Remind Me of Remeți

This thesis examines the precarious position of Romanian migrant workers, who leave home to labor abroad, earning money to build a house in their place of origin. Their work is essential to European cities, yet they remain marginalized, trapped in cycles of unstable housing and exploitative employment. While expats are welcomed as cosmopolites, migrants are seen as transient laborers, necessary but unrecognized. Architecture can play a crucial role in empowering migrants, fostering autonomy, economic stability, and a sense of belonging both abroad and at home.

The project follows the semi-fictional story of Alen, a Romanian construction worker who migrates to Montreuil to earn money for his home in Remeți. It presents spatial and economic interventions that allow Alen and his peers to secure housing, organize labor, and create spaces that strengthen their position in the city. Alen and his peers pool resources to acquire an abandoned plot, transforming it into shared housing that evolves with their needs. Built incrementally by the workers themselves, the dwellings adjust according to financial means and household structures, ensuring long-term security while reducing reliance on predatory landlords. To gain financial independence, they establish a cooperative workspace, managing construction jobs and storing materials to reduce dependence on intermediaries. Over time, they create spaces that sustain both economy and community—restaurants and shops generate income while reinforcing cultural ties. A legal aid office and language school help new arrivals navigate bureaucracy and secure employment. Beyond physical structures, the project enables migrants to assert their presence in the city, reinforcing their economic and social position. With stability secured in Paris, the process shifts toward completing the long-held goal of building a house in Remeți. It materializes the transnational exchange of people, capital, and ideas that defines migration, transforming displacement into a cyclical process of reinvestment. Ultimately, Alen returns home, where his earnings and experience culminate in a house built on his own terms—an architectural and economic link between Montreuil and Maramureș. As such, migration is framed not as temporary displacement but as an active process of reinvestment and transformation instead.