Basmane Community Atlas

Analysis of Mobility in the Migrant Neighbourhood

Context

Research & Fieldtrip during the MSc in Sustainable Emergency Architecture, UIC Barcelona

Location

Basmane, Izmir, Turkey & Barcelona, Spain

Year

2025

Materials

Maps, Drawings, Text, Photographs, Focus Groups

Link

masteremergencyarchitecture.uic.es

As part of a collaborative research project in Basmane, Izmir, the group developed a community atlas to understand how migration, legal status, and everyday practices shape the neighbourhood’s spatial and social dynamics. Working alongside the Office of Displaced Designers and Yaşamak, the research approached the neighbourhood not as a problem to be solved, but as a complex environment shaped by its inhabitants. The fieldwork combined spatial observation with participatory methods. Transversal neighbourhood walks provided an initial reading of Basmane’s urban structure, while participatory walks with refugee women offered insights into routes, places of safety, and everyday spatial practices that are often absent from conventional mapping. A photography workshop with children created another perspective on the neighbourhood, allowing its younger inhabitants to document their own environments. Focus groups further explored public space, mobility, facilities, activities, and housing typologies. The resulting atlas brought together maps, photographs, drawings, and narratives to reveal relationships between formal urban structures and informal patterns of use. The research highlighted how legal status can influence access to public space, how perceptions of safety are shaped by institutional presence, and how everyday practices generate forms of resilience under conditions of precarity. Rather than translating these findings into a predetermined architectural intervention, the project adopted a “Do No Harm” approach. Given the limited duration and scope of engagement, the decision not to propose solutions became an intentional research position—prioritising listening, representation, and situated understanding over premature design.