Interdine: celebrating human transactions in space, a new form of integration.

Abstract: Humans are evolutionarily programmed to respond to danger, natural disasters, wars, destruction and harassment through fleeing and migration. Finding refuge in a new place is a necessity for the survival, health and well being of every individual. This is crucial within the context of what the western world defines as the Refugee Crises. Today, an unprecedented 65.6 million people around the world have been forced to leave their home. Among them, there are nearly 22.5 million refugees fleeing from misery, environmental defacement, wars and harassment; mainly coming from south saharan countries and middle eastern one. After the peak of incomers in 2015, Europe started shutting its borders. Since then, the number of approved asylum applications in Europe has decreased drastically. In the meanwhile, the urgent need for integration has increased in all welcoming states. Having reached Sweden, refugees are being located according to where the Migration Agency can find accomodation for them. This happens often without considering their relation to the surroundings, hindering the process of integration to take place. The goal of Interdine, as a thesis project, is to celebrate human transactions in space. To address the modern era of mass displacement and the subsequent need for integration, the role of the architect, myself in this context, is to claim space for integration and mutual exchange in our cities. This will be proposed through two scales of action: a 1:1 live action research project and a speculative design proposition confronting legacy and providing a permanent space for Interdine. In Sweden, the thesis investigation takes the example of the city of Umeå, which homes today 698 asylum seekers. Here, organisations working with integration are positioned in the city centre, whereas accommodations and housing for refugees are often located along the outskirts of the city. In order to bring visibility and critical denounce, the key site of intervention is Kulturvaven, the so called House of Culture . During time, discursive dinners, civic classrooms, and dining rituals will be adopted as a means to investigate the problem, claim space and educate the city and its community. Throught food, the thesis project aims to redefine the term integration in a spirit of celebration, interaction and mutual enrichment. The proposed design hopes to be a revolutionary prototype to be applied in other cities within Europe.