EUROPELAGO

Research project and exhibition
Milan Design Week 2023 — DROPCITY Convention

Europelago is a research project and exhibition that explores the emerging landscape of European architecture through the lens of a new generation of designers. Presented during Milan Design Week 2023 at DROPCITY Convention, the project maps a constellation of practices that, despite their geographical distance, share a common cultural and political horizon.

In the work of young European architects today, the relationship between form and ethos often appears blurred. The political, social, and environmental frameworks that shape their projects are rarely explicit, concealed within the complexity of contemporary creative processes. The act of design is no longer rooted in the Modernist ideal of the tabula rasa, nor in the localist sentiment of genius loci. Instead, architectural form emerges from a dense network of influences: from European regulations and construction standards to the circulation of digital imagery and aesthetics across online platforms, and the growing reliance on computational design tools.

These intertwined forces impose new constraints—technological, bureaucratic, and cultural—yet they also foster a shared architectural language. Europelago reads this language as an expression of unity: a collective project shaped by an archipelago of studios, collectives, and research groups operating across the continent. Together, they outline an evolving idea of Europe—not as a single territory, but as a network of ideas, values, and collaborations that redefine what it means to design today.