Refugees have often been housed in camps made by ‘adaptive reuse’ of a wide range of existing sites. We argue that any given refugee camp’s previous uses shape the experiences of its residents and may indicate how that displaced population is viewed by the responsible authorities. We test this argument on three historical case studies drawn from an important but under-researched episode in the history of the refugee camp: the far-flung network of camps established by the Allies in North Africa and the Middle East in the 1940s for European refugees from Fascism. They range from a former hotel housing under 50 people to a vast tented encampment housing over 20,000, adapted from an army ‘rear camp’. We argue that research on any given camp should include analysis of the site’s architectural origins. This is a step towards a more fully articulated methodological approach to researching refugee camps, the ‘site biography’.

中文翻译：

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什么成为难民营？在北非和中东为欧洲难民建造营地，1943-46 年

难民经常被安置在通过对各种现有场地进行“适应性再利用”而建造的难民营中。我们认为，任何特定难民营以前的用途都会影响其居民的经历，并可能表明主管当局如何看待流离失所者。我们通过三个历史案例研究来检验这一论点，这些案例取自难民营历史上一个重要但尚未得到充分研究的事件：20 世纪 40 年代，盟军在北非和中东为欧洲难民建立了广泛的难民营网络。来自法西斯主义。它们的范围从可容纳 50 人以下的前酒店到可容纳 20,000 人以上的大型帐篷营地（由军队“后方营地”改建而成）。我们认为，对任何特定营地的研究都应包括对该地点的建筑起源的分析。