Editor's Note: July
Overheating discourse is everywhere, and our next three writers take on summer semiotics, spatial belonging and Mediterranean plazas.
There’s a lot going on right now, both inside and outside the Med. Football fever is at full peak in the region and in diasporic communities, with Egypt, Morocco, Spain and France all still in the World Cup as of writing. Heatwaves are sweeping across Europe this summer, and wildfires have been gripping much of its southern parts.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where this is all heading — the discourse around heat and staying cool — whether here in London, in Paris or elsewhere. I started this project partly because of ruminations like these. That said, this publication aims to normalise discourse around heat without descending into climate tragedy. It approaches the subject obliquely, by asking what the world can learn from the Mediterranean region about heat as lived experience. And what the peoples of the Med can learn from each other.
So without further ado, our three contributors for July:
What to expect this month
Hannah Swelim, on the signs, codes and objects that make up an Egyptian summer. Hannah is a British-Egyptian cultural intelligence researcher and strategist who grew up between Cairo and the north of England. She authors the Substack A very Arab time in my life, exploring Arab culture, brand strategy and the stories that sit between them.
🧿 Read Hannah’s piece here
ملاك Mlak Elbuzidi, with a lyrical exploration of how heat shapes Libyan space, memory and belonging, told through a diasporic perspective. Mlak is a Libyan writer, researcher and architecture student at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Her work often explores questions of memory and displacement, including on her Substack exterior archives.
🧿 Read Mlak’s piece here
Rosanna Vitiello, on the social function of the Mediterranean plaza in summer, drawing on examples from Southern Europe. Rosanna is a British-Italian creative director and urban strategist based in London. She leads the place futures consultancy The Place Bureau, focusing on public places, culture and experience design.
🧿 Read Rosanna’s piece here
Supporting the project
If you’re new here: free subscribers get a partial read of each contributor piece, and paid subscribers get the full thing, every Sunday. Revenues directly support everyone involved.
Stay cool,
Philip