Urban Intimacy

This thesis draws on patchwork ethnography and feminist spatial theory to explore how care, kinship, and entitlement take shape in the everyday urban lives of migrant women in Tensta, Hjulsta, and Rinkeby—neighborhoods located in the northern periphery of Stockholm. Through attentive listening, the project centers spatial testimonies of experience, routine, and desire, translating them into small-scale, situated infrastructures that respond to lived needs and overlooked rhythms. By foregrounding acts of care, informal kinwork, and sensory negotiation in public space, the research highlights how migrant women co-create meaning, belonging, and resilience through their daily spatial practices. Listening becomes both a method and a design ground. Building on these insights, the thesis culminates in a speculative design proposal: a co-created, kinship-led association space shaped by what has been heard, held, and imagined throughout the fieldwork process. The core research question guiding this work is:How do migrant women in the northern periphery of Stockholm navigate care, routine, and visibility in public space—and how can their embodied urban knowledge inform spatial design?