Music and Migration
Preserving the City's Musical Heritage
Location: Deptford, London, UK
Program: Archive, Studios, Event Venue
Type: Individual design project ( 15 weeks)
Level: Architecture Design Crossovers Studio: City of Flows MSC Architecture, Urbanism, and Building Sciences, TU Delft
Supervisor: Cecile Calis, Florian Eckhardt
The transmission of dub music to London via the Windrush generation may be understood as part of the city’s long history of flows across water, where maritime exchange facilitated not only the circulation of goods but also cultural forms and identities. Within the framework of the City of Flows studio, which situates London as a site of intersecting material and immaterial currents, the archive functions as a civic register of these movements. The proposed design positions dub and sound system culture within this continuum, acknowledging their foundational role in shaping London’s urban and sonic landscapes. At the same time, the project engages with the ethical responsibility of architecture to preserve cultural memory, provide inclusive civic spaces, and foster intergenerational exchange. By combining preservation with spaces for community use, events, and technological experimentation, the archive extends beyond static collection to become an active infrastructure. In doing so, it operates as both vessel and agent: safeguarding memory while enabling new cultural flows to emerge, aligning with the studio’s ambition to reconceptualise the archive as a civic construct responsive to both social and environmental obligations.
Each volume is tuned to a specific acoustic role, from dense, resonant recording chambers to lighter, more porous spaces for listening, gathering, and exhibition. The layout follows an architectural rhythm of compression and release, silence and vibration, echoing the pulse of dub music. The building’s logic, layout, and tectonics are driven by the distinct acoustic requirements of each space, from larger venues to intimate studios. Acoustics shape room proportions, wall construction, surface textures, and spatial relationships, translating performance criteria directly into form, atmosphere, and material logic.
