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A map is installed at a central place in the community home.
It is posted in a central room or is painted on a wall on the corridor.
The asylum seekers accomodation is placed here.
On the map people can mark multiple places with pins. For example cheap shopping places.
Or sports clubs – and maybe with magnets instead of pins. They last longer and people don’t hurt themselves.
The map could be painted on the wall with magnetic ink.
Furthermore music clubs, museums or churches could be marked.
Okay. Furthermore, it would be important to have the possibility to complement this information with contact details or training schedules.
However many inhabitants don’t speak German. Thus, the explanation of the signs should be written in several languages.
The most important languages in the refugees accommodation are English, French, Vietnamese, Spanish and Farsi.
Using so many languages goes beyond the scope of this map and creates translation difficulties.
One solution could be to use symbols instead of text... However, then it could be hard to describe every information in detail.
You are right! Anyways, this is the best option.
For example, if someone needs to go to Halle this could be marked at the train station.
Maybe there are other inhabitants who want to come along. Traveling as a group could save money.
Of course people can do more than sharing train rides. The platform can be used as an agency for arranging lifts.
This is too much, isn’t it?
Maybe, but we have to decide this together with the inhabitants. The concept must be tested in practice and must be further improved by the people who use it.
Together with the inhabitants we have to check how the system can be improved internally. This is another part of the concept.
An overview map of the community home with a ground view of each floor. All rooms are listed.
The inhabitants can mark their own rooms with their names.
There could also be other information like a symbol for „You’ve got mail“.
The inhabitants could put small flags on the map, indicating which languages they speak. This could help improve the communication between the inhabitants.
Mmhh, be careful with this. I’m not sure if Ada would mark her language with an Union Jack.
In a country like Nigeria for example a lot of different languages and dialects are spoken. This linguistic diversity is not easily represented via flags.
This is again to be tested in practice.
Not only apartments could be marked, also other rooms like the washing machine room, the common room or the kitchen.
A table could be assigned to the washing machine room...
This enables the strict rules of the washing schedule to be organized in a more dynamic and flexible way. Time periods could be reserved.
Time periods could also be exchanged.
Apropos exchange. That could not only work with washing-periods, but a whole range of other things that inhabitants would like to trade and exchange.
...yes, or skills. And so the inhabitants can exchange much better.
Tom for example is an engineer, he is able to repair almost everything. Minoud on the other hand speaks German fluently and can help the others with translations.
So people can help and support each other on a daily basis, which could then in turn strengthen the community.
And of course, the people living in the asylum seekers accommodation will have a lot of other ideas about what could be done with the system.
We are curious to see what will happen in the future.