The thesis proposes to explore how refugee life is suspended between two places; the place of refuge and the site of origin, and how notions of physical and metaphorical dislocation affect cultural and spatial practices in refugee settlements. This ‘thirdspace’ in-between becomes the transitional space of liminality. How can architectural character define such places of ‘frozen-transience’ and articulate spaces which are by definition ‘not really there’?
The experience of liminal spaces presents a discontinuity in movement and leads the occupant to question their surroundings, thus leading to a heightened awareness of the space as a transformative threshold between distinct spaces.
The principal subject of focus for the thesis is the Tibetan community-in-exile in India, particularly the Tibetan refugee settlements in southern India.
