Here Now

Building resilience - a former refugee on using architecture to change lives


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Myint Aung San talks to Kadambari Raghukumar in this Voices episode about his dreams to change the refugee experience in camps by changing the way they're built.

"I'm trying to tackle a problem. It's a way to create a sense of belonging, remove that sense of alienation and use their skills."

Listen to this episode of Voices

Auckland based architecture graduate Myint San Aung, is the winner of the prestigious Resene Student Design Awards in December last year. He spoke to RNZ's Voices, from Munich where he's on tour, learning about European Architecture.

His winning idea though, was solidly rooted in community design- a refugee housing project, which he called Pyit-Taing-Htaung, after a local Burmese toy.

"It's a toy that once you toss it stands back up. To me it represents the people of Myanmar and how they have been with this military junta. And it refers to refugees as well."

In 1988, pro-democracy protests across what was then called Burma were violently crushed by the military who then seized power. San's parents decided to flee to the relative safety of a refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border, where he was born.

San's idea is based on memories of this own experience and his parents raising their family in makeshift homes in the camp.

"I'm trying to tackle a problem. It's a way to create a sense of belonging, remove that sense of alienation and use their skills."

In his proposed idea, residents in the sites using their own skillsets of working with local material, in this case bamboo, and creating a sense of ownership through local traditional or indigenous design, complete with meeting houses, schools, small bazaars and even spaces in between houses to raise animals.

These days, news of Myint San Aung's win has travelled so far that students of architecture in Myanmar have been getting in touch.

"Students of architecture there are inspired by it. For the past year, there's been no university, the coup situation has gone worse. They're interested in more refugee-based projects like this", says San.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details

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