Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp
Edited by Azra Akšamija, associate professor of architecture, director of the MIT Future Heritage Lab, and director of the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology; Melina Philippou, program director of the MIT Future Heritage Lab; and Raafat Majzoub
MIT Press · 2021
"Design to Live" shows how refugees use art and design to transform their living environments, restoring humanity within circumstances that seem aimed at depriving them of it. Featuring more than 20 projects created by Syrian refugees at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan, this bilingual book in English and Arabic offers a new way of understanding design as a subversive worldmaking practice and as a tool for reclaiming agency in conditions of forced displacement.
From Summer 2022 recommended reading from MIT (MIT News).
- Blanking: An Annotated Archive of Projects and Thoughts on Architecture · Rosalyn Shieh, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Design Before Disaster: Japan's Culture of Preparedness · Miho Mazereeuw, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Tiny Gardens Everywhere: The Past, Present, and Future of the Self-Provisioning City · Kate Brown, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Reconstruction as Violence in Assad's Syria · Nasser Rabbat, 2025 · Summer 2026
- Small-Town Renaissance: Bridging Technology, Heritage, and Planning in Shrinking Italy · Brent D. Ryan, 2025 · Summer 2026
- Jewish Theatrical Resources: A Guide for Theaters Producing Jewish Work · Marissa Friedman, 2025 · Summer 2025
- Play It Again, Sam: Repetition in the Arts · Samuel Jay Keyser, 2025 · Summer 2025
- Steina · Natalie Bell, 2025 · Summer 2025
- Auditing AI · Karrie G. Karahalios, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Bayesian Entrepreneurship · Erin L. Scott, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Birds Up Close: An Engineer Explores Their Hidden Wonders · Lorna J. Gibson, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Launching from the Lab: Building a Deep-Tech Startup · Lita Nelsen, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity · Elisabeth B. Reynolds, 2026 · Summer 2026
- The Art of Monetary Policy: Lessons from Sun Tzu for Central Banks · Kristin J. Forbes, 2026 · Summer 2026
- The Handbook of Social Protection: Evidence and New Directions for Low- and Middle-Income Countries · Benjamin A. Olken, 2026 · Summer 2026
- Carbon Removal · Howard J. Herzog, 2025 · Summer 2026