In recent years, international migration has been accelerating rapidly. The latest figures from the UN show that 10 per cent of the population of Europe was born in a country other than where they live. Oslo is a city in flux; by 2030 its population will grow by a third, and more than half of all those who live in the city are likely to be international migrants and their descendants. In the face of such changes, many societies are asking how they should respond to an influx of peoples with different traditions, backgrounds and beliefs. In an increasingly globalised world, a sense of belonging to one place is no longer taken for granted. But what does belonging really mean? Is it important that people should feel attachment to a single place?  Or is it equally possible we belong to many places, or even no place? How does this new condition impact on the way our future cities are thought about and planned?

In line with multiculturalist policies, many urban designers have recently adopted a ‘place making’ approach to cities, advocating design as a means to create belonging through localised forms of memory, identity and community. Community and resource sharing initiatives and user/inhabitant participation have become popular in planning circles. So can such participative initiatives provide a sense of belonging within the open city? Or is there a risk that involvement in local design process is merely an end in itself rather than impetus to a wider democratic involvement in shaping the city?
In the age of migration, what is the way forward for the open city and how can architects and urban planners best work to create it?

This event is an initiative of Battle of Ideas and is part of the 2016 Oslo Architecture Triennale pre programme, in collaboration with The Norwegian Centre for Design and Architecture. The Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016 edition has as its main theme ‘After Belonging: A Triennale In Residence, On Residence, and the Ways We Stay in Transit’ and it is curated by The After Belonging Agency.