Situated at the intersection of three continents, the Mediterranean region has witnessed extreme human mobility in recent decades. Large masses of the population are constantly in flux, seeking new job opportunities, resettling after natural disasters, escaping from conflicts, retiring or looking for better climatic conditions. These forms of displacement demand a redefinition of home as a transient condition that still maintains a sense of being settled. 

Diploma 8 will address these challenges by imagining new spatial frameworks for temporary inhabitation that remain rooted within the ‘host’ city. We will investigate how the existing obsolete building stock in Mediterranean cities can act as a permanent physical environment holding these temporary forms of living. The unit explores the ambivalent relationship between mobility and immobility by rethinking adaptive reuse not only as a spatial and material reorganisation, but also as a collective endeavour, where collaborative processes and joint participation can reconcile difference. We will create spaces to collectively engage with the city through practices of mutual care and repair.

Rethinking collective living requires reimagining the limits of familial care to encompass a more expansive model of kinship, reclaiming forms of communal life. We will explore design solutions for spaces where everyday activities become shared practices – be they sleeping, eating, working, recreation, hygiene or cooking – and for different forms of interconnectedness in transitional spaces, such as entry halls, corridors, passages, courtyards and gardens. Students will use these design elements to prompt a process of transforming an existing obsolete building, evaluating environmental and social impact at different scales. Our projects will focus on sustainable materials, environmental traditions, local craftsmanship and passive strategies tailored to specific Mediterranean climatic conditions.