“Differences are not intended to separate, to alienate. We are different precisely in order to realize our need of one another.”

Desmond Tutu

While Europe is facing a period of migration crisis, the question of multiculturalism is one of the mostly debated. How can multiple groups of cultures exist within one society and what kind of changes (societal, behavioural, economic, political, etc.) it brings to it? These are the key aspects of the question. We are looking for positive examples of the multiculturalism, but actually they are surrounding us.

Have YOU ever thought about Architecture as a result of multiculturalism? A group of 24 young people from Italy (e-arch), Lithuania (Vilnius Gediminas Technical University) and Ukraine (National Mining University) had one week in October 2016 to find out positive examples of multiculturalism in one of the most multicultural cities in Europe – Palermo, using architecture as knowledge and skills development tool.

Active program consisted from lectures about architecture and it's cultural value to the society’s development; debates about refugee crisis, migration and its influence on changes in nowadays Europeans’ life; group work in international teams; social campaigns about multiculturalism online involving local citizens and tourists in cooperation process and discussion about it through the interviewing and social media. Architecture, people and public spaces were analysed as multicultural objects and here you can see results of the team work in international teams: #architecture, #people, #public spaces.

We cannot avoid multiculturalism as it is surrounding us from ancient time and it is just natural process of countries’ development and we can benefit from it by finding solutions how to merge the best what different cultures have and to learn from each other. MOSAIC project gave opportunity for young people to open their eyes and see added value of getting together, knowing each other and discovering beautiful outcomes of multiculturalism through architecture. The cities of Dnipro (Ukraine), Vilnius (Lithuania) were presented, during a conference at the University of Palermo, and Palermo – during city tour, through examples of their architectural monuments, buildings and people who built them, showing that all around Europe we enjoy cities created by the coexistence of different cultures.