Rooms: Modeling Migrancy in the Context of Berlin

Abstract

Within research, design and architecture, scale models can create worlds of proposition, speculation and fiction. This paper, however, situates the model as a tool for observation, documentation and engagement; a slow, durational method that manifests a deep participation in the lives of place and people marginalised by wider society.
“Rooms” was an artistic and research project undertaken as part of the Urban Nation artistic residency in Berlin which looked at the Romanian immigrant community inhabiting the city, the spaces they occupy and appropriate, and the objects that they surround themselves with. These instances were drawn, surveyed, documented and then painstakingly recreated through 1:20 paper models, which were presented as part of a group exhibition.
For border-crossers in particular, the nostalgic association with native objects and artefacts can represent an inner, self-created intangible border, expressing the liminal identity associated with migrancy. This connection with objects found at the domestic scale is also to be found at the urban scale, where the Romanian Shop acts not only as the main hub for the Romanian diaspora in the city, but it is also the repository for the containment and consumption of memory.
Built to an extreme level of detail this model of an everyday space visualises, offers new insight, and gives a sense of value and recognition to the lived realities of individuals and communities ignored or disdained. A situated mode of research, the dedication to this form of representation transforms the seemingly mundane into an object of beauty and atmosphere, encouraging access and participation from the participant, maker and the viewer.