As in global politics, the history of architecture has often treated refugees as mere human surplus. Consequently, conventional architectural histories have largely limited themselves to echoing the nation-state’s exclusion of refugees as people out of place. This book examines several often-overlooked yet critical intersections between mass population displacement and architecture, tracing a trajectory from the 19th and 20th centuries to the present day. By identifying the refugee as the central collective political subject of our time, this study seeks to initiate a history of refugee architecture that bridges the gap between architectural history and the study of displacement.
