A REFUGEE FRIENDLY CITY: A DESIGN THESIS BY ANGELIKI MANTA

The project is based on the idea of the refugee friendly city, and the ways cities can respond to the inrush of refugees from a humanitarian angle. The city chosen is Athens, as it is the center of this social phenomenon, and the first European country refugees enter. The proposal aims to answer the following questions: 

 

• What will happen if a number of refugees decide to remain in Athens? 

• How can the city help them in such ways that it would benefit both them and the local economy?

 

Generally Europe has an aging population, which is slowing economic growth and putting an enormous burden on social safety nets. An influx of young working people—where most of them are skilled—could be an economic stimulus for Greece. Rather than marginalizing them into refugee camps, why not trying to normalize them into the city’s social fabric? By offering refugees flexible forms of aid, instead of isolating them into fenced spaces, will allow them to leverage the skills, professional training, and family ties they bring.

 

The concept is composed from two parts: 

At the moment, they are approximately 238.000 empty apartments in Athens, which could be reused and renovated in order to have people. So, instead of building new housing, the suggestion is that existing vacant flats are used & renovated to accommodate refugees. Such solution will not only cost less than building new housing, but will also provide decent living conditions, foster integration process, regenerate currently deteriorating empty housing and avoid the generation of refugee-only ghettos.

 

A newly built hospitality centre which will not only act as a formal ‘welcome’. It will also inform refugees, operate their registration, accommodation as well as their asylum and work applications (if they wish to remain in Greece). The idea is that all refugees will proceed to the welcome centre whether they decide to remain in Greece or not. In both cases, dormitories are also going to be provided in the site, in which people can rest for 2-3 days before they continue their journey, or in the case that the apartments are not ready. 

 

The project’s location is named Tauros, a neighbourhood at the south west of Athens city centre. It’s a mixed used area, being mainly residential with small industries and warehouses. It’s also close to main axes which connect city centre with the port of Athens.

By the time refugees arrive, they will do the following activities:

 

• Welcome 

• Registered

• Information provision

• medical care

• Contract sign between them and the apartment owners (in the refugees` language)

• Asylum/learning application

• Transportation to  apartments

 

Instead of facilitating only refugee integration process, this welcome centre will also help the local economy as it will provide new job placements for Athenians, as a variety of specialties are going to be needed (architects, psychologists, teachers, accountants, administrators, social care officers etc).