HIC ET NUNC I.
ZHdK, Interdisciplinary Module, Activation of a Asylum Seekers Camp, Zurich.

HIC ET NUNC (Here and Now, in Latin) stands for a design attitude. With this motto, we invited design students to take concrete action, which can be realized in four weeks, to improve the life quality in a refugee camp in Zurich with a simple act.

The project, developed in collaboration with the BA design interdisciplinary program of the Zurich University of the Arts and AOZ (Asylum seekers Organization Zurich), represent a small action to face the first refugee emergency crisis in 2016. Didactically, students were asked to challenge their design skills and competencies to act "here and now" in an emergency condition.

To tackle the crisis, the City of Zurich hosted two hundred fifty refugees in a fair hall. Temporary rooms made of OBS wood were built inside the volume of the fair to guarantee privacy, yet, many small actions could have been taken to improve the quality of life and the integration process during the temporary accommodation in the camp.

Therefore, students were asked to observe and analyze a challenge (that they could take), develop a proposal, implement it, and realize it. The projects would contribute to the space quality and serve as a case study for future improvements by other students.