RbD and Migration Crisis in the Canary Islands: Counter-cartography y Counter-design
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5821/jida.2025.13606Keywords:
migration, Research by Design, counter-cartography, counter-design, spatial justiceAbstract
In 2024, 46,843 migrants arrived in the Canary Islands, consolidating the Atlantic route as the deadliest in the world. This context highlights the urgency of rethinking architecture as a critical tool against necropolitics and dynamics of exclusion. At the School of Architecture, the workshop "Migrant Spatialities: Borders, Flows, Affections in the Canary Islands" was developed, based on Research by Design (RbD), turning the classroom into a laboratory of realities where situated knowledge is produced through design. The workshop is structured in three phases: "counter-cartographies", which make visible itineraries, control devices, and conditions of (in)visibility through GIS and affective mapping; "counter-design", which experiments with ephemeral, mobile, and adaptive infrastructures linked to the migratory process; and "counter-prototype", which explores material and technological tactics. The results show high student engagement and reinforce the capacity of design to address social issues from the perspective of spatial justice.
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