The architectural studio EMA, Espacio Multicultural (de) Arquitectura, was founded by Alessandra Cireddu and Carlos M. Hernandez in Barcelona in 2010 from concerns related to the global crisis of contemporary society, where the need arises to make architecture more sensitive, inclusive and closer to human scale.
Ema is space: the word “space” contains the essence of architecture. We refer to the four dimensions of space, as shown by Bruno Zevi, where the fourth dimension is the interaction with inhabitants. Architecture makes sense only when we feel it, when we live and walk in it. We consider the necessity to create an architecture bound with the needs of people. We also like to refer to the word “space” because our workspace is not defined, it is mutant, always different, and this is constant inspiration for our creative process.
eMa is multicultural: it moves in different contexts and learns from everyone, every situation, object or person it meets; we refer to “multiculturalism” as an inner state, which contains and combines cosmopolitanism and attachment to one’s roots; not the mere coexistence of different cultures in the same context, but the creation of knowledge through communication and understanding of different cultural connections, without uniformity or loss of identity.
