Kamil Hilmi Dalkir

Migration is a complex set of processes, economies and abstractions. 

Recognising the phases and processes allows us to look beyond questions of shelter and its provision and in turn allows us to set up possibilities to reorganise political and legal processes for the displaced.

Tensions between subjects, objects and economies are extremely evident on the island of Lesvos, Greece. Talking to volunteers, key NGO staff, the displaced as well as the locals, I was able to discover various objects of interactions, new economies that have come into existence with the influx of the displaced. From telephone companies setting up stands outside the camps, to local shops adapting their stock to cater for the displaced, to scavengers searching for boat parts to supplement their monthly income.

These objects reveal the economies and modes of living generated around the influx of the displaced, showing the vast effect that the displaced have on space and the formation of space on route to and in Europe.    

This project proposes a United Nations embassy, located on the Island of Lesvos, Greece. The embassy is spread over three key locations;

1. An archive of case law in Korakas, the Coast which is 10km away from the shores of Turkey in the north

2. An appeals court in Moria, between the official UNHCR camp and the unofficial anarchic camp

3. A social council in Mytilene, within an abandoned swimming pool in the port of the capital city of the island

The island is a critical point on the journey from Syria to Europe, where the displacement of people have given rise to the displacement of architecture.

Where the lighthouse of Korakas (used as a deterrent from the perilous terrains) becomes a beacon to draw the displaced to the island.

The unofficial anarchic camp is born as a response to the fortified UNHCR camp, in Moria.

And the swimming pool, within the port of Mytilene, becomes a shelter for those waiting to board ships for the mainland.

The island of Lesvos is in a strategic location, as the frontier to the European union. The proximity it has to Turkey, and the fact that over half a million displaced individuals have crossed over to the island from these shores in a time frame of 6 months in the year 2015 makes it such a unique area of interest.