Migrant housing : architecture, dwelling, migration /

This research study presents transcultural and architectural aspects of migrant housing as found at the places of both emigration and immigration. Exploiting cross-disciplinary methods and architectural theories, Lozanovska (Deakin Univ., Victoria, Australia), an immigrant's daughter, focuses on a community of immigrants in Melbourne, Australia, who came from a village in Macedonia. Referencing several similar studies of post--World War II emigration from Southern Europe, Lozanovska provides a detailed analysis of architectural transformation in both Melbourne and rural Macedonia. Within the given historical context, this well-illustrated case study demonstrates how the effects of departure from a village setting, followed by arrival in a new urban milieu, produce new relationships between migrants and their houses. Lozanovska argues that certain telltale details make evident the similarities and differences between the house-as-norm and the migrant house. The author also examines the impact of emigration on traditional housing structures in the village, recounts how the annual festival of the Holy Mother draws immigrants back to their villages, and elucidates the interplay of different narrative spaces implicit in the "duality of migrant housing." This multidisciplinary and cross-cultural research makes a major contribution to architecture and migration studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals. --Dan A. Chekki, emeritus, University of Winnipeg