Is writing for the war in Syria still relevant? Given that refugee flows have been regulated to a certain extent, the war doesn’t make the latest news and headlines anymore. However, it is salutary to remember that waves of refugees still try to find their way in the EU; on this basis, this thesis aims at shifting our attention from a war zone to an emerging diaspora- and thus, to new reception and absorption models.

There is an underlying relationship between politics and the practice of architecture. Politics influences culture, economics, trade, ideals, business and current affairs, and each of these in turn has an effect on proposed design solutions. One of the most dramatic political events in Europe in the last decade is Brexit, the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union. The analysis of what Brexit means for British Architecture is still in its infancy but is a conversation necessary in order to forecast the changes in the industry over the next decade.

What do we, the urbanists of BK, miss from our hometowns? Do those absences, mediated by the exodus that has brought us to Deft, inform our work? After asking some questions to my first-year colleagues at the MSc in Urbanism, it was soon evident how, after the necessary and much deserved mention of food and friends, a whole variety of nostalgias and memories unfolded. The following is a brief overview of them, and the role they play in what we do.