refugee housing, commonly used spaces and facilities with the longer term health, security, agency, well being, and active involvement of the displaced community in mind. The seminar ths spring is linked to a Center Research grant from the UVA Center for Global Inquiry with collaborating partners in Athens, Greece. We will meet in person in Campball Hall 220C.

There has never been greater urgency for shelter. The UNHCR estimates that there were more than 110 million forciby displaced people in the world as of the mid-2023 million . This number is roughly 41.5 million more than when the seminar began in 2018 which even then was the highest number recorded in history (footnote 2.).

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OVERVIEW

The seminar is divided into three overlapping phases:

I. January - Februrary, 2024: The seminar begins with general weekly discussions, in-class exercises and guest speakers in order to arrive at a larger view of the state of current thinking and practice. Seminar participants establish an initial area of focus for the semester, review background literature and gain perspective from the diverse group guest speakers.

II. Februrary - March, 2024: The seminar transitions to more independent work, expands upon some areas of background research, explores links between varied case studies that emerge during the semester, and sets the goals for individual efforts. A workshop with expert collaborators from Greece is tentaively planned during this period.

III. April - May, 2024: The seminar will focus on the final development of individual case studies and will emphasize personal feedback sessions or smaller group focus dicussions around shared themes. This final part of the seminar will be conducted both in-person and on-line. *

Topics include:
• Rapid deployments of light-weight collapsible shelters.
• New settlements of up to 20,000 people.
• Provisioning for community agency, education, social, religious, environmental, economic and health needs.

Individual case study projects will be encouraged that relate to the built environment such as (but not limited to):
• Experimentation with UNHCR camp planning and shelter standards.
• Propositions for shelter for iniital deployment, and potentially transitional and longer term housig.
• Proposals for accommodation of child development, cultural practices, micro-economics, humanitarian aid delivery, food security, micro-gardens, health care, recreation and WASH (water sanitation and hygience) facilities.
• Smart city applications for optimized use of community resources.

In past semesters simulation based upon GIS and decision making gaming technology had been introduced when relevant to the selection of a case study.
Guest discussions are led by experts from different fields (see who in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021)). This includes experts in rapid shelter, disaster recovery, child development, health, humanitarian aid, healing landscapes, religious practices, political conflict, and WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) systems.

Note that the the class counts as an architectural elective under the default letter grade option. It can alternatively be taken pass/fail as an open elective. Students from any department at UVA are welcome to enroll. There are no prerequisites.

REQUIREMENTS

Five exercises are focused on the development of a case study and include a final discussion at the end of the term. The first four exercises count for roughly 60% of the grade, the final project (exercise 5) counts for 30% of the grade. Class participation with respect to attendance and consultation with the course instructor and SIA counts towards 10% of the grade. Note that full attendance is required except for excusable absences described by UVA Policies.

CLASS PARTICIPATION

This is an predominately an in-person seminar. It will be front loaded with guest lectures, in-class discussions, sub-group activities and a few readings.

We meet for regular class sessions in person, but for unforseeable events that may require an online via Zoom (Collab “Online Meetings”). Your presence and active participation is important to creating the most effective, step by step sequenced and coherent learning experience. You are expected to be on Grounds for most assignments or meetings through most of March. Excusable absences are permitted per uva policies and should be communicated to the course instructor and SIA and done in advance if possible. During the month of April, this may break down into smaller groups that meet less frequently than the regular class schedule, and that provides a greater opportunity to focus in on independent work.

The class is committed to maintaining a healthy and equitable environment for all of us by respecting and making room for differences in how we approach learning. One way to achieve this objective is to encourage case study project choices that give more license to students to be motivated by what interests them, their geographical location and community, specific resource access limitations. The range of type cases we examine encourages everyone to learn from each other.

COVID-19

Your health and well-being are a priority. Please take the time to care for yourself. Monitor your health daily. The university asks that if you are ill or expect that you have been exposed to COVID-19, please stay home, notify the primary course instructor, and contact the Student Health and Wellness Center (434-924-5362) so that you can receive appropriate care.

INDIVIDUAL SUPPORT

The university admits undocumented students, students from mixed-status families, and students with Temporary Protected Status. All UVA students, including students of varied immigration statuses, are especially welcomed in this class. If your personal situation is impacting your success in the course, please come see me to discuss things I can do to accommodate you. This support is relevant directly to the topic of forcibly displaced people and therefore is an approach we will fully embrace in the seminar.

SCHEDULE

The following schedule is subject to modification. All speakers noted are those who particpicipated last year to give a sense of range of topics. The speakers will most likely change for 2022.

* Accepted invitation, date on syllabus may change.
** Prof. Maya Boutaghou, Department of French , Soundscape Algiers , Invitation Accepted, Date/Time TBA

Bibliography