Encampments: Spatial Taxonomies of Sri Lanka's Civil War

Abstract

The escalation of human displacements occurring during the twenty-first century has seen the emergence of humanitarian relief accommodation as a new architectural type worthy of close analysis. Yet, these isolated physical phenomena and related design interventions alone are inadequate for theorising spatial violence. This paper broadens the analysis of camps to encompass notions of “encampment” related to war, militarisation, and urban security, using dispossession, eviction, and refugee movement as its empirical lens. Focusing on two examples from Colombo, Sri Lanka, where the spatial violence of radical human displacement is domesticated as everyday urban phenomena, this paper links the wartime emergence of camp environments, of temporal urban spaces, and the militarisation of the public sphere to economic liberalisation and political change.