BSc History and Theory Dissertation

BARC01034 HISTORY & THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Thomas Keeling 18020545

THE NAPIER BARRACKS: AN UNFORSEEN HETEROTOPIA CATCHING ABLAZE BEFORE THE WORLD.

HOW DOES FOUCAULT’S THEORY ACCOUNT FOR THIS PERFECT STORM?

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This piece argues that the oversight involved in the Napier Detention Centre’s conception and failure partially lies in the characteristics laid out by Michael Foucault in his text, entitled “Des Espace Autres (1984)”.

Taking a journey of my own, having grown up within and around armed forces compounds, I seek to understand and classify the rigid mechanisms, that allow warfare and displacement to be held with such casuality the compound ; and how these mechanisms when transferred to another cause, can leak destruction into the lives of vulnerable civilians.

The research combines conversations with my military family and contacts with media reports of outrage, interviews with Napier’s detainees and silences from the UK’s politicians. With these, I paint a picture within Foucault’s framework which displays the extent to which hidden cultures and networks can unknowingly become ingrained within our built environment. The scope of this is not to understand the entire process of Napier’s conception, but to confirm and locate a clear set of contingencies which comprise the less tangible, or more poetic, steps to creating an inclusive space. This is a practise which can be worked into the rigid procedures of a government office for the prevention of harm to the welfare of those under their duty of care.

A short n o t e f r o m t h e writer. EX-ARMY Shortly after an uneventful labour, I was transported some 42km down the leafy roads of the rural midlands from Lincoln Hospital Maternity Ward to the checkpoint at the gates of RAF Coningsby. A guard waited stiffly in a box by the roadside. I later learned they, or their colleagues, would do this every day; I’m 21 now and they still do. Winding down the window of our red Renault Scenic, my exhausted mother fumbled about the glovebox to retrieve two ID cards, tokens for entry to a heterotopia and home-to-be - a home with unnerving proximity to the death, destruction and dehumanisation which is created by warfare. No sooner had these cards been shown to the guard, were we rolling forwards under the reach of a raised red and white arm. This exchange marks my last moment as a civilian child, and my first as a military dependent.

My understanding of my mother’s place within this fenced home-space as a “military wife” and a veteran, was that whilst my father was at work, she and other military partners would nest and nurture a community and safe space in lieu of the life they left behind. Banding together to support their loved ones whilst their largely male counterparts were posted on operations, the partners and dependants of military personnel create a home in a space designed primarily for institutional warfare.

By its very nature, the barbed wire surrounding my home and the facilities withal sought to keep the nature of this composition to an exclusive set of people. Those who exchanged their lives for queen and country, a simple signature on mottled yellow paper, would receive identification cards for themselves and their immediate family for access to most sites across the UK. Moving biannually, this new lifestyle sees flocks of personnel migrate across county lines, borders and continents, normalising a state of flux and displacement in the home environment.

What this essay concerns, however, is not the nature of these spaces under military occupation, but how the norms and embedded processes of a military base take effect under altered occupation.

CAMP TO BE REPURPOSED FOR REFUGEES

Built in 1794, the Napier Barracks originally operated within Shorncliffe Camp, a training ground for soldiers supporting the growth of the quickly spreading British Empire. Comprising 16 brick barrack blocks, a mess, duty hut, parade square and perfunctory facilities, the precinct was designed to house roughly 450 men during training programmes. An understanding of attitudes towards the male sex in pre-modern warfare reveals a historically low bar for the standard of living set for Napier’s inhabitants. The disposability of the male body and association of masculinity with violence at the time resulted in the conception of poor living conditions for soldiers in transit. Parameters such as durability, cost-economy and ease of construction came before welfare and safety during the planning stages of the respective structures1.

Due for demolition in 2021, the British public thought they’d seen the last of the Napier Barracks, which had been in a state of disuse since its last inspection over 7 years ago2. Now, dredged from the depths, its 16 separate blocks have been re-purposed and refilled with vulnerable adult male asylum seekers. ‘S’, who spoke to Jazz O’Hara during her podcast, described the conditions as lacking everything he was looking for, namely “safety, freedom and justice”3.

Sleeping in dormitories of roughly 28, with two metres and a helpless sheet hanging between beds for privacy, ‘S’ says that the four months he spent there were the hardest four months of his three and a half year journey to seek asylum.

“Four months without sleep”, woken by men “whimpering” in the night as the militarised space re-ignited their trauma in a blatant refusal 1 Milojević,, Ivana. 2012. “Why the Creation of a Better World is Premised on Achieving Gender Equity and on Celebrating Multiple Gender Diversities.” Journal of Futures Studies 16 (4).

2 Grierson, Jamie. 2021. “Inside Napier: The Former Army Barracks housing Asylum Seekers.”

The Guardian.

3 ‘S’s Voice: Jazz O’Hara. 2021. The Worldwide Tribe Podcast. Ep 23: Spotify.

to recognise the alternative lived experience of displaced humans.

The process, Military Assistance to the Civilian Authorities, which allowed the property to pass from the hands of the Armed forces, to the home office and onwards to Clearsprings Readyhomes, the winner of the billion pound contract to run these detention centres, is also the same protocol responsible for the mobilisation of troops during national disasters and pandemics. As a result of this rushed response protocol and the Tories’ proven inability to produce and take responsibility for effective contracts during times of emergency4, the detrimental oversight concerning the safety of marginalised individuals has resulted in 22 of 400 residents being put on suicide watch, 25% exposed to and contracted COVID-19. Additionally reports of racial and trust-related abuse, and a large fire, burning down part of an accommodation block, raise serious questions surrounding the safety of those detained5.

The decision to house refugees in the Napier Barracks speaks legions about the dynamic within the confines of the barbed wire afforded by a military architecture. Beyond these borders, augmented moral codes and the normalization of unthinkable activities has been and continues to be the modus operandi of government frameworks.

In an interview with my father, who intermittently lived within a military compound for 28 years, we established and understood together that any space which allows an individual to leave for work in the morning and return in the evening having contributed to any form of death or destruction employs a modified moral code to divert guilt and torment. Is it possible that the Napier Barracks, with its heterotopic identity, perpetuates this moral code and it’s accompanying frameworks beyond its use as a warfare facility?

4 “Investigation into Government Procurement During the COVID-19 Pandemic.” 2020.

National Audit Office.

5 Choose Love. 2021. “Letter From An Asylum Seeker at Napier.” Choose Love. https://shor. by/chooselove. Accessed 04/02/2020

SITE MAP

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Location of fire.

Set of 8 barrack blocks.

Mess facility.

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EVENT TIMELINE

21/09/2020: The first 400 refugees arrive at camp.

17/10/2020: The first recorded COVID case at the Napier Barracks.

25/10/2020: Home Office accused of ‘Gagging’ volunteers entering Napier Barracks

1 9 / 1 1 / 2 0 2 0 : An attempted suicide in a dormitory marks the first of many.

14/21/2020: Eight escape the Napier Barracks out of desperation.

01/01/2021: A fire sweeps through one of the barrack blocks. There were no fatalities.

26/01/2021: Roughly a hundred asylum seekers are evacuated from the detention centre.

15/02/2021: Home Secretary Priti Patel condemns refugees for barrack block fire.

02/03/2021: NHS warn social distancing is impossible in Napier barrack blocks.

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12/01/2021: Napier’s refugees first stage a sleep-out in protest of living conditions.

07/02/2021: A Kent photographer is arrested after documenting on-site conditions.

28/02/2021: 178 COVID-19 cases are confirmed at Napier Barracks amongst the refugee population.

INTRODUCTION TO HETEROTOPIAS

Fig.3 Asylum Seekers at Napier Barracks sleep outside in protest of living conditions. (Care4Calais, 2020)

Michael Foucault defines spaces such as the Napier Barracks as Heterotopias, which are explained and scrutinised within his 1967 paper “Of Other Spaces”. Here, he lays out six core principles to define the topic, and in this next section, I will dissect these principles and relate them to warfare spaces using my personal experiences and research.

To understand a heterotopia under Foucault’s framework, we must situate it beside the phenomenon of the utopia. Often described as us space which reflects the perfected ideal of society, the Utopia is a theoretical space which cannot exist. Its purity places it at the hub of an array of concepts defining spaces and societies, one of which is the heterotopia, which opposes and deflects the principles of perfection and unreality previously mentioned.

Foucault’s theory on heterotopias offers us the opportunity to look at unusual and nonconforming spaces through a thorough framework of points and concepts. I will be using his research, On Other Spaces, 1967, to reflect upon the Napier incident and evolve a framework for more inclusive government strategies for creation and reappropriation of spaces6.

intense truth of the network they partake in. A classic example of this type of space is the brothel, which nestles itself in the dark alleys of every city known to man. Such a place is an enabler for sometimes abusive, sexual and “taboo” behaviors in a world which lacks sexual freedom and insight.

Like the angry, unbalanced skin of adolescence, the city breaks out, performing reactionary rituals in heterotopic pockets of secrecy and rebellion.

These sites are often frequented as much by the average citizen as they are by the haute and welloff, forming a space of class homogeneity and rich bodily connection between the individual and the organs of society.

There is no doubt that such heterotopias can operate functionally and kindly, for not all heterotopias must be necessarily violent. In the previous example, advances in protections for sexworkers in New Zealand have begun to pave the way for moderated and safe spaces for prostitution (See Govt.nz, Prostitution Reform Act 2003).

Heterotopias of inclusion and safety operate just as abundantly. A reaction to society’s institutional struggles for equality and equity provokes the growth of safe spaces within districts where minority groups are under personal and political siege. An onslaught of othering and scapegoating lays a foundation for the construction of spaces for

THIS IS NOT R A R E In his first principle, Foucault classifies the majority of modern heterotopias as deviant spaces, in which the norms and standards of surrounding areas and cultures are not abided by. In relation to the military compound, this can be seen in the shifting of the moral code which occurs at the barbed wire threshold of the camp. For the sake of this essay, I will define any space other than those designed as part of a military network as a civilian space.

Within that civilian space, it is commonly agreed that, should a person kill or assist in the death of another, or even carry a weapon, they will be punished. However, beyond the checkpoint entry of this modern heterotopia, such actions become part of the necessary framework for maintaining operational output during most instances of war.

These spaces are abundant in almost every nation across the globe, and, I would argue, act as a site of relief for the masses who operate under social structures and expectations. Like the vents of a deep flowing magma-chamber or the weeping wounds of diseased tissue, such deviant spaces defy and deflect surface conditions to reveal the poetic and 6 Foucault and Miskowiec 1984 p2

Fig.4 An investigation of ceremonial landscape as a palimpsest and self-affecting mechanism at the Hill of Tara is a great example of systems contributing to their own construction and operation over prolonged periods of time. (Part of a much larger investigation into Tara, Thomas Keeling, 2020)

shelter and healing.

From both sides, offensive and defensive, heterotopias are a symptom of an adolescent society oscillating about a point of equilibrium. To understand this turbulent swinging and thrashing within our own social context, and hence the oily, infected heterotopias emerging, one might turn to Toby Ord’s moral philosophy, which characterises humanity’s current age by comparison to the average lifespan of a mammalian species - 1 million years. It emerges that we as a species are at the ripe and angsty age of 16, an age exemplified by self-discovery, rapid growth and instability7.

Taking from this that society is perpetually evolving and still relatively amoebic, should humanity make it past its ‘twenties’ it would be appropriate to ask a question of what heterotopias at an old age might look like, or if they at all might 7 Purtill, C. 2020. “How Close is Humanity To The Edge?” The New Yorker.

exist. How does one rebel respectfully, exercise an expression of discontent compassionately, or inhabit a heterotopic space which does not result from violence, oppression or disparity?

The answers to this future lend insight into the careful development and understanding of our built environment and the necessary ironies which need to be handled with care and consideration during its conception and construction. If this had been a concern for the Home Office during the development of plans for the repurposing of the Napier Barracks, perhaps so many lives may not have been lost under British protection to date.

Foucault’s second principle of heterotopias and other spaces reflects upon this thought further, noting that such a condition is described by the relationships it forges with its surroundings, and so it will adapt with their changes. Like a prism to light, the strata of our societies and environments are exposed in vibrant colour through the boundaries of the military compound.

In particular, this concerns the breakdown of British policies and values within the volume of the Napier Barracks and the ongoing effect of their magnification under an altered atmosphere.

The Barracks and its legacy will always exist in one form or another, and its heterotopic culture will bend and adapt with the slowly aging narrative of humanity’s progression. Like a palimpsest, every action etched into the built environment becomes part of the construction of a much larger framework which interacts on a physical, temporal and systemic scale with its own skein. In cities, and landscapes, and books, and cultures, palimpsests form as temporally exempt indicators of history, and are often mistaken as passive documents. And yet, the nuanced texture of their surface subtly influences our processes on every scale.

Additionally, war itself is argued by political philosopher Thomas Hobbes as a necessary state for humanity when “man is without a common power to keep them all in awe”8. In the 21st Century, when most western citizens sit within a stable democratic framework9, we see this theory play out at a much larger scale.

Here, international superpowers replace the man, and war is still a substitute for a common power.

If war at every scale is unavoidable, then the built environment designed to sustain its networks will always be present, evolving, appropriating and reappropriating itself to exist within the necessary context.

This ability to adapt timelessly lends the heterotopia an almost indestructible status, which reinforces the importance of its inclusion within our basic decision-making principles. Without said inclusion, our flattened understanding of the most simple spatial tool, the threshold, opens doors to unforeseen scenarios like that which is (at the time of writing) happening at the Napier Barracks.

H I D D E N P O L I T I C S In Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité, Foucault writes that not only does a heterotopia reflect exterior conditions, but it also finds a way to juxtapose opposing fabrics within itself. We find this in the characteristics the military compound, where home and displacement sit side-by-side as 8

Hobbes, Thomas. 1651. Leviathan.

9 I acknowledge that recent events in the west are challenging the stability of these frameworks.

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core programs10.

In 2020, the Syrian Arabic Republic was the source of 6.7 million registered migrant refugees as a result of the ongoing Syrian civil war (UN, UNHCR World Migration Report, 2020). Since its emergence in early 2011, 27 states have engaged in the conflict. Speaking with my father, Tony, who was A4 Force Commander in 2018 when the UK retracted its public operations in Syria, revealed some interesting disparities between the internal objectives of the British Armed Forces and the realities of its locus of control. In the midst of our dinner-table debates, the most resolved statement he could conceive to summarise the actions of our own nation, and his employer, sat neatly within the blind heterotopic framework which both he and I grew up in.

“The British political intent expressed when engaging in the Syrian Civil War was to protect the livelihoods of innocent civilians.”

In response, I asked: “Why are they so unprotected when they are driven to our country?”

To which the statement was amended: “The British political intent expressed when engaging in the Syrian Civil War was to protect the livelihoods of innocent civilians in their own country.”

I will indulge in these conversations in greater depth during the chapter “Illusions”, but for now I would like to explore an observation.

From inside the compound and its networks, displacement is a factor abundant in everyday life.

However, with a militarized objective that reaches far and deep into the civilian world, albeit overseas, the projection of this assumption, that displacement is part and parcel 10 Foucault, Michel, and Jay Miskowiec. 1984. “Of Other Spaces.”

French journal Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuité 16, no. 1 (Spring): 22-27. 10.2307/46464

Fig.6 (Left) The moment of an Azerbaijani Unmanned Air Vehicle attack in Nagorno Karabakh (Azerbaijani Air Force, September 2020), a similar process to those carried out by RAF pilots from the confines of their respective military compound at RAF Waddington, Linconshire, from which strikes against the so-called Islamic State have been conducted(Right) (Royal Airforce Recruitment, 2017).

of life, is not challenged. Nowhere are there reports or investigations into second and third order consequences of state-sponsored violence in warzones. Somewhere between the Prime Minister’s office, the runway and a bomb-site, the weakly formed intention to “protect the livelihoods” of vulnerable international civilians buckles under the weight of institutional objective, and performative international engagement.

To paraphrase Tony during our subsequent conversations, the answer as to why there are no substantial protocols for analysis and reflection on civilian displacement lies partially in the difficulty of tracking second and third order consequences of warfare. I’m not particularly satisfied with this response, as it’s also logistically absurd to transport and detonate Paveway IV Missiles from a Raytheon factory to a so-called Islamic State target as the RAF did on 85 occasions between 2015 and 2017 during Operation Shader11.

Time and time-again the short-comings of logical systems applied within military spaces and processes reveal a phantom which fulfils the role of complete reasoning. Perhaps a result of this juxtaposition mentioned by Foucault, where protection distracts from destruction, displacement simulates belonging and aggression is reframed as ‘Defence’, the operations of the British Armed Forces and institutions alike lack moral integrity. For a nation whose identity is tied up in battles won and lands conquered, a heterotopia which purports to execute national values might ultimately seek to continue this trend. But at what cost?

Complimenting a heterotopia’s ability to juxtapose systems and concepts within itself, Foucault also communicates that such a space might be inclined to hoard fragments of time, in the same way that a graveyard hoards bodies and historic sentiment within its identity. Our barracks, which now holds numerous victories and narratives within its fenced perimeter, is subject to exposure to something which it has almost certainly never come into contact with. As a result of this situation, ideally, new appropriate protocols would be adapted, however, due to oversight and negligence, only old protocols have been recycled.

Refugees now line up like soldiers for lunch and dinner and sleep as if they were fighting a war the following week. The hostile British nationalist trope used to fuel and excuse warfare claims yet another victory over a foreign body.

11 Crawshaw, Danielle. 2017. “British Troops Fighting IS Should Receive Medal.” Forces Net, 2017. Forces.Net.

DETAINED: NO WAY OUT! The power of a threshold over a space denotes more than its ability to delineate physical domains.

Within a heterotopia, this becomes an essential defining attribute, where a border, doorway or gateway can gift its users a societal status, a moral hall pass, or take away their rights. The point of entry to a heterotopia is a point of transformation, and those entered into the space act, and are treated, in a transformed manner12. To put this into the context of a military base during typical operations, we can apply some of Foucault’s observations and concepts.

Foucault states that a mechanism commonly used to police the networks within a heterotopia, much like a cap to a bottle, is that the spaces will open and close intermittently, never staying in one state for long13. This can be seen in London’s public parks, which seek to neutralize the aggressive bustle of the city during the daytime yet are closed during the darker hours to protect their own status as sanctuaries. Additionally, many intermittently opening spaces require a token for admittance - from the American 1930’s speakeasy to the imaginative password protected tree house. Not only does this ‘key’ maintain a valve for exit and entry to the space, but it also indicates a change and confirmation of social identity akin with joining a club or team. This observation sits within the psychological concept of Social Identity Theory developed in the sixties by Tajfel and Turner, which suggests that the adoption of group culture within individuals can lead to a contextual execution of behaviour respective of the spatial and social climate14.

Within an institution such as the British military, signing a contract which dedicates your life to ‘queen and country’ confirms an already perceived and deeply routed bias that violence and displacement within military spaces is an accepted part of the culture. This individual then adopts the culture and assimilates themselves as a partaker in its networks. Through this process, exit and entry become more than a passing of a threshold and, instead, become transformations of character.

For the Napier Barracks this becomes an issue when the situated identity associated with the threshold is carried forward into a new context.

This gives rise to the question, “Is it possible that treatment of those within the barracks today is affected by the typical identity of those who would normally use the facility?”

To understand this more deeply, I spoke to Wing Commander Mike Ainsworth, who has spent the past three years engaging in the development and maintenance of military housing. To his understanding, displacement and the cultures surrounding are a large factor in the formation of housing standards and treatment of individuals during their careers in the military.

“Those within a barracks are either in training accommodation or transit accommodation; Napier [Barracks] is the latter…

Normally transit accommodation houses eight to a room for a very short amount of time, perhaps a two to three week training course.. five at a stretch…”

Those stationed at Napier won’t have been 12 Foucault and Miskowiec 1984 p5 13 Foucault and Miskowiec 1984 p5 14 Huddie, Leonie. 2001. “From Social to Political Identity: A Critical Examination of Social Identity Theory.” Political Psychology Journal, no.

22, 127-156.

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Fig.7 UK Gov. 1997. JRSA standards state that in a 10 man dormatory, each man should have 8.5 square metres of personal space. Each cubicle in the Napier Barracks has roughly 4.56. Additionally, toilets are shared two to fourty two persons, with roughly twenty refugees per room.

at war, but nor will they have been at a permanent post, and the standards for their accommodation reflected the temporary nature of their existence.

The MOD’s Building Performance Standards Document describes the minimum standard of such housing laid out of 5.8 square metres per bed-space in a shared room, each with a wardrobe and drying space, which is not the case in the Napier Barracks15.

“When Napier was handed over to the home office for civilian use, the process comes under a protocol called Military Assistance to the Civilian Authorities (MACA), only to be used as a last resort.”

These buildings, already in a state of disuse since 2014, are then moved from the hands of military individuals, who spend their lives “making a home from a magnolia box”, to the contractors paid by the home-office to run the detention centre16.

15 JSP 315: Building performance Standards. 2019. 2nd ed.: Gov. org.

16 During our conversations, Mike Ainsworth described the Armed Forces Personell’s ability to adapt to displacement and a constantly shifting living-state as “mak-

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Fig.8

PARTIAL INTERIOR RECONSTRUCTION 1m

Rooms are approximately 6 metres wide, and have a potential length of 41 metres.

Windows break the thick brick Georgian wall every 4.2 metres.

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The standards applicable for it at the time of its abandonment, written in 1997, are not challenged or attained during this process. As a result, persons now crossing the threshold onto this space are no longer soldiers, but detained refugees and their supervisory staff, yet the conditions reflect the norms of the former17.

The transitory nature of the refugee’s livelihoods as they await their confirmation of asylum status only serves to hammer home the preconceived bias and mode of operations built for the Napier Barracks’ previous inhabitants. ing a home from a magnolia box”. Magnolia being the standard colour all accommodation quarters walls are painted.

17 UK Gov. 1997. Junior Ranks Single Living Accommodation. p75.: Defence Estate Organisation. 0117724831.

Sheets hang between cubicles for privacy and hygiene.

Each ~1.9x2.4 metre cubicle contains a bed and wardrobe at least.

The conditions have refugees sleeping less than 2 metres away from eachother during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fig.9

INSTITUTIONALISED I L L U S I O N S Foucault writes towards the end of his discussion that a heterotopia can be a place of illusion which seeks to compensate for aspects of the environment which it reflects. The site of the illusion in the case of the Napier barracks occurs around the barbed wire fence itself. A simple knitted alloy border which would traditionally keep the cultures and norms of the armed force’s networks within a contained space provides, on the other, side a filtered stage for civilian observers to admire heroic acts of duty. The perforated fence proposes to reveal the goings on within a military space with transparency and clarity, yet it only performs a visual narrative of the extremities of armed forces networks. As someone who has lived on both sides of the barbed wire, I can only confirm that the nationalist pride radiating from Her Majesty’s compounds swiftly transforms to the homogeneous glow of an inward looking institution with a far shallower moral standing than it first seemed upon entry. To a civilian, the lives of military personnel are only ever seen through a fence or a screen, so the remainder of their mysterious lives might be filled in with assumptions with nationalist origins18.

Western countries have a great history of glorifying the process of war. The well known ‘spirit of 1914’, where an almost elated response to the breaking out of war ignited Germany into mindless industrial action, set a precedent for the shape of modern warfare19. A group psychology, capitalizing on the disconnect between the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, maintained a heavy curtain of righteous propaganda which fell upon and obscured the death and destruction in other nations. Graphic campaigns painted soldiers as heroes to the public whilst men were treated disposably at the front lines20. Drawing parallels between this and the heroic nature of the UK’s MACA response at Napier reveals the longevity of this attitude, with the government stepping up to house vulnerable refugees as if it were to them a favour.

We paint those who wage war for us as heroes, excusing their actions for their intent to protect innocent civilians. Yet, when those innocent civilians are displaced by that very war, and are washed up traumatized on our shores, they find themselves detained, swept under the rug. The reality of this process was grimly revealed to the general public throughout the winter of 2020/21, where activist groups and the press lifted the curtains on the conditions within the Napier Barracks.

It seems clear that the barbed frontage to this militarised space serves a purpose beyond keeping people in, keeping people out, and as earlier mentioned, transforming identities. The threshold skews our understanding of what might be happening on the inside. Perhaps once a national coping mechanism suited for hiding the barbaric acts of war from the public, we now use the fence to disguise the suffering of those who the militarised violence intended to protect. Additionally, for the racist and xenophobic British citizens, the detainment of foreign refugees within a misused military compound has magnified their hatred.

Placing vulnerable individuals within a prison-like environment seems to further their suffering as victims of discrimination.

During the interviews conducted with my father and Mike Ainsworth, I experienced the shortfalls of an existence within a heterotopia first-hand. Often, my interrogations would be molded around a fragile understanding of refugeeship or the rigid conforms of government processes due to the limiting illusions that military personnel perpetuate. These illusory cultures are almost certainly there to maintain structure and dissolve ambiguity in a sometimes morally questionable and unstable profession. Yet the narratives they sew reach further than we are taught to look.

18 Refugee Action Network. 2020. “A Message From A Refugee Stuck in the Napier Barracks.” Help Refugees. Helprefugees. org. Accessed 12/12/2020 19 Verhey, Jeffrey. 2007. The Spirit of 1914 Militarism, Myth, and Mobilization in Germany. 2nd ed. p26.: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 9780521026369.

20 Holter, Øystein. 2002. “A Theory of Gendercide.” Journal of Genocide Research 4:11-38. 10.1080/14623520120113883.

R E F L E C T I O N S At the time of writing, 50 detained refugees suffer on in the Napier Barracks. The Home Office have taken no responsibility for their treatment, and the Armed Forces’ MACA protocol has yet to be revised to restrict abusive behaviour. Despite Foucault’s definition of Heterotopias being slightly wordy and somewhat abstracted from the plurality of lived experiences of refugees, I believe this short parallel analysis uncovers the potential for such a spatial philosophy so as to deepen our understanding and recognition of ‘other’ spaces in an increasingly intersectional world.

The importance of a more forensic understanding and research in the design of infrastructure and policies for vulnerable and minority groups is paramount to the retention of operational integrity for institutions across the globe. The illusions, juxtapositions and deflections explored in this particular case spread far beyond the networks within the Home Office and Armed Forces, and, as a result, it might not be the case that any involved institution learns sufficiently from this tragedy for history to not repeat itself.

A striking observation made during this research is how much of the treatment of refugees by the Home Office is not explainable under the principles of a military heterotopia. This alludes to a much larger dynamic at play, where the issues previously investigated intersect with Britain’s colonial histories. This essay explores the relationship between these refugees and an Armed Forces compound only because it is a space which I too have experienced; yet it would be absurd to assume that there is not a relationship with race and historic political positioning also present.

The government’s hostile environment policies have spread tendrils of race-related micro-aggression through the British population since their protoconception in 2006, often requiring untrained civilians to carry out immigration checks and enforce policies. The power relations set and confirmed by this legislation perpetuate a corrosive and disruptive narrative about the value of refugee life in the United Kingdom, where the general public see asylum seekers, often displaced by government facilitated warfare, as a burden on the economy21. This method, turning the general public against refugees, seeks only to distract from the questions which challenge our understanding of a refugee’s real lived experience and worth. Should British citizens behave as though refugees are just as deserving as the settled citizen in their desire to belong, then they will have to ask themselves some important questions. Why is it that their tax money funds the performance of such tragedies on an international stage?

Our government is facilitating prolonged destruction - in the name of what?

During times of economic recession prejudice against immigrants always rises, provoking a decline in pan-nationalist sentiment22. We saw this after the credit crunch and in the 80’s with Thatcher’s government, and more recently the Brexit campaign saw the likes of Nigel Farage weaponize economics in the name of xenophobia. Now, in 2021, the tradition of turning on immigrants as a scapegoat for poor economic management has resulted in the habitual mistreatment of refugees during one of the most economically volatile periods in modern history23. This purposeful treatment, decorated as a cost-saving measure, is just one of the many strings that inappropriately tags those seeking asylum as economic tokens: another dehumanising action.

21 IPPR. 2020. “‘Hostile environment’ has fostered racist practices across society, not just by immigration officials.” IPPR. https://www. ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/hostile-environment-has-fostered-racist-practices-across-society-not-just-by-immigration-officials-says-ippr.

22 Marshall, Tim. 2015. Prisoners of Geography. London: Eliott and Thompson Ltd. p109 23 Fund For Peace. 2020. “UK Fragile States Index.” Country Dashboard. https://fragilestatesindex.org/country-data/.

Fig.10 My parents on their wedding day at Hemswell village church in 1992. My father, 23, in his RAF uniform, 6 years into his military career. They met at RAF Halton, where my dad was stationed and my mother was working as an RAF dental nurse.

Alas, the remit of my essay does not allow me to explore the full scope of the story at Napier, leaving many of the contributing factors untouched. Acknowledging that the spatial history and composition of an institution or event seldom exists in isolation to the playing out of events themselves, this research opens a door into the recognition, exploration and categorisation of an anomalous space and its effects.

On a more personal note, the production of this essay has required me to interrogate my own modes of operation, and those of the ones I love. The realisation that we, too, are at the whim of the illusions, hidden politics and habitual forms of reasoning stored within our built environment has cultivated a more curious view of the world in myself - an unflattening if you will24. This has provoked me to be more understanding of the decisions my military family make (or made), where otherwise, with a largely pacifist sentiment, I would have scolded their agenda in an attempt to ignore my own recent family history.

During those moments, my mother would always say to me:

“You know your father, he lives in a

box.

He can’t see what you might see” And, meant,

until or

now, quite

I how

never knew dangerous it

what could

that be.

24 A reference to terminology used to describe the broadening of lines of thought. Sousanis, Nick. 2015. Unflattening. : Harvard University Press.

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Forces.Net. Foucault, Michel, and Jay Miskowiec. 1984. “Of Other Spaces.” French journal Architecture / Mouvement/ Continuité 16, no. 1 (Spring): 22-27. 10.2307/464648.

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Grierson, Jamie. 2021. “Inside Napier: The Former Army Barracks housing Asylum Seekers.”

The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2021/feb/17/inside-napier-formerarmy-barracks-housing-asylum-seekers-podcast.

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National Audit Office.

IPPR. 2020. “‘Hostile environment’ has fostered racist practices across society, not just by immigration officials.” IPPR. https://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/hostileenvironment-has-fostered-racist-practices-across-society-not-just-by-immigration-officialssays-ippr.

Jazz O’Hara. 2021. The Worldwide Tribe Podcast.: Spotify.

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Marshall, Tim. 2015. Prisoners of Geography. London: Eliott and Thompson Ltd. Milojević,, Ivana. 2012. “Why the Creation of a Better World is Premised on Achieving Gender Equity and on Celebrating Multiple Gender Diversities.” Journal of Futures Studies 16 (4).

Purtill, C. 2020. “How Close is Humanity To The Edge?” The New Yorker.

Refugee Action Network. 2020. “A Message From A Refugee Stuck in the Napier Barracks.”

Help Refugees. Helprefugees.org.

Sousanis, Nick. 2015. Unflattening. N.p.: Harvard University Press.

UK Gov. 1997. Junior Ranks Single Living Accommodation. N.p.: Defence Estate Organisation.

0117724831.

Verhey, Jeffrey. 2007. The Spirit of 1914 Militarism, Myth, and Mobilization in Germany. 2nd ed.

N.p.: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. 9780521026369.

IMAGES USED Fig.1 UkNewsInPictures, 2021, Daily Mail, ‘Police launch arson investigation as migrants set fire to Kent army barracks ‘after being told they would no longer be transferred to hotels after Covid outbreak’ - as Priti Patel calls incident ‘deeply offensive’.

Fig.2 My own spatial reconstruction based on Google images, 2021.

Fig.3 Care4Calais, 2020, The Guardian, Asylum Seekers at Napier Barracks sleep outside in protest of living conditions.

Fig.4 My own investigation into palimpsest landscapes, 2020.

Fig.5 Azerbaijani Air Force, 2020, Popular Front, The moment of an Azerbaijani Unmanned Air Vehicle ATG attack in Nagorno Karabakh.

Fig.6 Royal Airforce Recruitment, 2017, A UAV pilot sat in their virtual cockpit.

Fig.7 UK Gov, 1997, JRSA Planning Data Sheet.

Fig.8 Shaida Edwards-Dashti, 2020, Counterfire, “‘Worse than prison’: shocking treatment of refugees at Napier Barracks exposed.”

Fig.9 My own spatial reconstruction based on Google images, 2021.

Fig.10 My parents on their wedding day, 1993.