Sgolacchia / Housing Migrant Workers

Housing Migrant Workers An exploration of the Rotterdam-Venlo logistic corridor

Author: Renzo Sgolacchia, University of Venice

Supervisor: Pippo Ciorra, University of Camerino; University of Venice

Research stage: Intermediate doctoral stage

Category: Extended abstract

DDR Statement

In their article Ecologies of Migration (Sohn, Cordova Gonzalez, 2019), the authors argue that conventional problem-solving design studios simplify the complexity of “borderscapes.” While typological models exclusively rely on the linearity of space and time, they suggest the topological approach aiming to read the border as a “dynamic entity,” and analyse “human and non-human agents and subjectivities” and “other logics of movement.”
Rather than exclusively focusing on physical objects and aiming to understand complex social and spatial phenomena, my approach is based on field research and has a multidisciplinary character in order to closely study the logics that regulate the non-linear flows of labour and understand the nature of workers’ dormitories. The comparative analysis of selected case studies and the activities of mapping, drawing, filming and interviewing, are the essential tools to fully understand the bordering practices and transformative processes involved.
The heterogeneity of research activities opens up the possibilities to find new problems and questions. Beyond mere strategies for fixing problems, this extensive approach aims to understand how the architecture of labour migration works within the most developed European corridor.