HUMANITARIAN ARCHITECTURE AND SHELTERING IN LATIN AMERICA

Abstract

Migrations in the Latin American continent, especially from Venezuela, have changed the region's scenario since 2015. Political, economic, and social divergences, especially with some countries, have deepened, culminating in border closures and changes in trade and diplomatic relations. The expansion of the crisis, the economic embargo, and the tensions in the Latin American continent reflected in unprecedented situations, such as the mass migration of Venezuelans from the most diverse social, economic, and ethnic profiles, in search of humanitarian aid, especially in Spanish-speaking countries bordering Venezuela. In Brazil, Welcome Operation, along the border of the state of Roraima, in North Region Brazil, created support infrastructure and shelters in Pacaraima and Boa Vista, visited by the mission of researchers from the Sérgio Vieira de Mello/UNHCR/PUC-Rio Chair in the second half of 2018. Since then, LabAH (Humanitarian Architecture Laboratory/DAU/PUC-Rio) has been able to follow the work of architects and engineers from UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), to better understand the challenges of humanitarian architecture in situations of transience and emergency, as well as contributing with some discussions and proposals for improvements in the spaces and structures of reception, in a technical cooperation that resulted in a climate adaptation project of the RHU (Refugee Housing Unit) and in the construction of prototypes for testing in the Rondon complex.