THE MANUFACTURE OF HOPE
Student's Work:
THE MANUFACTURE OF HOPE // EMPOWERMENT CENTRE FOR REFUGEES
by Firdaus Ahmad
[Master of Architecture 2020, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Republished with permission from Design Epitome D+A Vol. 2
This project returns to the goals of the architectural avant-garde of rectifying refugee society by creating a vessel of knowledge with the surrounding people. It aims to examine the possibilities of education and knowledge affecting refugee society via unambiguous architecture where new architecture will be considered as a tectonic issue implicating the town and society. Based in Kajang, Selangor, one of the epicenters of the refugee society in Malaysia.
The project develops a socially sustainable approach to the provision of educational establishment with community engagement programs and multi-adaptable spaces inside where particular emphasis is placed on the relationship between the singular building and the urban multiplicity.
Malaysia’s response to the refugee society has been respectful, but its vision of the refugee future has been compromised. The citizen idealised or romanticised the position of ‘discrimination’ or ‘crisis’, creating social-geographies of anticipation typified by Malaysia’s lack of sociological cohesion and derelict sites.
The project is a unique opportunity to unite the disenfranchised or displaced and solidify unanimity through decentralised architectural intervention. Put aside aesthetics, lavish structure and technology. This is the inception, experimentation and interpretation for a solution of human self-being, a place of hope that can change their perception, eliminate fear to redraw and share a dream for a brighter tomorrow.
Break The Cycle
Proposed Site: Kajang, Selangor
Urban Strategies
Concept & Theories
The Four Learning Environment described by Thornburg need to be balanced. Currently in all school model developed by JKR/MOE only experience the campfire in class and watering hole on playground with limited possibilities of reflections and real-life experiences.
This learning center is not a single system. It's a combination of many with various functions that spread from public to private. The idea of a school is not only to be a school only but to be a ‘school’ for the community to learn & engage with the refugee children and NGO’s housing here. It's a starting point for established community from outside that doesn't feel alienated when the building was built.
Overall Vessel Systemic Function
Form Morphology
For citation purposes: Ahmad, Firdaus. (2021). The Manufacture of Hope: Empowerment Centre for Refugees. D-Zine Trend, Volume 1 (Issue 1). https://www.dzinetrend.com/v1-1-the-manufacture-of-hope-empowerment-centre-for-refugees
