ABSTRACT
The starting point for this chapter is a study of two selected proposals that formed part of the After Belonging festival and exhibitions at the Oslo Architecture Triennial (OAT) in 2016. Both projects engaged with architectural interventions regarding a specific site: the Torshov asylum-seekers’ reception centre in Oslo. They discussed how architects might respond to the social challenges involved in dealing with the large number of asylum-seekers, and how to engage and include refugees in urban spaces and everyday spatial practices. The study is based on interviews with team members, the jury and OAT’s organizers, visits to the field site and exhibition, and related written materials. The researchers, an architect and an anthropologist, explore the proposals’ perceptions and design, as well as the interplay between architectural interventions and sociocultural change, with a special focus on the field of migration and refugees. The two teams share an approach to materiality as having a relational quality. They accordingly discuss how urban spaces and equal access to public arenas and housing may create opportunities for connecting and belonging while highlighting that architecture does not consist of buildings alone, but equally of non-material interventions to affect urban everyday lives.
