Designing Neighbourhoods to Facilitate Intercultural Encounters: Negotiating Between Self, Society and Place

Abstract

Globalisation, and the consequent migratory processes, have radically transformed many countries across the world. A greater number of people with diverse backgrounds have been travelling to more places for numerous reasons. Consequently, immigrants have become an intrinsic part of most societies across the globe. When an individual travels from one place to another, they carry unique cultural information about specific areas. As such, immigrants inadvertently influence the spatial environment they interact with. Consequently, the built context of destination areas can be interpreted as the physical manifestation of accumulated information over time. Thus, immigrants effectively serve as catalysts for increasing levels of cultural flow between the place they have come from and the place they choose to resettle.