Pak Hin Tsang

How can architects facilitate the hosting of refugees in Scotland? Architects often treat architecture as objects, highly commodified for market value.  In refugee situations, architecture takes the forms of shelter and subsidised housing, where end users are rarely included in the customisation processes.  The architects’ focus on ‘product’ rather than ‘production’ can easily turn a blind eye to the cultural, psychological, and family needs of refugees.

The Refugee Home Pharmacy therefore experiments with the processes of inhabitation.  Using Aberfeldy as the laboratory, architects and counsellors ‘consult’ the residential needs of displaced Ukrainians.  The ‘consultation’ leads to a bespoke design of homes, which is ‘prescribed’ by the pharmacy’s builders.  The ‘prescriptions’ are made of standardised materials including C24 timber, universal joints, and prefabricated panels.  These objects undergo the ‘consultation’ and ‘prescription’ processes tailored to refugees' needs, later recycled, and stored back in the pharmacy.

Along with the pharmacy, the ‘Blueprint for Refugee Homes’ functions as the tectonic demonstrator and a community venue for displaced Ukrainians in Aberfeldy.