While research on the role of the street in urban environments has highlighted diverse topics such as comfort, inclusivity and social interactions, it has yet to properly engage with the role embodied and applied culture plays in the creation of diverse experiences. This study explores the relationship between the fixed fabric of an urban fragment, the fluid negotiation of street space by an established migrant community and their cultural requirements and the resulting hybrid spaces that emerge.
Focusing on the La Chapelle neighbourhood in Paris that has been home to a displaced Sri Lankan Tamil population since the 1980’s we explore the contribution and adaption of cultural heritage(s) to the western street. This layering of culture has a role in the diversity of the third space of the street and we argue that ‘super-diverse’ neighbourhoods provide more resilience as they are formed by processes of negotiation and amalgamation over time.
In-between Workshop Come along to Sangram Shirke & Richard Conway’s workshop on streets as spaces of cultural negotiation, 4 September 2025, 15.00-16.30. To conclude their SVP project Sangram and Richard invite people to juxtapose words and images to describe potential new spaces and places. Exploring how photographs of existing spaces and situations can be used to show new realities, and developing short, personalized texts reflecting on how we imagine these new realities to be. This workshop concludes the architects SVP investigating ethno-graphic techniques such as field diaries, interviews and photography to describe migrant communities within the urban context and the extra layers they contribute to their new environments.
