Rethinking temporary shelter and settlements through participatory design: a proposal for the Samos Closed Controlled Access Centre

Refugee camp is a concept that materializes in the common imagination as a temporary settlement, which is placed within an emergency context lasting a maximum of a few years. From this fallacious idea derives a management and planning of refugee camps focused on the short term, which does not always take into consideration the actual life cycle of refugee camps and the dynamics that inhabit them. Participatory design is an approach that, applied to this context, allows the transformation of the site involving those who live within it in the processes of designing, modifying and adapting structures to develop a sense of ownership over their lives and the place that at that moment means home. In 2021 the Greek government, with the support of the European Commission, opened a facility centre, defined Closed Controlled Access Centre, in Samos. A top-down approach, based on close control by the local authorities, was used for both the design and management of the camp. The paper aims to outline a proposal to implement a participatory approach in the rethinking of the camp's structures and spaces by its inhabitants.