Resource contributed by: Kin Chui

Tings Chak, Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention (Montreal/Amsterdam: Architecture Observer, 2014).

https://www.tingschak.com/undocumented-the-architecture-of-migrant-detention

“Since 2006, over 100,000 people have been jailed in Canada, without charge or trial, with no end in sight. This includes children, who are detained or are separated indefinitely from their caregivers. This is the reality of immigration detention in Canada – a reality that is violently invisibilized. Migrants are detained primarily because they are undocumented. Likewise, these sites of detention bare little trace —drawings and photos are classified; access is extremely limited. The detention centres, too, are undocumented.

Undocumented: The Architecture of Migrant Detention documents the banality and violence of the architecture in contrast to the stories of daily resistance among immigration detainees. This book explores migrant detention centres in Canada, the fastest growing incarceration sector in North America’s prison industrial complex, and questions the role of architectural design in the control and management of migrant bodies in such spaces. Using the conventional architectural tools of representation, we situate, spatialize, and confront the silenced voices of those who are detained and the anonymous individuals who design spaces of confinement.”