I've been wondering if all the things I've seen
Were ever real, were ever really happening

This last year, everything we experienced felt as if it jumped from the pages of a strange sci-fi book or scary movie. Closed shops, closed schools and colleges, empty streets, shut borders, cancelled trips, masks, gloves, sanitizers and haz-mat suits. This was a lot to process.

Our cities suddenly turned grey, silent and void, where every presence was treated as potential threat. Uncertainty entered our daily lives. We closed our offices and perfected remote work only to realize that our offices were always socially charged spaces, full of energy and creative force, meeting places above all.

In volatile times such as these, we think it's essential to be staying in touch and sharing with friends and colleagues. This is time for understanding, kindness and empathy. It is also time to face tough questions: How do we want to live? How do we want to work? With whom? How much can we take? For how long? Who cares for us? Whom do we miss? Things we probably never thought about.

In these trying times, there is a profound need in each one of us to keep the hope alive, to find meaning in unity and live a common life, full and interesting, inside healthy and safe spaces, in lively and secure cities.

As a response to this need, in ss.mm we decided, for the first time, to incorporate this blog into our new website through which we aspire to communicate our latest ideas, news, views, fears and frustrations. We understand we are all in this together and only through fruitful collaboration and meaningful exchanges we'll get through it. This is also an invitation to share ideas and propositions on how we can work together to shed some light on the problems of our built environment and try to answer some of the big questions.

The darkness that has befallen upor our cities recently will not despair us, we may be in a distance from each other but we are not alone. Let's keep each other company, let's stay in touch and we shall overcome.

So yes, this is it, welcome to our blog and our new website, the latest incarnation of ss.mm!