OASE 115

European architecture is characterized by an ongoing exchange of cultures, ideas and influences. In recent decades, this process has intensified. Ideas developed in one region can migrate and bear fruit elsewhere. Existing architectural conventions are thus questioned, supplemented and remodelled.

This issue of OASE discusses the poetics of architectural design that emerge from the complex web of idea exchange throughout Europe. Contemporary transnational design practices and other forms of exchange are addressed along lines such as migration, education, work and design cultures, to elaborate on how historical narratives of specific European locations are interpreted and reworked. How does a design become the result of exchange? Does a diversity of cultural backgrounds influence aesthetic choices? And, how is this translated into the organization and design processes of design firms? OASE 115 shows the extent to which architecture is the product of infinite interferences, overlaps and layers of cultural models and their material manifestations.