HOMInG’s seminar 42_20, online (via zoom), will be with Prof.  Mirjana Lozanovska (Deakin University, Melbourne) next October 8 at 9am, CET. Prof. Lozanovska will present and discuss, with “homingers” and other attendants, her recent book Migrant Housing: Architecture, Dwelling, Migration (Routledge, 2019). This will nourish a stimulating conversation between architects, sociologists, anthropologists and other scholars interested in housing, home and migration. Please register in advance!, by writing to bernardo.armanni@unitn.it

Book outline

Migrant Housing, the latest book by author Mirjana Lozanovska, examines the house as the architectural construct in the processes of migration. Housing is pivotal to any migration story, with studies showing that migrant participation in the adaptation or building of houses provides symbolic materiality of belonging and the platform for agency and productivity in the broader context of the immigrant city. Migration also disrupts the cohesion of everyday dwelling and homeland integral to housing, and the book examines this displacement of dwelling and its effect on migrant housing.

This timely volume investigates the poetic and political resonance between migration and architecture, challenging the idea of the ‘house’ as a singular theoretical construct. Divided into three parts, Histories and theories of post-war migrant housing, House/home and Mapping migrant spaces of home, it draws on data studies from Australia and Macedonia, with literature from Canada, Sweden and Germany, to uncover the effects of unprivileged post-war migration in the late twentieth century on the house as architectural and normative model, and from this perspective negotiates the disciplinary boundaries of architecture.

Author’s bio

Associate Professor Mirjana Lozanovska is an architectural educator, academic leader and researcher with international collaborations and professional experience and awards. Mirjana’s research is situated at the intersection of architecture and psychoanalytic, gender and postcolonial theories, to explore a core research question – how does architecture mediate human dignity? Her monograph Migrant Housing: Architecture, Dwelling, Migration (Routledge 2019) examines the impact of migration on architecture and is critical to understanding new forms of globalisation. Mirjana is currently investigating the space of labour with a focus on the BHP Steelworks in Port Kembla. This research is part of a collaborative project “Architecture and Industry: immigrants’ contribution to nation building 1945-1979” supported by the Australia Research Council Discovery Project with CIs in four institutions (University of Melbourne, ANU, University of Tasmania and Deakin).  Mirjana leads the #Vacant Geelong project with a collaborative architecture-art team (Cameron Bishop, David Beynon, Anne Scott Wilson, Akari Nakai-Kidd; with Diego Fullaondo 2015-2018, Ciro Marquez 2017-2018). Vacant Geelong connects architecture with art and industry to go beyond the usual pragmatic utilisation of ex-industrial sites through engagement of the cultural and social memories of the vibrant communities these vacant sites embody. Its original, creative and research works (since 2015) have been awarded funding from Arts Victoria, Council of Greater Geelong and National Wool Museum.
She has published widely in journals including Journal of Architecture, Co-Design, Architecture Theory Review, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Mirjana is co-editor of the major architectural history journal Fabrications: JSAHANZ.