B&B Collective Centre
A 'Collective center' is an existing building or structure used as temporary accommodation for displaced persons. Collective centers have highly variable life spans, and while most collective centers are used only for a couple of days or weeks, in other contexts they may be used for a decade or more. In general, buildings assigned as collective centers or temporary accommodation are often unfinished, defunct or abandoned, meaning that the quality of the building may have deteriorated because they were never completed, or since they were last in use.
The potential for benefitting the host community with the use and transformation of abandoned buildings in urban, dense areas is not only possible, but a way of accommodating people in need and simultaneously upgrading physical and social structures in the host community. In developed urban areas the location of such facilities should favor the potential of social inclusion, even if the arrivals are only supposed to be there for a short time. Adaptive reuse may not only transform an isolated building, but also entire neighborhoods
The Italian Reception System is organized in three different phases. After arriving and staying in any of the four Hotspots, the migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are then referred to First-line Reception Centers - often in similar facilities with the same temporary character as the Hotspots, before they are accommodated in semi-permanent Secondline Facilities. However, due to the large number of arrivals especially from 2015, the term ‘reception center’ was given a rather broad definition. In 2016, 78% of migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers arriving in Italy, were accommodated in approximately 7,500 different reception centers across the country: including military barracks, camping sites, private accommodation (apartments), self-organized informal settlements, and abandoned buildings (UNHCR, 2017).
Based on the, still urgent need for accommodating large numbers of people - there is a potential for merging the First and Second-line facilities, as a way of fostering integration earlier in the asylum process, and to avoid unnecessary steps. 'The Historical Monterosso Almo Extended' project is proposing a strategy for boosting the local economy in Monterosso Almo in the Ragusa region of Sicily – a town with an aging and decreasing population. The strategy is based on the potential for combining EU funding that comes with emergency relief and refugee integration programs, with the needs for upgrading the built environment and social infrastructure in the host community - in this case the town of Monterosso Almo.
The strategy proposed in this project is to adopt a decentralized reception model, or a network of living units that can accommodate new arrivals – tourists and asylum-seekers alike, combined with public spaces and programs. This approach was chosen as there are many overlapping needs between the different groups – but at the same time, it’s also as a way of communicating to migrants, refugees, and asylum-seekers that they are not considered as one homogenous group, and that different needs can also be accommodated in relief and integration initiatives. Smaller, separate units is a common mode of living for most of us, including the new arrivals. This strategy turns the reception facility into a place for living, rather than only providing shelter.
After analyzing the building mass in the historic center of the town of Monterosso Almo, three categories with the potential for transformation were identified: Incomplete buildings, abandoned structures, and empty lots in-between (infill). The Historical Monterosso Almo Extended project inserts itself in the long line of (positive) foreign influence on Sicilian architecture, by combining local building techniques and construction methods, with a current architectural expression and layout appropriate for the programs of the project: housing and public facilities for refugees, migrants, tourists, and the local population.
The project points out the benefits of transforming and constructing buildings that are resistant to cycles of temporary uses, instead of building temporary structures with sub-standard conditions hosting people longer than first anticipated. To achieve this, the project focuses on specific architectural qualities with well-designed buildings as a mean to strengthen the overall urban strategy.