Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country

Part of the Austrian contribution to the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016
Private space to be appropriated individually—enough for 280 refugees—was created in a temporarily unoccupied open-plan office building, at a cost of €50 per person with a construction time of 5 minutes per person. Caramel Architekten developed a prototypical spatial structure, whose construction was explained to refugees on site, using the following affordable ready-made products: umbrellas, construction-site fencing, electric ducts, assemblable synthetic water pipe, curtain fabric, cable ties, clamp luminaires, and extension cords. Immediately after receiving the explanation, the men, women, and children took the test-living spatial structure into their possession and began using the available sewing machines to hem the first fabric strips into curtains. Working communally, one large space after another was converted from an open-plan camp of cots, with nowhere to withdraw, into living spaces with spatial constructions adapted individually to the constellations of residents (small families, large families, shared accommodations).