Spatial Narratives Beyond Geographies is a year-long public program initiated by TOP e.V. starting in July 2025, dedicated to exploring architecture and spatial practice beyond disciplinary, geographic, and institutional boundaries. The series brings together a diverse group of practitioners—architects, researchers, activists, and artists—who work at the intersections of community-based design, cultural heritage, and socio-ecological transformation.
The series centers on alternative architectural narratives that emerge from contested territories, peripheral geographies, and informal or collective spatial strategies. It asks:
How can architectural and spatial practices respond to displacement, ecological crisis, and social marginalization?
What kinds of built environments and spatial imaginaries emerge from solidarity, memory, and repair?
Through a constellation of public talks, screenings, workshops, and roundtable discussions, the program will engage with themes such as traditional construction techniques, the preservation of cultural heritage, feminist urbanism, decolonial pedagogies, and participatory restoration. Contributors from various regions—including Turkey, Italy, Lebanon, and Germany—will bring lived experience and critical insights from their local contexts into shared dialogue.
The series will evolve organically over the course of one year, shaped by the urgencies and contributions of its participants. The first public event will take place on 13 July 2025 at TOP’s project space in Berlin, followed by gatherings in late August and late September, and culminating in a final public assembly in summer 2026.
Spatial Narratives Beyond Geographies is not just a lecture series—it is a collaborative platform for sharing tools, stories, and methodologies that challenge extractive systems and nurture radical forms of spatial care. It is an open invitation to reimagine how we inhabit space—together.
