Aesthetics as
Infrastructure:
A Home Ground Lab Compendium (2023–2025) on Beauty in the Built Environment, Displacement, and Humanitarian Response
Dr. Devora Neumark (Visiting Scholar, Integration and Belonging Hub) with Mio Loubaresse-Takei (2025–2026 Center for Gender, Race, and Area Studies Undergraduate Research Fellow), Clark University
Table of Contents
Introduction
Publications
In the Face of Death, Destruction, and Displacement, Beauty Plays a Vital Role in Gaza, The Conversation
Beauty in the Built Environment and Refugee Self-Reliance Policy Brief
Rethinking Maslow ’s Hierarchy of Needs: The Role of Aesthetics in Refugee Shelter Working Paper
Reimagining Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: The Role of Aesthetics in Shelter and Settlement Response Policy Brief
Aesthetics, Climate Displacement, and Mental Health, Ecopsychepedia
Presentations
Beauty in the Built Environment & Community Resilience: Clark Visiting Scholars Study Group
Beauty in the Built Environment: Enhancing Community Resilience in the Context of Climate Migration
How Aesthetics and Beauty in the Built Environment Enhance the Well-Being, Dignity, and Resilience of People in Humanitarian Crises
Home Beautification and Hope: Stories from Palestinian Refugees in the West Bank
Beauty and Beautification in Refugees’ Lives and Their Implication for Refugee Policy
Hope, Home, and Beauty in the Built Environment: Why Aesthetics Matter in Displacement Contexts
Rethinking Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs:
The Role of Aesthetics in Shelter and Settlement Response
The Healing Power of Home Beautification in Displacement
How to Make Things Much Better for Refugees Without a Massive Grant,
New Elected Officials, or Enduring Decades of Burnout
Beyond Survival: Aesthetics and Justice in Displacement
Beauty in the Built Environment as Survival Infrastructure Neuroaesthetics: How the arts and aesthetic experiences advance health, wellbeing, and learning
Webinar Series:
Beauty, Art, Belonging and the Neuroscience of Place
Can beauty help people heal? Rebuild? Belong?
This three-part webinar series explores how beauty, art, and design intersect with neuroscience, dignity, and resilience, especially in contexts of displacement, housing insecurity, and humanitarian response. From refugee camps and post-disaster neighbourhoods to communities painting their way back to belonging, this series reveals a radical truth: Beauty is not a luxury. Beauty is infrastructure. Each session brings together global experts in neuroaesthetics, refugee leaders, urban designers, and humanitarian practitioners.