Our European cities are undergoing profound changes as a reaction to the successive crises that our continent is facing since the 2008 economic crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, the current European identity crisis reflected with Brexit and with the exponential rise of the far-right, and the refugee and migrant crisis from 2015 onwards. The European research project EMUVE (Euro-Mediterranean Urban Voids Ecology), funded by the European Commission and hosted at the WSA, has been conceived as a response to this context at the architectural and urban scales. EMUVE has worked on case studies in Spain (Andalucía and Barcelona), France (Marseille) and Italy (Rome and Palermo) and since 2020 in Deptford, London Lewisham borough, as one of the most intercultural areas of London that form part of the Intercultural Cities network of the Council of Europe.

EMUVE Deptford 2022 Unit is developing a multi-scalar conception, development, and implementation of a network of Inter-Cultural Nodes (ICN) by reactivating derelict and underused buildings and redesigning public spaces aimed at intercultural interaction.

An Inter-Cultural Node (ICN) could be identified as a ‘third space’ (Bhabha 1994, Bloomfield 2007), an in-between pluralist space developing relational practices at multiple scales, where locals and all kinds of culturally-diverse backgrounds frequently subjected to exclusion, could collaborate together on joint projects within shared openness, cultural recognition, equality, anti-discrimination, dialogue and sharing of knowledge.

The work of the Unit is based on incremental processes of Architectural Design Research (ADR ) explorations where design is located at the core of the knowledge production. This is done in co-design processes with local communities and stakeholders.