explored how a familiar London street—Bermondsey Street—can feel like a shared interior, filled with echoes of memories and moments of homeliness. Drawing inspiration from the ideas of philosopher Edmund Husserl, it reimagined the street not just as a public space, but as a place where personal and collective memories shape how we feel and move through the city.
As our lives in urban environments become more fast-paced and fragmented, the way we ‘inhabit’ the city begins to shift. We often pass through places without connecting to them. But a phenomenological encounter with Bermondsey Street offered a different kind of experience—one that felt more rooted, more intimate. Here, traces of the past seemed to surface in everyday encounters, creating a kind of emotional continuity across time and space.
To understand this feeling, the study used a reflective method from phenomenology called epoché—Husserl’s suspension of everyday assumptions that allows us to look more deeply at our experiences. Through this lens, the street became more than bricks and buildings. It became an “urban interior,” a space that invited memories, associations, and a sense of familiarity to take shape.
This reflective journey was both visual and written—capturing the atmosphere of Bermondsey Street through photographs and narrative. Together, they reveal how ordinary spaces can take on extraordinary meaning when we pause to really notice them. Transfigured Phenomena invites the viewer to see the city not just as a place to pass through, but as a place to feel, remember, and inhabit—however fleetingly.
Related article
Mace, Valérie (2016) The Transfigured Phenomena of Domesticity in the Urban Interior. Idea Journal.
Book chapter
Mace, Valérie (2019) Transient Domesticity in the Urban Interior. In: Interior Futures. Crucible Press, Yountville, CA.
Reference
Cerbone, D. R. (2006) Understanding Phenomenology. Chapter 1: Husserl and the project of pure phenomenology. Durham:Acumen Publishing Limited.