60 years ago on December 10th 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Resolution of Human Rights. The fact that human rights are widely ignored and became increasingly under strain in many countries makes it even more relevant to remember and stand up for fundamental human rights.
On December 10th 2018 at Aarhus School of Architecture, the international organisation ‘Emergency Architecture & Human Rights’, in collaboration with Research Lab 3, Walter Unterrainer and students of teaching program 3, hold a workshop on ‘Architecture is a Human Right’.
The international group Emergency Architecture & Human Rights (EAHR)’ works and builds for vulnerable communities that face inequality, human crisis and violation of their human rights’. The team consists of people with a variety of educational backgrounds from anthropology and philosophy over architecture and engineering to business administration and political science.
Their project ‘100 Classrooms for Refugee Children’ in the Jordan refugee camp Zaatari became small ‘Building of the Year 2018’ of the ArchDaily award.
The international group Emergency Architecture & Human Rights (EAHR) ‘works and builds for vulnerable communities that face inequality, human crisis and violation of their human rights’. The team consists of people with a variety of educational backgrounds from anthropology and philosophy over architecture and engineering to business administration and political science. Their project ‘100 Classrooms for Refugee Children’ in the Jordan refugee camp Zaatari became small ‘Building of the Year 2018’ of the ArchDaily award.
Although most explicitly to Article 25: ‘ Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control’, Architecture touches many more (if not all) aspects of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- Article 13: Freedom of movement and right to leave any country and return to his country
- Article 17: Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others
- Article 27: Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
- Article 29: Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
An Architecture devoted to people’s life, to equality and sustainability needs to address these aspects in their spatial concepts. After 20 minute inputs on ‘Architecture as a Human Right’, ‘Built International examples of Emergency Architecture & Human Rights’ and the presentation of one example in Aarhus, the workshop will discuss in groups questions like– (How) is architecture a human right?
- Is architecture considered in the entire articles of the Universal Declaration of H.R?
- How is the existing relation between architecture and the human rights?
- Are some problems addressed by architecture that are not mentioned within the human rights?
The discussion should contribute to an ongoing process in formulating a ‘Manifesto for Architecture as a Human Right’ and furthermore elaborate how the two third of the world population with no access to architecture can get support from the discipline and the profession.
Restaureringsseminar 2019