Mapping the Invisible City. Spatial Manifestations of sub-Saharan African Diaspora in the mid-size city in Europe (the case of Belgium).

By bringing together knowledge from a broad range of scholarship and developing innovative research methods, this research seeks to establish a critical and multi-layered mapping of the processes and products of physical place making by African diaspora in the mid-sized city in Belgium. The outcome of this research will provide us with new and essential knowledge on (1) the architecture of everyday spaces of African migration in the mid-sized city in Belgium, as well as on (2) the transnational exchange of African place-making strategies. Moreover, this research aims to examine (3) to what extent the spaces of African migration may be considered alternative forms of urban regeneration in the mid-sized city. This way a cross-fertilization between three domains of research will be realized: migrant studies, urban studies and architecture.