Isle of Dogs, with its mix of investment-banking towers and low-grade social housing, is now probably the most highly charged site in London. Here, I have investigated the use of the void in art and architecture and developed a project that explores the uses of emptiness not just as a compositional and spatial device but also as a means of generating political, social and psychological effects. Can emptiness be employed to release the civic qualities of the contemporary city? Can it challenge power structures and stimulate new forms of inhabitation?