Our work is founded on the research of a project’s context from a cultural perspective, which encompasses local language, daily habits, locally-available technology and where the interaction of local character develops into patterns that define the identity of a place.

In the past years, EVA Studio has been working on research projects taking on different challenges that nowadays are affecting our cities: from affordable modular housing in London, to the global challenges of human displacement and social integration between the host communities and refugees.

According to UNHCR over 70 millions people were forced to flee their homes and a quarter of the world’s refugees and IDPs are living in camps for an average of 17 years. As refugees live in camps for a generation or more, these settlements can no longer be considered temporary.

Yet there are several refugee camps world-wide that are being transformed by their occupants into real cities and some should even be considered models for self-built practices and self-reliance, a lesson that can be transferred to other contexts.

We are living through the largest wave of human displacement since WWII, with 6.7 million Syrians who make up the highest number of refugees per nation in the world.

Taken from the perspective of the city-wide scale, one need only point to the UNHCR predicted number of 350,000 refugees in Beirut — the highest number per capita in the world — to note how entire metropolises in the Middle East are becoming transformed by conflicts and catastrophic events happening elsewhere.