Ad Hoc Autonomy

Ad Hoc Autonomy is a project that seeks to initiate and establish self-sufficiency in refugee camps through the sprawl of modular and liminal developments.

Refugee camps in the West bank operate in a novel way – they are permanent. For the last 70 years, generation after generation, Palestinians have established a new life in the temporal dimension of these camps in the hopes that they will one day return to their homes. They have engrained into their ethos that ‘resistance is a right’; and in the last attempt to protest the illegal occupation of Israeli Settlers, it is made sure that they, and the generations that follow them hold on tight to the land they now have. However, these camps are being systematically oppressed and refugees are denied even the most basic of rights to movement, trade and even water.

Ad Hoc Autonomy looks to provide a solution, giving back rightful control and independence to refugees. This is done by initiating the development of impromptu architectural insertions that specifically respond & cater to the socioeconomic needs of refugees. The developments make use of key tectonic elements that form together allowing affordance and self-build incentives to flourish – resulting in an extension of the existing socioeconomic fabric.