Exploring Al-Za’Atari Refugee Camp: Developing Social Resilience and Equity through Design

Abdulrahman Alraddadi (College of Design, North Carolina State University)
Celen Pasalar (College of Design, North Carolina State University)
George Dewey Hallowell (North Carolina State University)

According to the UN Refugee Agency, an unprecedented 68.5 million people in the world have been forcibly displaced from their homelands, and that number is increasing dramatically. Yet little research has been done on how to improve socio-cultural aspects of the built environment for displaced people, particularly in refugee camps. Although refugee camps are often considered temporary, many camps have become permanent family settlements, requiring spatial features for livability and the behavioral patterns of the refugees.

This study focuses on one of the largest refugee settlements in the world, Al-Za’atari Camp in Jordan, in order to investigate these issues. The 5.3 km2 camp has had over 460,000 Syrian refugees pass through the camp since 2012. Our primary goal is to investigate the needs and conditions of these displaced people, in order to address social inequities and ultimately provide evidence-based guidelines for improving the design of future refugee settlements.

Our presentation will focus on the first phase of our study; an assessment of the built environment of Al-Za’atari and changes the refugees made to their environment in light of scarce resources. Through spatial mapping and analysis, the study examines the transforming morphological relationship between services on the ground (e.g. schools, clinics, etc.) and housing locations, movement patterns and infrastructure (e.g. streets, open spaces, utilities) over the years. The changes made to the environment are then examined via Google Earth Street Views. Comparing these spatial featuresusing maps and photographic evidence helps to predict the behavioral patterns of the camp communities and the extent to which spatial patterns can encourage cultural exchange, social resilience, and informal economies. Phase two will involve extensive on-site investigation, including observations of behavioral patterns and interviews with refugees. Our ultimate goal is to provide data and recommendations for designing future resilient and equitable refugee camps.