Living in Generosity: The Making of a Refugee Resettlement Centre

Generosity naturally reflects the idea of abundance, larger or plentiful. However, generosity as a language in architecture is vaguely understood, as it has neither a particular scheme nor definite form. This thesis focuses on the idea of generosity in architecture by exploring the language of generosity in providing a generous living for refugees resettling in New Zealand. It concerns the condition of living within a refugee resettlement centre when refugees spend their first six-week orientation program to prepare them for a new life in New Zealand.  Through design-led research process, the project takes the concept of elementary geometry from children’s drawing of a house and evolves by extracting the language of generosity to form an architecture. Anything that could be simple to us could mean more to others. Hence, the act of provocation in the simplicity of form, scale, scheme, and colour could transform our perception on “generosity”, and thus it gives the potential for architecture to create an ideal condition of living for future refugees resettling in New Zealand.