Beijing, CN
Since the beginning of the Syrian war, Turkey has become the biggest recipient of refugees with a total of 2,700,000 refugees in March 2016. The government hosts the Syrian people at their own expenses and funds the construction of some of the best refugee in the world. While the Turkish government offers quality living conditions, the spiritual and community needs of the people are not adequately met.
Basic shelter is not enough. Communities, even temporary ones, need collective spaces to gather, to pray, to escape. While typical livings quarters are plastic or metal enclosures, the deployable mosque creates a cool shaded space by maintaining openness. Openness of structure keeps the identity undefined, not imposing the architecture on the displaced populations, but by being a framework onto which they can project their identities.
One dramatic advantage of the woven strip system is that it is easily transported due to the highly packable nature of the strips. Additionally, the fabrication information is embedded within the material itself, assembly diagrams are easily deciphered allowing residents to construct the mosque as a community bringing agency and ownership.
Status: Unbuilt
Location: Kilis Oncupinar, Turkey
Firm Role: Designer
Additional Credits: Design: AntiStatics Architecture
Design Team: Martin Miller, Mo Zheng, Luke Theodorius, Frank Li, Zhiwen Sun, Chiao Wang, Yan Meng