This project is executed as a bachelors thesis at Konstfacks Interior architecture and furniture designs program, 2025. The project “Immigrants’ Banquet” reimagines the Swedish citizenship ceremony at Stockholm City Hall. With 20% of Sweden’s population being foreign-born, a number projected to rise significantly (SCB, 2024)—immigration is reshaping Swedish society, including its design landscape. This project explores how design can support more inclusive and representative public rituals. One of many citizenship ceremonies is held at Stockholm City Hall, a building created over a century ago, a space steeped in symbolism, power structures, and narratives that may need to be reexamined in a society shaped by many histories, languages, and ways of belonging.

The aim of this project is to rethink the spatial context of the Swedish citizenship ceremony through interior architectural methods that highlight cultural diversity and participation.  Rather than redesigning the entire ritual, the project focuses on how spatial elements—such as placement, materiality, and scale—can be reconfigured to support a more inclusive experience of citizenship. The project proposes a shift from a one-sided ceremony to a more mutual act of cultural exchange.

Research methods included site-writing, surveys, spatial analysis, and participatory workshops inspired by Juhani Pallasmaa, including one with newly arrived migrants. Design methods included full-scale prototyping, 3D modelling, material testing, and reinterpretation of architectural elements from Stockholm City Hall. From these methods, the table emerged as a central design element—both a symbolic and functional object—through which new spatial conditions for participation and representation are proposed.

The design proposal relocates the ceremony to a more public area in the City Hall garden and introduces a site-specific ceremonial table. This table is not only functional but also a symbolic object that embodies and elevates the status of the ceremony simply through its presence. The table is designed to allow shared authorship and the expression of diverse cultural identities. Design that carries non-visual elements such as scents, flavors and materials such as textiles, and patinated surfaces act as a representation of migration. In this way, the project offers a modern reinterpretation of civic ritual that acknowledges and celebrates the multiplicity of Sweden’s contemporary society, challenging traditional hierarchies and opening space for inclusive belonging.