<p>In the aftermath of large-scale disasters, container settlements emerge as temporary shelters designed primarily for functionality and logistics. Yet, beyond their utilitarian intent, these environments evolve into symbolic terrains where individuals reconstruct meaning, identity, and belonging. This paper conceptualizes post-disaster container settlements as sociocultural texts that reveal how spatial order reflects both collective habitus and individual aesthetic agency. Drawing on Gaston Bachelard’s poetics of dwelling, Henri Lefebvre’s production of space, and Pierre Bourdieu’s theories of habitus and symbolic capital, the study reinterprets the notion of “temporary dwelling” as a process of social reproduction and adaptation rather than displacement. Methodologically, the research adopts a qualitative discourse and visual analysis, using publicly available documentation, media images, and institutional archives of container settlements in Türkiye. By bridging sociological and architectural thinking, this paper argues that belonging is not merely a product of physical permanence but an aesthetic and symbolic negotiation between structure and agency. The findings aim to reposition post-disaster architecture within the sociological understanding of place-making, emphasizing that even in transience, space functions as a site of identity formation and social continuity.</p>