The publication includes a summary of the course Spatial Design Strategies for Climate and Conflict Induced Migration, based on a spring 2025 project-based seminar led by Malkit Shoshan at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
This seminar examined migration induced by climate and conflict, which often intersected, in one of the most volatile hotspots in the world, the Sahel. The Sahel region had been grappling with the root causes and the multidimensional consequences of climate change for a long time; colonization, extensive resource extraction, conflict, and militarization. In the region, new trends in migration were observed, and local, national, and international policies and protocols for humanitarian contingency planning were developed in response.
In the Sahel, traditional lifestyles such as nomadic pastoralism and transhumance thrived for millennia in extreme weather conditions, offering valuable lessons in adaptability and perseverance in times of crisis and resource scarcity. Given this context, the seminar explored the following questions:
* What can we learn about the future of climate migration from these migration trends and rich local cultures, and how can they intersect with international interventions?
* How can we use multi-temporal and multi-scalar spatial analysis and climate vulnerability projections to understand a future planet in a constant state of flux–one in which the constraints of national territories are perhaps transcended–while embracing a deeper
cultural preservation of lifestyles, construction techniques, materiality, habitat typologies?
* How can we forge relationships with broader ecological and environmental conditions defined by commons and collective resource management?
* What can these insights teach us about architecture and urban planning, and how can we use them to challenge our own discipline, pedagogy, and relationship with spatial production?
During the seminar, the class engaged with diverse stakeholders and viewpoints from theory and practice, including conversations with representatives of United Nations agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), which possess real-time data and field experience. Drawing on their datasets and engaging in dialogue with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community representatives, we developed a case study focused on climate migration in the Sahel, with particular attention to the situation in Mauritania, where local and international organizations work together to support the country’s open-door policy and its efforts to host refugees from the region and prevent them from reaching Europe.
Sessions included meetings with diverse stakeholders, interactions with UN agencies, NGOs, and local community representatives, as well as in-class workshops for project development that incorporated spatial analyses of migration trends and scenario exercises.
Spatial Design Strategies for Climate Migration is a report based on a spring 2025 project-based seminar led by Malkit Shoshan at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Colophon:
Spatial Design Strategies for Climate–and Conflict– Induced Migration
Course Instructor
Malkit Shoshan
Teaching Assistant
Spurty Kamath
Students
Xavier Ayub, Jules Bernstein, Kaitlyn Bell, Yana Buchatska, Mauricio Cohen Kalb, Luis Arturo Gomez, Spurty Kamath, Richard Kowel, Zebeeb Nuguse, Izzy Tice, Savalee Tikle, Tyler Vandenberg, Haozhuo Yang
Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture
Sarah Whiting
Chair
Ann Forsyth, Rachel Weber
Copyright © 2025 President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Text and images © 2025 by their authors.
The editors have attempted to acknowledge all sources of images used and apologize for any errors or omissions.
StoryMap
This course review is supported by a Story Map with three sections: 1) Water, Landscape, and Agriculture in Arid Climates; 2) Infrastructure Recommendations for Mauritania; 3) Architectural Case Studies in Arid Climates, featuring student-collected case studies, design references, and additional reccomendations.
Link: https://arcg.is/04C49q1
Acknowledgments
Gratitude is extended to the external contributors who participated in lectures, workshops, and reviews, and generously shared data with us: UNPBF: Diane Myriam A Sheinberg UN Habitat: Mathias Spaliviero; UNHCR: Rakesh Gupta Nuchanametla Ramasubbaiah, Abdulaye Sy, Vasiliki Tsioutsiou; and IOM: Luísa Freitas
We also acknowledge the support of the 2025 Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative (HMUI) Urban Research Grant, which made this work possible.
Additionally, we thank Spurty Kamath, Savalee Tikle, and Yana Buchatska for their dedicated efforts in the final editing of this report.
Link: https://www.gsd.harvard.edu/publication/spatial-design-strategies-for-climate-migration/
