Leaving
The Complexities of Forced Migration Meet Architectural Detail
When the alarm sounds, escape is imminent, from smoke by fire escape or cultural devastation by the title refugee. Every year, thousands of refugees migrate to the United States. The process of governmental restrictions on new arrivals leave refugees without the affiliations of citizenship: clinging to memories and aspirations of home, often alone in the unfamiliar communities in which they are placed.
Overlaying the incredibly convoluted process of refugee resettlement onto the fire escape detail as located in Chinatown, each stair landing is situated spatially based on the growing or diminishing refugee population for the past 6 years. Detail annotations represent the start to finish migration from one’s home to new residence.
A study of point, line, and plane, the physical model showcases the quantity of refugees that came to the state of Illinois between 2010 and 2017 as each point depicts the country from which the refugees traveled, each line represents how many came each year, and the plane showcases a projection of the world through latitude and longitude.
