myworkinqatar

improving living conditions for migrant workers

Low income migrant workers that are building this country, live and work in slave like conditions. Poor people have been exploited through all times in different parts of the world but the contradiction here in Qatar is that the country accepts slave-like working conditions and at the same time aim for a modern knowledge-based society with high intellectual integrity. Qatar is often described as a melting pot of cultures and nationalities, but the country is also a melting pot of the inequity of eras of times.

During the international design conference, Tasmeem 2007, the Interior Design Department at VCUQ brought the housing situation for the low-income workers to attention by suggesting ways to improve their living conditions through design. Her highness Sheikha Moza Al Thani allocated generous funds for the Research Centre at VCUQ to further develop the ideas for a sustainable design solution. These initiatives later acted as the base for an ambitious program of national standards, aiming to improve the situation of migrant workers. 

The architectural model that constitutes the framework for this project was developed at VCUQ Research Centre, under the supervision of architect Roman Turskyn. The architectural solution developed for the worker camps is a modular system of cabin units that are arranged in clusters and configured according to the idea of the village, with a spatial hierarchy of semi-private, semi-public and communal space. This flat pack system is easy to erect and easy to move to a new location on a lorry when mounted. The rights to produce the cabin module were bought by a major contractor in Qatar, CORE Construction, that are  commissioned by the government to provide housing for the influx of 40,000 migrant workers who are needed for the preparations for the FIFA World Cup in 2022. 

“a full human being is not merely a receiver of the built environment, but an actor, acting back on her environment” — Joel M Charon, Symbolic Interactionism

The project called Making Home was part of a larger design endevour to improve the situation for low-income migrant workers in the country. It has involved the collaboration with an industry client and been supported by the Research Centre at Virginia Commonwealth University Qatar. A group of five interior design students were involved in the work as practice based research assistants. The work is part of the implementation of the new national standards stated by Qatar Foundation, and sits within the context of the architectural model that was developed by the Research Centre at VCUQ. Constant discussions with the client paired with a genuine will to really make a change saw the project develop from conceptual utopia to competitive realism. 

The project involved developing design solutions for the sleep room in a migrant worker camp. For the design of the sleep room, the focus was drawn to the individual experience of adapting to a harsh foreign environment, with the aim to establish a sense of privacy and a sense of home in a shared space. The idea of Making Home is understood through the Symbolic Interactionist’s perspective that a full human being is not merely a receiver of the built environment, but an actor, acting back on her environment. 

The architectural model was based on the idea of a Village. The concept of a village was broken down into five different spatial and communal zones that provide varying degrees of access, privacy and amenity. 

The workers come to the Sleep Room to rest after an exhausting day beginning at dawn when they get picked up by bus. The bus often travels for two hours, picking up people at different locations, before arriving at the site. The workers use the time on the bus for sleeping. Breakfast is served at the site around 9 am. After a long day with only a break for lunch, they go back on the bus again which arrives back at the camp at dusk. By this time, all they want to do is rest, maybe watch TV or use Internet. They work six days a week and on their one day off many of them go to places for worship, or play cricket, or transfer money. 

A person that finds himself uprooted from his home environment, family and friends, and is working in a foreign country within harsh conditions, dreams of home and rest.  A camp is not a place the individual would choose to be in, the camp is pure necessity. Our aim in this project was not just to improve the practical aspects of life in camp, but to improve the psychology of the camp environment by incorporating the idea that human beings are not merely users of environments, they act back on their environments. When a person claims his space, he owns it. Enabling for a sense of ownership has been the goal for the design of the Sleep Room.