Architecture of Control: Spatial Justice in the Moria Camp and Europe’s CCACs
T.H. Ipkovits (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
J.M.K. Hanna – Mentor (TU Delft - History, Form & Aesthetics)
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Abstract
The transformation of the Moria Refugee Camp into Kara Tepe‘s “Closed Controlled Access Centre” (CCAC) on the Greek island of Lesvos serves as a case study for this paper‘s analysis of the evolving spatial politics of European migration governance. It argues that this transition was not solely created in response to infrastructural failure; rather, it is a deliberate reconfiguration of the architecture of detention, institutionalizing monitoring, spatial restriction, and legal precarity. Through a spatial analysis of both camps, the article traces how built environments are mobilized to facilitate control, producing exclusionary geographies that normalize containment as a modality of governance. In addition, a discourse analysis of policy frameworks and political rhetoric demonstrates how the language of crisis and security allows a shift from ad hoc humanitarianism to a permanent securitized infrastructure. The paper argues that, simultaneously to spatial changes, the CCAC model incarnates a broader shift in border policy - where architecture becomes a strategic tool in regulating mobility, denying agency, and reinforcing the externalization of Europe’s borders.