The Living Room Project, also known as Al-Madhafah in Arabic, challenges the conventional approach of integrating refugees solely as permanent citizens within a nation-state. Instead, it explores the potential role of the host and hospitality in the processes of integration and assimilation, focusing on the living room as a dynamic space with the potential to shape a more inclusive public life. This site-specific art project draws deep inspiration from Al-Madhafah, a concept in Arab culture that refers to a room or space dedicated to hospitality and the welcoming of guests.
In Arab culture, Al-Madhafah is a space with varying architectural forms, always carefully curated and maintained. It can be situated inside the house, typically at the very entrance, connected to the house with a degree of autonomy, or even completely separate from the main house. Regardless of its location, Al-Madhafah is always prepared to receive unexpected guests, with coffee and nuts readily available. Sometimes it serves a single family, while in other instances, it is a shared space for a larger community or tribe that collectively creates and maintains the guest room.
The role of the host within Al-Madhafah is significant. The host is not only responsible for all aspects of hospitality but also holds a certain power and public role within the neighborhood or community. This system of hosting creates a form of public life that exists beyond political parties and state structures, offering an inspiring model for imagining a broader public life where various forms of publicness can coexist.
The figure of the host in the living room becomes an active agent, driven by individuals who come forward, present themselves as hosts, open up their living rooms, and create a life in the place where they reside—for themselves and their surroundings. By doing so, they become notable in their place of living, creating for themselves and their neighborhoods a public life for which they will take responsibility. This approach allows many cities to become truly open—not only in terms of diverse food and cultures but also in terms of the public daily activities of their inhabitants.
Not everyone is ready or willing to be a host. Being a host brings visibility and agency but also requires a great deal of responsibility in terms of time, space, and dedication. Sometimes, people arrive in a new country full of energy to integrate, only to encounter a system that is difficult to navigate. Offering the right to be a host and facilitating self-run spaces in multicultural cities might be one of the many ways to rethink belonging and inclusion.
Living room in Boden, Sweden (2019) Photo by Andreas Fernandez
Al-Madhafah: A Space for Hospitality and Transformation
Situated between the domestic and public spheres, Al-Madhafah—Arabic for a living room dedicated to hospitality—has the potential to redefine the roles of guest and host, imbuing the act of hospitality with new socio-political significance. It seeks to mobilize the condition of “permanent temporariness” as both an architectural and political concept, challenging the binaries of inclusion and exclusion, public and private, guest and host. Al-Madhafah empowers temporary residents to host and participate without feeling obligated to sever their ties to their homelands.
Inspired by this rich tradition, the Living Room Project challenges the notion that refugees need to be ‘normalized’ as citizens. Too often, society views refugees as a problem to be solved by making them citizens. We believe this perspective is deeply flawed. Refugees and migrants are not individuals who need to be ‘cured’ of their status by becoming permanent citizens. While we recognize their need for documents to travel freely, their complex identities and diverse experiences call for a different approach.
Many refugees live in a state we describe as “permanent temporariness.” Although they may reside in a country for many years, they often don’t feel a deep connection to it or fully integrate. With ties to multiple cultures and languages, their sense of belonging extends beyond a single place or nation. The traditional concept of citizenship, tied to one nation-state, fails to capture this complexity.
At Al-Madhafah, we advocate for a broader understanding of belonging—one that transcends and can enrich the existing nation-state framework of integration. We question why rights and belonging should be confined to a specific territory or national identity. The expectation of full assimilation is both unrealistic and undesirable for many refugees who maintain strong connections to their homelands. Indeed, we firmly believe that the real cause of the acute problems of segregation in Europe today is the expectation of full assimilation.
We propose recognizing three fundamental rights for refugees:
- The Right to Movement: Refugees often seek citizenship primarily for the freedom to move and travel, not necessarily to fully adopt the culture or identity of a new country.
- The Right to Be a Host: Refugees should have the right to participate and have agency in the society where they live, even without full assimilation. They should be able to contribute and belong while retaining their original identities.
- The Right to Return: Many refugees feel a strong connection to their homeland and may wish to return if possible. This right should be respected, and they should not be seen as disloyal to their host nation for maintaining this desire.
The traditional approach of nation-states, which seeks to solve the ‘problem’ of refugees through full assimilation, has proven inadequate. It fails to recognize the deep ties refugees have to their homelands and cultures, leading to a superficial form of inclusion that doesn’t address the real issues of identity and belonging.
Inspired by the ethos of Al-Madhafah, our project embraces an active form of citizenship and political agency, one that allows individuals to belong to more than one place and maintain multiple identities. In our increasingly globalized world, fewer people identify with just one nation. The Living Room Project reflects this reality by proposing a form of life that respects and accommodates the diverse social and political identities of refugees.
In this site-specific project, we begin by acknowledging the complexity of refugee lives. Instead of understanding refugees solely through the lens of citizenship, we advocate for viewing society and public life from their perspective—often marginalized and overlooked. By embracing the refugee experience, we have the opportunity to create a society that is not only accommodating but enriched by its diversity. This perspective allows us to see the complexities of different backgrounds as strengths rather than obstacles. Such an approach can lead to a more dynamic and engaging society, where diverse experiences contribute to a richer, more vibrant public life.
Living Room at the Van Abbemuseum (2018), Photo Marcel de Buck
The Role of the Living Room in Society
As architects, we believe that the living room, as a private space, plays a significant role in shaping society. The living room is the part of the house that offers itself to the guest; it is the threshold between the private and the public, the inside and the outside, old memories and new experiences. It’s a space where we represent ourselves and who we are. While the public sphere represents the nation-state, the living room represents the private citizen. It has the potential to either expose and celebrate our diversity or segregate it.
The living room can play a major role in fostering either segregation or inclusivity in society. It is crucial in the lives of communities that have not found a sufficient sense of belonging in the public sphere. By shedding light on the importance of living rooms in society, we can rethink how these spaces can be key to creating a society that values diverse cultures. Instead of allowing living rooms to become places of segregation, we see their potential as spaces where the richness of society’s diversity is celebrated.
Al Madhafah is a project by DAAR: Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti in collaboration with Yasmeen Mahmoud, Ibrahim Muhammad Haj Abdulla, and Ayat Al-Turshan. A network of various living rooms activated simultaneously in five different locations: the house of Yasmine and Ibrahim (1) and The Yellow House in Boden supported by the Public Art Agency Sweden (2), ArkDes Museum in Stockholm (3) Fawwar refugee camp in south of the West Bank (4), and in the living room of Sandi and Alessandro in Stockholm supported by the Arab Fund for Art and Culture (AFAC) (5). The five spaces interact, inspire, and feed each constantly.
The living room in Permanent Temporariness (art and theory 2019)