I N H A B IT IN G

Inhabiting
by Mattia Alfieri

Didactic exercise
Fall semester
2010

Interior worlds: Inhabiting

Main editor
Gennaro Postiglione
Course of Inerior Architecture
Faculty of Architettura e Societ
Politecnico di Milano
www.lablog.org.uk
Editor
Mattia Alfieri

only for pedagocic purpose

not for commercial use

INDEX
00_Inhabiting

by Lucilla Zanolari Bottelli

01_Drawing Room
02_Fireplace
03_Villa Karma
04_Tea Room
05_Stoclet Palace
06_Wilhelm Bode Salon
07_Dining Room
08_Living Room
09_Robie House
10_Steiner House
11_Mil House
12_Villa G. M. Ericsson
13_Midway Gardens
14_Dorda House
16_Ricmond Station

17_Chop Suey

36_R. Sarfatti Memorial

18_Living Room

37_Munkkiniemi House

19_Antellani House

38_Villa Mairea

20_Vertical Guitar

39_Modernist Fazenda

21_Exhibition House

40_Villa Malaparte

22_Plecnik House

41_Student Housing

23_Villa Noailles

42_Women

24_E 1027

43_Ballroom House

25_Ressurance Chapel

44_Minola House

26_Frankfurt Kitchen

45_M. Mahesh Yogis Ashram

27_Rue de Lota Apartment

46_Still Life

28_Maison de Verre

47_Barragan House

29_Villa Muller

48_Artigas House

30_ M. C. de Beistegui Apartment

49_Cabanon

31_Villa Tugendhat

50_House of Glass

32_Villa Campiglio

51_Miss M. Sarabhai Villa

33_Villa Borletti

52_Foschi House

34_Journalists Village House

53_Ideal House

35_Kauffman House

54_C. Marcenaro House

55_Romanelli House

74_Serpentone

56_Future House

75_Metaphor of a Door

57_Colours and Shapes House

76_House in Kamiwada

58_Sky House

77_Malagueira

59_V. P. Cirell House

78_Pernigotti Home

60_Lemes House

79_F. Gehry House

61_Esherick House

80_Gilardi House

62_Rotalinti House

81_House of Energy

63_Electromedical Set

82_House in Hanayama

64_House in White

83_House in Algarve

65_Inhabit House

84_Contact

66_Under my Chair

85_Ramot Housing

67_Villa La Califfa

86_Silver Hut

68_Water Table

87_Alcaneva House

69_T. Othake House

88_House in Porto

70_Nakagin Capsule Tower

89_Neuendorf Villa

71_Abitacolo

90_Crate House

72_Ideal City

91_Grey Clam

73_Total Furnishing Unit

92_Villa in the Forest

93_House in Paros
94_Vinyl Milford
95_Living Unit
96_Sea of Japan
97_House in Bordeaux
98_Charcoal-Burners Hut
99_Tea House
00_House in a plume grove

Inhabiting
by Lucilla Zanolari Bottelli

Abstract
There is one characteristic that enables a (private or public) room to achieve the definition of interior: high quality
of life.
The character and quality of an environment are described as a subjective
experience (Bruno Munari).
By feeling a space in a particular manner, we give it a meaning through gestures and actions. Gestures and
meaning transform a space into a
place. The place is built by actions
(A&P Smithson), if there is a gesture
there is also an object related to it.
We may state that, whenever there is
a systematic relationship between
objects and actions, objects determine places. This system of furniture
(Ettore Sottsass) culturally associates
the things we use with the interior context they are placed in.
In a continuous transformation, life-

styles and models are the manifestation of the cultural endeavors to find a
home for new gestures (Le Corbusier).
Everyday life makes an interior a
place to be (Martin Heidegger), where
tradition is never betrayed but only
translated (Adolf Loos). What are then
domesticity, or hospitality, or home?
Martin Heideggers paradigm of domesticity is the window.
Does a window call a room? Gio Ponti
draws interiors by sight running through them, playing with the insideand
outside of places.
For some architects the quality of life is not only a window, but
anything that provides pleasure and
comfort, shelter and privacy (Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe) to a place.
As an instrument serving life which
flourishes in it, Architecture supports
Inhabiting.

Paper
The essay aims to describe the word
inhabiting suggesting a possible debate on its future definitions. This word
refers to an abstract concept, something we cannot touch or measure, but can only feel; something that
communicates a certain space. The
dictionary provides a double direction
investigation and drives toward a possible definition of inhabiting. As a compound idiomatic structure this word
has two interconnected meanings. The
noun [in
+ inhabiting] comes from [in + habit],
where the prefix in indicates a position into space and expresses a place
characterized by being inside and not
outside.
Habit instead refers to a habitual behaviour; something that is hard to
stop doing because it is intrinsically
in the heritage of the performer.

From the word habit comes also habitable meaning suitable for living in; the word habitat a natural
environment of an animal or a plant;
home; and finally habitation signifying inhabiting or being inhabited, as
well as a place to live in, a house or
home. The verb inhabit means live in;
occupy, which drives us to Inhabitable
something that can be lived in;
and Inhabitant a person or an animal
living in a place. In brief, the roots of
inhabiting are related to habitat, behaviour, occupancy, inside, home and
house, place and space. The sense of
this wor(l)d is living in a place. Living
in a place is quite different from living in a space.
Marc Aug defined a place as a space in which an individual or a group
of people recognize themselves.
A place is something more than the

abstract geometrical space. Each place is characterized by an identity

generated by the gestures of the
inhabitants. Therefore it is subjected to transformation, and it refers
to the inhabitant, either group or
individual. This special relationship
between occupant and place is also
called habitat, the natural or artificial environment in which a person,
an animal or a plant lives in.
Richard Neutra wrote liveable space
and liveable time are not at all the
same for all creatures. Indeed we
may not be able to understand or sense a foreign environment that we dont
recognize as our own. He clearly identifies a home as a built object, may it
be a nest or a house that fits into the
contingent world of the inhabitant
and reflects his needs as well as his
sentiments: home must anchor us
on a spot of this earth.
This concept, similar to the Augs lieux, has an explicit analogy with Martin
Heideggers theory on Dasein. In 1951
he stated that being in this world means living in it, and that inhabiting
should take care of this existential
space.
Das Gewohnte is then the familiar place, the habitual, and it is referred to
the everyday life of the individual as
part of the collective. In brief, in the
living place we recognize our soul, and
it becomes a mooring place, a very important spot for our existence.
Inhabiting is then a matter of the
soul. Place and space are not the
same, as well as home and house.
Heidegger drew a distinction betwe-

en housing, a technical problem, and

dwellings, the condition of mans
being in the world. Dwelling reveals
the definition of anthropological existential space in which to experience
the relations within the world.
This live in space is described by Christian Norberg-Schulz as composed
by many spaces: a pragmatic space
in which people meet their biological needs; a perceptual space; an
abstract space of pure logical relations; a cultural space in which people find their collective activities as
a community; an expressive space
related to the art as interpretation of
changes. In this spatial composition
man projects his image of the world
into his environment in order to feel at
home.
And when the world becomes an inside, man is capable of dwelling, which
therefore implies something more than
a shelter. Inhabiting integrates both
concepts of house the shelter, the
dimension of privacy, comfort, pleasure, and security, and the answer
to our biological needs; and home
the cradle of inhabitants existence with his thoughts, memories and
dreams, mans primary world.
Heidegger strictly related dwelling to
building as something that remains,
that stays in the place, as the act of
taking roots in the soil. But dwelling is
also the place where exchanges occur,
where common values are accepted,
and where we can withdraw from the
wider world outside.
The ambiguity between the dwelling
object and the dwelling action also

concerns inhabiting. Each meaning

outlines a distinct settlement scale such
as the collective area of urban places,
the public area of institutional places,
or the private area of home. The nature
of dwelling is indeed the belonging and
the participation; either we deal with
the public or with the private spheres
of inhabiting. In this definition of dwelling, inhabiting bears stability instead
of transformation. How does this statement match todays situation of economic changes and social mutations?
Different levels of transformations affect the domestic character of inhabiting. Ettore Sottsass defined domestic
as the temple of inhabiting, where we
can preserve and protect the ancestral
family feeling.
On a conceptual point of view, domesticity, as the dogma of home, determines a threshold between the inside
and the outside. At the same time a
domestic place also responds to our
social and personal needs.
Nowadays society is based on information and immediate communication
where home is no longer a physical
place but has a virtual connotation. Together with the main service areas of
kitchen and bathroom, todays houses
provide an electronic platform of infinite possibilities.
How is domesticity changing? Through
time, building has adopted new materials and new techniques. Habits have
changed overwhelmed by politics, philosophy, style, and economy.
In order to plan a behaviour, interior
design aims to control habits occurring
in a living space.

Manuel Gausa focused on the transformation of the family unit and

the collapse of the residential stereotype one room for each function.
As a result of social instability and loss
of certainties, the contraction of space
shows new tendencies of the interior
spatial distribution, both on the small
and the large scale.
The city produces a relocation of services that once where domestic, while
now they are spread on a urban level
based on the self-service offer. The increase of conscious acceptance of a
residential mobility increases the demand for rental houses with an easy
turn over of the occupants. This phenomenon requires the greatest possible degree of flexibility, where the technical nuclei allow to be adapted to the
inhabited space.
Houses become more and more
technological, and services, such
as kitchens and bathrooms, stop
being marginal areas and loose
their initial privacy aspect opening
to other rooms.
Moreover the www has transformed
the image of home, no longer limited
only by walls.
With a PC and an internet connection the inhabitant lives on-line. On
the web it is possible to work, meet
people, find new friends, invite them
at home. People of the new millennium also inhabit a virtual place.
This digital environment needs a screen and a touch mode or a voice decoder as interfaces between the real and
the virtual dimensions.
Interiors are heading towards the sur-

space, where digital surface/space

becomes a whole, where walls may
convert into full screens almost free of
furniture.
While mobility, technology and internet
influence future interiors, what role do
objects acquire? Many functions and
actions are put into single unit devices
to fit small interiors. Homes contain
personal items of the inhabitant and
objects of common use, some decorate the ambient, others furnish the place. In the temporary renting tendency
furniture should come with the house,
instead of following us.
Together with reduced space and
equipped interiors, will architecture revisit the habitable objects of the 60s
and 70s?
Joe Colombo, Bruno Munari, Alberto
Rosselli integrated equipped blocks
and adapted them to different situations or else where created units completely out of context.
Even earlier, Le Corbusier, proposing
the casier-standard, stated the notion
of furniture has disappeared. It has
been substituted by a new definition:
domestic equipment. Todays market
proposes single design products for
a status symbol to pursue, while the
reality is a need for compactness and
flexibility, where traditional furniture,
such as the bed, table and closet,
share the ambient with other objects
of everyday use such as the PC, mobile phones, sound supplies, and hardware. Inhabiting objects are part of
the place and influence the gestures of the inhabitant.Looking for a
given definition of inhabiting opens a

variety of interlinked questions.

Inhabiting deals with life and place. It
is influenced by changes of habits. It
is a necessity of the one as well of the
many. But why is it an interior word?
The phenomenon of inhabiting generates a world of relations in space; relations building an invisible
network of tensions and possibilities, between people that live-in, but
also between objects that furnish
the place. The distances between
these impalpable threads determine
the context of the place, the interior.
Without these relations, inhabiting
does not exist.
Carlo De Carli called it spazio primario, identifying the unity and
uniqueness of this system of relations as the material of architecture. The spazio primario does not have
a particular shape, neither dimension
nor material, but it is pervaded by life
as it is originated from any relationship
within. Concerning the physical space, its limits and furniture, architecture
by De Carli is found by the harmonic
construction of this specific space that
prefigures inhabiting and the gestures
occurring in it. Architects must possess
and exercise the infeeling of such place, primario, futuristic and contingent
at the same time. Towards an unknown
and unstable future of this world focused on globalization, inhabiting increases the character of the heritage and
local tradition, bringin the project to interiorize inevitable transformations.
As the instrument serving life that
has place in it, architecture supports inhabiting.

Lucilla Zanolari Bottelli

Architect, she has always studied different cultures by attending schools in
Switzerland, Italy, USA, Spain and
China. In 2004 she graduated in Architecture at the Politecnico di Milano.
Currently she is an assistant lecturer in
the Architecture and Design Faculties,
while attending her second year of the
PhD in Interior Architecture and Exhibition Design at the Politecnico di
Milano.

References
Aug, Marc. 1996. Nonluoghi. Introduzione a una antropologia della
surmodernit (1992). Trans.
Dominique Rolland. Milano: Eluthera.
Bachelard, Gaston. 1969. The poetics
of Space (1958). Trans. Maria Jolas.
Boston: Beacon Press.
Calvino, Italo. 1993. Le citt invisibili.
Milano: Mondadori.
De Carli, Carlo. 1982. Architettura:
spazio primario. Milano: Hoepli.
Gausa, Manuel, Vicente Guallart, Willy

Mller, Federico Soriano, Fernando

Porras, and Jos Morales. 2003. The
Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced
Architecture: City, Technology and
Society in the
Information Age. Barcelona: Actar.
Heidegger, Martin.1991. Saggi e
discorsi (1951). Trans. Gianni Vattimo.
Milano: Mursia, 1991.
Hornby, Albert S., and Anthony P.
Cowie. 1989. Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary of Current
English. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
King, Peter. 2004. Private Dwelling:
Contemplating the Use of Housing.
London: Routledge.
Le Corbusier. 1999. Precisions:
Respecto a un estado actual de la
arquitectura y del urbanismo (1930).
Trans. Johanna Givanel. Barcelona:
Apstofe.
Lefas, Pavlos. 2009. Dwelling and
Architecture: From Heidegger to Koolhaas. Berlin: Jovis.
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice. 1965. Fenomenologia della percezione (1945).
Trans. Andrea Bonomi.
Milano: Il Saggiatore.
Neutra, Richard. 1962. World and
Dwelling. Stuttgart: A. Koch.
Norberg-Schulz, Christian. 1979.
Genius loci: Paesaggio, ambiente,
architettura. Milano: Electa.
Smithsons, Alison, and Peter Smithsons. 1994. Changing the Art of
Inhabitation: Miess Pieces,
Eamess Dreams, the Smithsons. London: Artemis.
Sottsass, Ettore. 2002. Scritti: 19462001. Vicenza: Neri Pozza.

ATLAS

01 / inhabiting

A drawing room by C. R. Mackintosh

full of sense of domesticity, also inspired by objects wich remaind me more
to a living room than others.

02 / inhabiting

A place like this is a perfect corner

where get rest and take relax.
Its like a nest wich could be our place
to be on this world.

03 / inhabiting

In this house by Adolf Loos we can

see how a place to be in relax could
be not only in the middle of the house
but at the margin. In this case sense of
protection is gave by the fornitures.

04 / inhabiting

This is a tea room designed by C. R.

Mackintosh.
During the 20th century, styles had
changed but place to inhabit always
had something common: fireplace, little corners to rest...

05 / inhabiting

Is possible to take relax and get privacy also in public spaces. In these
cases objects an fornitures have an
important role.

06 / inhabiting

In this room fornitures and finishes

make the space so muffled, wich probably reflects the nature of inhabitants
and the time in wich they lived.
Inhabiting a place means feature it one
by our way of life.

07 / inhabiting

This dining room by Henry Van de Velde is the typical expression of how
people lived in those years. Inhabiting
was really connect with domesticity
and fornitures were the expression of
it.

08 / inhabiting

Objects always played an essential

role in the way of living a space, especially when in the eraly 10s house was
still thought with a room for each function.

09 / inhabiting

Decorations, fornitures and space become the same thing in this place by
F. L. Wright. People who inhabit this
place is the connection between all
this parts.

10 / inhabiting

We can see how in this place light,

structure and objects are all integrated
in one thing wich is able to create an
incredible atmosphere of inhabiting.

11 / inhabiting

Enter casa Mila is like enter another

world where all is done to feel a particular sensation of constant relation
with nature, and there is an incredible
sense of peace.

12/ inhabiting

This scene rappresenting an ordinary

habit of a common family.
In this room nathing is excessive and
too much, nothing emerge.
Inhabiting means living in a place
where we can recorgnize ourself in the
most natural way.

13 / inhabiting

Here we can see the Midway Gardens

designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
In this case we can understand inhabiting as find our way of life but not
only in our own but in relation with the
comunity we are in.

14 / inhabiting

A place without too much light create

the perfect atmosphere to take relax.
Also places wich are not too coloured
help people to feel calm. Inhabiting
means feel at home in a certain place.

16 / inhabiting

This is the ralway station of Richmond.

We can see how the big benches creat
a relation with people who are crossing that space. Inhabiting is streacrly
related to human scale because people can inhabit more in small places
than in huge spaces.

17 / inhabiting

Here we can see a canvas by Edward

Hopper, who painted these people sitting in a bar. They are doing common
actions and unconsciously they are inhabiting that place.

18 / inhabiting

This proposal by Giacomo Balla is an

interpretation of a new architecture
and a new way of inhabiting. However the paint is confuse is possible to
see a different definition of walls, ceiling and floor wich implies a space to
inhabit.

19 / inhabiting

Inhabiting is remarked by the objects

wich people collect inside home.
Objects help us to recognize ourself in
the places where we live.

20 / inhabiting

Objects, wich always give to a space

sense of domesticity and human scale, in relation with people create sense
of inhabiting.

21 / inhabiting

In this iterior realized for a Bauhaus

exhibition we can see how in these years, architects tried to designed more
simple spaces without loosing the domesticity of those.

22 / inhabiting

Here we can see the entrance of Lepcnick house wich is more than a simple
one. Its already a place where you can
find intimacy and sense of inhabiting.

23 / inhabiting

In this image we can see the terrace

of Noailles Villa designed by Robert
Mallet Stevens and Pierre Charea. A
wonderful place at the top of the house wich is really more similar to a nest
than a bedroom. Is a place where recover our soul.

24 / inhabiting

This corner of E1027 house is simply

painted with ancestral drawings wich
fills the space and create a side scene
for human actions.

25 / inhabiting

This is a little space for the priest next

to the Ressurrection Chapel by S. Lewerents.
Its a little place wich seems to be a
home, a small corner to inhabit.

26 / inhabiting

Inhabiting had changed during the

20th, also because of important
projects wich improved the design
and the features of the spaces. The
Frankfurt Kitchen is one of the most
important studies on the way of living
in Germany in the middle of 20s.

27 / inhabiting

Here we can see a room of a house in

Paris by Eileen Gray.
Living space and time are not the same
for all the people as Neutra teach, but
all of us need places to take care and
relax.

28 / inhabiting

This house by Pierre Chareau is an extrordinary attempt of delate the margin

between interior and exterior.
The living is full of light wich come
from the outside, but is a place where
still you can find intimacy.

29 / inhabiting

Corners are important to let us feel

protect in the space where we are.
Some steps can help to feel that is a
different place, more private than the
rest of the space.

30 / inhabiting

Sense of inhabiting can also be find in

open spaces. This terrace by Le Corbusier, has a guard that is higher than
the normal, so people there can feel to
be outside but in intimacy.

31 / inhabiting

Here is Villa Tugendhat by Mies Van Der

Rohe. A curved wall can be use to create a different kind of space also without building a totally encase place.
People to inhabit need to find more
private places than the rest of the space.

32 / inhabiting

This is a room of Necchi Campiglio Villa. A table around wich sitting always
inspired sense of inhabiting. Feel at
home as a place to stay and be in intimacy. Years ago houses had one place for every function of life.

33 / inhabiting

In this painting by Pierre Bonnard a girl

is doing her ordinary action in the bathroom, in this sense she is inhabiting
that space wich change in a place,
because space and inhabitants make
place

34 / inhabiting

In the 30s was developed the practice

to live terraces as places in continuity
with interior places.
In this house by Figini and Pollini there
is an open air gym.

35 / inhabiting

Inhabiting means enclose a space on

the world and do it ours, built it in continuity with nature and take care of it.
Here F. L. Wright builted a house together the nature.

36 / inhabiting

In western tradition when people died

go on to occupate space leaving a
sign of his presence on the world in
the past. This memorial for Roberto
Sarfatti made by big blocks of stone
will stay there forever.

37 / inhabiting

Corners characterized by a more human scale than the rest of the space
create places to stay and where sense
of inhabiting is powerfull.

38 / inhabiting

In his Mairea Villa, Alvar Aalto designed a free standing pillar in the middle
of the space wich act like a point of
reference in the middle of the space.

39 / inhabiting

An outdoor place in continuity with nature around can be an amazing place

to talk and to feel the ambient and air
passing through. Is a shelter made by
a ceiling wich float above air and creating horizontal pressure wich invite
you to look around.

40 / inhabiting

This is the roof of Malaparte villa wich

was the set of Le Mpris.
Also the roof is an important space
wich can be a place for human actions

41 / inhabiting

We can see how the people in this

room animate the space wich is perfect for them. Between the space and
human action born the sense of inhabiting

42 / inhabiting

In this image is possible to understand how also open spaces can be

inhabit. The meaning is inhabiting the
city through acrions wich people play
outside.
Also the road can be a place to inhabit

43 / inhabiting

This is the margin of the outdoor space of a ballroom by Oscar Nyemeier.

Open spaces near buildings help us to
dwell in continuity with nature and feel
guarded.

44 / inhabiting

In this house by Carlo Mollino theres

a living with modern tipical fornitures
but always a fireplace as in the early
10s.

45 / inhabiting

This vernacular architecture is a place, in India, where also a lot of famous

artists went in the 60s to create and
inspire themselves in constantly connection with nature and univers. These
shelters isolate them from other people.

46 / inhabiting

Objects, wich always give to a space

sense of domesticity and human scale, in relation with people create sense
of inhabiting.

47 / inhabiting

In this space by Luis Barragan inhabiting is inspired by the connection

with nature. A depthless window try to
delete the margin between inside and
outside.

48 / inhabiting

In this house by J. V. Artigas lot of windows with thin frame make us feel sometimes outside and sometimes inside. In these case sense of inhabiting is
not found in little rounded corners but
in a constant relation with nature.

49 / inhabiting

This is one of the most important

example of what inhabiting means. A
very little place where all is built thinking the necessity of dwell. An enclose
space wich mantain a relation with the
outside by small window wich are like
pictures of nature.
Gaston Bachelord said that our home
is our corner of the world.

50 / inhabiting

In this house by Lina Bo Bardi, objects

and fornitures dance in the space. In
open spaces people who inhabit the
space can change it and creat different places.

51 / inhabiting

An open space with few objects and

made by local material focused our attention on a sensation of smoothness
and peace. Big spaces allow the inhabitant free to create corners around.

52 / inhabiting

Places where stay together always

inspired sense of inhabiting wich comes frome the streactly relations with
objects space and people.

53 / inhabiting

This is an example of haw was changing and evolving the way of living in
50s. Objects become more important
for inhabiting. Houses were more simple and more fulls of fornitures.

54 / inhabiting

In this house by Franco Albini, for Caterina Marcenaro, we can see haw an
important role is played by the fireplace wich become a point around wich
inhabit.

55 / inhabiting

In this house, did in collaboration by

Scarpa, Morassutti and Masieri, the
outside spaces become places to live,
fulls of corners where to stay and find
privacy and intimacy.

56 / inhabiting

This is the patio of the Future House, projected by the Smithson, who
talked about the importance of patio.
They mean patio not only as a physical
space but as a place in strectly relation with nature. A central point of the
house.

57 / inhabiting

This installation is by A. Castiglioni

who tought about this interpratation
on dwelling in the 50s.

58 / inhabiting

This house by Kiyonori Kikutake is an

example of how eastern country didnt
brake with tradition but they used history and memory as a point to start.

59 / inhabiting

Again an interpretation of a patio, by

Lina Bo Bardi. I think about this place
as full of life, where inhabitant and nature find a point of unit.

60 / inhabiting

In this image we can see a room by

Paulo Mendes da Rocha.
A place can be characterized by the
objects of who live the space, and by
this way habitants can recognize himself.

61 / inhabiting

In this house by L. Kahn fornitures act

like walls dividing the inside from the
outside and creating a place that coul
be inhabit.

62 / inhabiting

Shadows can create corners where

take care of yourself relaxing.
Inhabiting means take care of us and
of the place where we live.

63 / inhabiting

Technological innovations mutate the

way of inhabiting during the 20th century. Especially in the 60s appliances
improove the lifestyle of housewifes.

64 / inhabiting

Japanese architects, always try to

give a pint of reference to wich live
around.
In this case a pillare become a really
important object in the middle of the
space.
Always life will be play around it.

65 / inhabiting

This an example of tipical dwell situations of 60s, made by Achille and Pier
Giacomo Castiglioni.

66 / inhabiting

Bruce Naumann faced up to inhabiting making a mold of the space under an hypothetical chair. A void that
become a fulness.

67 / inhabiting

A patio before the entrace of a house

can be like a filter between inside and
outside. It prepares people who are
entering home to be in a more domestic dimension.

68 / inhabiting

In the orient world, people dwell in

harmony with nature and this is reflect
in the fornitures. Like this table made
in stone with a thin layer of water wich
design the space above.

69 / inhabiting

In this house by Ruy Othake we can

see as a big ceiling can inspire protection and make a big space like this one
more human.

70 / inhabiting

Tokyo is one of the most populated

city in the world and since many years
ago eastern architects tried to answerd
to the necessity of living in minimum
spaces. This research was different
from the western one. It was not only
on minimum spaces but about the realization of little places to restored the
aim and the body.

71 / inhabiting

Bruno Munari ivestigates the theme

of inhabiting by lot of projects like
this one called abitacolo. Its a simple
modular structure, made in steel rod,
wich is possible to assemble in different ways and creat different places
for different ways of living.

72 / inhabiting

Superstudio research in a more abstract way than other architects on the

theme of inhabiting, wich gives input
to other architects and artists in future. This is a collage of an ideal place
to live.

73 / inhabiting

This is an example of how tecnical innovation improove the research on the

theme of inhabiting. Its a prototype
for a single residence, called total furnishing unit.

74 / inhabiting

Serpentone is a single element wich

create a big place to sit in fellwship
with other people. A big sofa wich can
be modeled as the owner prefer.

75 / inhabiting

People dont need always of space

enclosed by big walls to feel at home.
People only look for places where they
can recognize themselves.

76 / inhabiting

Sometimes is a common opinion that

more objects there are in a space more
this can be hospitable, but in some
occasions places are more powerfull if
situations dont scramble each other.

77 / inhabiting

This is a projects of social housing in

Portugal by Alvaro Siza. Every unit has
a patio and different cloured details to
be not alienating. Inhabiting is also find
our place to live inside a comunity.

78 / inhabiting

This room designed by AG Fronzoni is

the expression of what minimal artists
research in that period. Places with
the necessary and not more.

79 / inhabiting

In this image is possible understand

how life falling down from this strange
ceiling influence a lot the way to inhabit thi space. This could be not only a
kitchen but also a place to meet people

80 / inhabiting

The colours of this house make me feel

all the tradition of its country. Inhabit
means live in continuity with traditions
and not break with them.

81 / inhabiting

This is a prototype of an energy house,

realized in the 80s. The ironic thing is
that it seems to be more a cave than a
future house.
Inhabiting in the future but with traditions.

82 / inhabiting

In this house designed by Kazuo Shinoara the shape of the space and the
direction of the light create a perfect
place to inhabiting.

83 / inhabiting

In this house by E. S. de Moura the

shape of the space suggest the way
to live it. Its a place to inhabit in relax
and get rest

84 / inhabiting

This is a project by Gabriele Basilico

wich interprets the relation between
objects and people. Inhabiting find
place in this gap, between objects and
their owner.

85 / inhabiting

I think that this strange building tried

to explore the topic of living in comunity but without loosing us.

86 / inhabiting

A place to inhabit wich is in the middle

between inside and outside. It try to
make the outside inhabiting in a good
way.

87 / inhabiting

This patio before the entrance of the

house work like a filter between inside
and outside, making the passage violenceless

88 / inhabiting

A place around wich sit and inhabiting.

Is possible to see how light, architecture and objects work together in this
place.

89 / inhabiting

This patio with enclosed by this big

walls make people who inhabit it, feel
all the power of the place where thy
are

90 / inhabiting

Loosing of the idea of one space for

each function improove research on
spaces wich are totally flexible and
designed in the minimum space possible.

91 / inhabiting

Inhabiting means also appropriating

of the space creating place for people
and comunity.

92 / inhabiting

Inhabiting means also feel protect at

home, and in this house by Kazuyo
Sejima a circle shape can help to built
this atmosphere.

93 / inhabiting

Find a place on the world in connection with nature and take care of it is
one of the essential way to live in harmony. This space by Aurelio Galfetti
let the nature come inside.

94 / inhabiting

This is an ironic interpretation by Allan

Wexler, about current needs of minimum spaces that contemporarity requires.

95 / inhabiting

A kind of cable where sleep. Thought

as an indipendent unit wich is possible
to move from place to place dipending
from the owner.

96 / inhabiting

Hisoroshi Sujimoto tried to define a

the sensation of a place wich is not
possible to pass. People who inhabit
next to the see always had a streactly
relation with him.

97 / inhabiting

Inhabiting is the whole of byological

needs, relations between objects and
people and sense of home. This house
by Rem Koolhas was designed exactly
for people who will live in.

98 / inhabiting

This place by Smiljan Radic and Marcela Correa is strectly influenced by

the nature of the site and the way of living of the people. This is not a house
but only a stuff wich can help the owner to live his life. Its built in continuity
with the context so we can situate it in
the world by our mind.

99 / inhabiting

This is a corner of a little place built

by Terunobu Fujimori. Use like a tea
house and shaped as a small cube
standing on some cutting branch of a
tree. Its a space were you can feel in
relation with the place by the action of
doing tea, wich is a ritual function.

00 / inhabiting

A space wich is not only a bedroom

but a place to be in relax, like a nest.
As Heiddeger said: place and space
are not the same, as home and house. This big window obove the bed
remaind to the condition of man
being in the world.

00 / inhabiting

My work is an experiment about inhabiting on the web in the 21st century.

In november i started to built my farm
and to had plants, animals and money. Soon i met new people there who
helped my with my farm and me with
theirs. Is possible to construct many
pieces of farm and to project the
ground; more you work, more you get,
more you can construct.
Nowadays is possible to do on the
web lots of things that in the past was
only a dream. Who wonder how it will
be?

CREDITS
01_
Drawing room, 120 Mains Street, Glasgow,
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret
Macdonald Mackintosh, 1900-1902
ph: T & R Annan & Sons Ltd
02_
Fireplace, Olbrich house, Darmstadt, Germany, Joseph Maria Olbrich, 1902
from: Accogliere raccogliersi: linterno domestico tra partecipazione ed esclusivit/
curated by Agostino Bossi, Giannini editore, Napoli 1999
03_
Villa Karma, Vevey, Swiss, Adolf Loos,
1903-1906
from: Adolf Loos : Frammenti di architettura viennese, curated by Federico Brunetti,
Giovanni Denti, Alinea, Firenze, 1995
04_
Principal bedroom, The Hill House, Charles
Rennie Mackintosh, 1900-1904
ph: T & R Annan & Sons Ltd
05_
Hall of Stoclet Palace, Bruxelles, Josef
Hoffmann, 1905
from: Eduard F. Sekler, Josef Hoffmann
1870-1956, Electa, Milano, 1991, p.348
06_
Salon of Wilhelm Von Bode, Wilhelm Von
Bode, 1906
from: germanhistorydocs.org
07_
Dining room, third german Arts and Crafts
exhibition, Dresden, Henry Van de Velde,

1907
from: Bildarchiv preussischer kulturbesitz
08_
living room, Peter Behens, 1908
from: Bildarchiv preussischer kulturbesitz
09_
Dinner room, Robie House, Chicago, USA,
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1909
from: Pfeiffer Brooks Bruce, I Capolavori,
Milano, Rizzoli, 2000
10_
Dining Room, Steiner house, Adolf Loos,
1910-1912
from: Adolf Loos : Frammenti di architettura viennese, curated by Federico Brunetti,
Giovanni Denti, Alinea, Firenze, 1995
11_
Main entrance and patio, Mila house, Antoni Gaud, 1905-1912
from: barcelonacasamila.com
12_
Living room of Gustav M. Ericsson villa, Lidingo, Brevik, Sweden, Sigurd Lewerentz
from: Sigurd Lewerentz, curated by Nicola Flora, Paolo Giardiello, Gennaro Postiglione, Colin St.John Wilson, Electa, Milano, 2002
13_
Midway Gardens, Chicago, Illinois, USA,
Frank Lloyd Wright
from: Pfeiffer Brooks Bruce, I Capolavori,
Milano, Rizzoli, 2000
14_

Dorda House, Cartagena, Spain, Victor

Beltr, 1914
from: www.ateliernet.com
16_
Broad Street Station, Richmond, VA, USA,
John Russel Pope, 1910-1919
from: Atmosfere, Peter Zumthor, Electa,
Milano, 2008, p.10
17_
Chop suey, MOMA, New York, USA,
Edward hopper, 1917
from: www.edwardhopper
18_
Project for a living room, Giacomo Balla,
1918
from: Futurismo e Futurismi, Milano 1986
19_
Antellani House, Corso magenta 65, Milan,
Italy, Piero Portaluppi, 1919
from: Linea errante nellarchitettura del
Novecento, curated by Luca Molinari,
Piero Portaluppi Foundation, Skira, Milano
2003
20_
Vertical guitar, Le Corbusier, 1920
from: Lart decoratif daujourdhui, G.
Crest, Parigi, 1925
21_
Sperimental house for the Bauhaus exhibition, Weimar, Germany, Muche and A.
Meyer, 1922
from:Storia dellarchitettura moderna
by Kenneth Frampton, Zanichelli, Bologna,1982
22_
Plecnik house, Lubjana, Joze Plecnik,
1922
from: Joze Plecnik (1872 1957) curated by
Damjan Prelovsek, Electa, Milano, 2005

23_
Villa de Noailles, Paris, Robert Mallet Stevens and Pierre Chareau, 1920-1922
from: Rob Mallet-Stevens: la villa Noailles, curated by Cecile Briolle, Agnes Fuzibet, Gerard Monnier, Parentheses, Marseille, 1990
24_
House E1027, Roquebrune - Cap Martin,
Alpes maritimes, southern France, Eileen
Gray and Jean Badovici, 1924
ph: LArchitecture vivante 1929.
25_
Officiant house of Ressurence Chapel,
Stocholm, Sweden, S. Lewerentz, 1925
from: Sigurd Lewerentz, curated by Nicola Flora, Paolo Giardiello, Gennaro Postiglione, Colin St.John Wilson, Electa, Milano, 2002
26_
Frankfurt Kitchen, Ginnheim-Hhenblick
Housing Estate, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Margaret Schutte Lihotzky, 1926
from: www.dwell.com
27_
Rue de Lota apartment, Paris, France, Eileen Gray, 1927
from: designmuseum.org
ph: Berenice Abbott
28_
Maison de Verre, Paris, France, Pierre
Chareau, 1928
ph:Clich Daniel Lebe, SDIG
29_
Villa Mller, Prague, Czech Republic, Adolf
Loos, 1929-1930
from: Casa Mller a Praga : Adolf Loos,
Giovanni Denti, Alinea, Firenze, 1999
ph: Leonina Roversi

30_
M. Charles de Beistegui Apartment, Paris,
France, Le Corbusier, 1929-1930
from: FLC-ADAGP
31_
Villa Tugendhat, Brno, Czech Republic,
Mies Van Der Rohe
from: Casa Tugendhat : Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe, curated by Lorenzo Cremonini,
Marino Moretti, Vittorio Pannocchia, Alinea,
Firenze, 1997
32_
Sala Pranzo, Villa Campiglio, Milan, Italy,
Piero Portaluppi, 1932
from: Linea errante nellarchitettura del
Novecento, curated by Luca Molinari,
Piero Portaluppi Foundation, Skira, Milano
2003
33_
The bathroom, MOMA, New York, USA,
Pierre bonnard, 1933
from: www.ateliernet.blogspot.com
34_
House at Journalists Village, Milano, Italy,
Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini, 1934
from: Terrazzo, curated by V. Gregotti, G.
Marzari, in Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini. Opera
completa, Electa, Milano 1996
35_
Living Room, Kauffman House, USA, Frank
Lloyd Wright, 1935
from: Pfeiffer Brooks Bruce, I Capolavori,
Milano, Rizzoli, 2000
36_
Roberto Sarfatti Memorial, Asiago, Italy,
Giuseppe Terragni, 1936
from: tumbaymonumento.com
37_

Munkkiniemi house, Finland, Alvar Aalto,

1937
from: Aalto: architecture and furniture
@The Museum of modern art
38_
Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland, Alvar
Aalto, 1937-1939
from: Alvar aalto : Villa Mairea, Noormarkku, Finland : 1937-39, edited and photographed by Yukio Futagawa, text by Juhani
Pallasmaa, A.D.A. Edita, Tokyo, 1985
39_
Modernist fazenda, Capuava, Sao Paolo,
Flavio de Carvalho
ph: ateliernet.blogspot.com.
40_
Roof, Malaparte Villa, Adalberto libera,
1936-1940
from: le Mpris, by Jean Luc Godard,
1963
41_
Bar of a students housing, Zurich, Hans
Baumgartner, 1941
from: Atmosfere, Peter Zumthor, Electa,
Milano, 2008, p.18
42_
Donne che trasportano il pane, Vrin, Ernst
Brunner, 1942
@ Erns Brunner collection, Basel
from: Atmosfere, Peter Zumthor, Electa,
Milano, 2008, p.12
43_
Ballroom House, Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Oscar Nyemeier, 1943
from: blueprintmagazine uk by Luisa
Lambri
ph: Luisa Lambri
44_
House of Ada and Cesare Minola, Turin,

Italy, Carlo Mollino, 1944

from: atom-a.com
45_
Maharishi Mahesh Yogis Ashram_Rishikesh, Uttar Pradesh, India, 1945
from: ateliernet.com
46_
Natura morta, Giorgio Morandi, 1946
from: photographic archive of MART, Rovereto
47_
Barragns House, Calle Ramrez, Mexico
City, Luis Barragan, 1947-1948
ph: Armando Salas, Portugal-Barragn
Foundation, Switzerland
48_
Artigas House, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Joo Batista Vilanova Artigas, 1948-1949.
49_
Cabanon, Roquebrune - Cap Martin, France, Le Corbusier, 1949
from: FLC/ADAGP
ph: Olivier Martin-Gambier, 2006
50_
House of Glass, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Lina Bo
Bardi, 1950
from: archivio IUAV
51_
Miss Monorama Sarabhai Villa, Ahmedabad, India, Le Corbusier, 1951
from: FLC-ADAGP
52_
Foschi house, Milan, Vittoriano Vigan,
1952
from: Architettura : spazio primario, by
Carlo De Carli, Hoepli, Milano, 1982
53_

Model for a house, Werkbund, Berlin, Kaete Glaeser, 1953

from: ateliernet.com
54_
Fireplace room, House for Caterina Marcenaro, Franco Albini, 1954
from: domus 1955
55_Romanelli House, A. Masieri, B. Morassutti, C. Scarpa, 1955
from: Bruno Morassutti : 1920-2008 opere
e progetti, curated by Giulio Barazzetta e
Roberto Dulio, Electa, Milano, 2009
56_
View from patio to kitchen, the House of the
Future, Alison + Peter Smithson, 1956
from: Daily Mail Ideal Home Show, London
57_
Colori e forme nella casa doggi, Villa
Olmo, Como, Italy, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, 1957
58_
Sky House, Tokyo, Kiyonori Kikutake,
1958
from: Minimum Lotus 142, p.11
ph: Shinkencchiku-sha
59_
Valeria P. Cirell House, Sao Paulo, Brazil,
Lina Bo Bardi, 1959
from: archivio IUAV
60_
Lemes House, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Paulo
Mendes Da Rocha
61_
Esherick house, Louis Kahn, USA
from: Buildings and projects, 1959-1961,
Louis I. Kahn, Garland, New York, London,
1987

62_
Rotalinti House, Bellinzona, Svizzera, Aurelio Galfetti, 1962
from: aureliogalfetti.com
63_
Electromedical Set, Toms Maldonado,
1963
from:Belvedere, Milano rende omaggio
a Toms Maldonado, il designer amico
dellambiente di Francesco Massoni
www.Affaritaliani.it
64_
House in withe, Japan, Kazuo Shinoara,
1964
from: Kazuo Shinoara: 17 Houses, Rizzoli
65_
LA CASA ABITATA, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, 1965
66_
Acast of the space under my chair, Bruce
Nauman, 1966
67_
Villa Califfa, Santa Marinella, Roma, Luigi
Moretti, 1967
from: La torre delle camere da letto in Luigi Moretti, curated by Salvatore Santuccio, Zanichelli, Bologna, 1986, p.168
68_
Water Table, Isamu Noguchi, 1968
ph: Isamu Noguchi Foundation, New
York

The Nakagin Capsule Tower, Ginza, Tokyo,

1970, Kisho Kurokawa
ph: Tomio Ohashi
71_
Abitacolo, Bruno Munari, 1971
from: Da cosa nasce cosa: appunti per
una metodologia progettuale, Bruno Munari, Laterza, Roma, Bari, 1981
72_Twelve Ideal Cities, Superstudio, 1972
from: Superstudio curated by Roberto
Gargiani, Beatrice Lampariello, GLF editori
Laterza, Roma, Bari, 2010
73_
Total Furnishing Unit, Joe Colombo, 1973
from: Joe Colombo: design antropologico
curated by Giovanni DAmbrosio, Torino,
2004.
74_
Serpentone, Cini Boeri
from: Cini Boeri: architetto e designer curated by Cecilia Avogadro, Silvana, Cinisello Balsamo, 2004
75_
Disegno di una porta per entrare nellombra, Ettore Sottsass, 1972-1978
from: Ettore Sottsass, Metafore, curated
by Milco Carboni e Barbara Radice, Skira,
Milano, 2002
76_
House in Kamiwada, Okazaki, Aichi, Japan, Toyo Ito, 1976
from: www.toyo-ito.co.jp

69_
Tomie Ohtake house, Sao Paulo Brazil,
Ruy Ohtake, 1969
from: ruyothake.com

77_
Social Housing in Quinta da Malagueira,
Evora, Alvaro Siza, 1977
from: El Croquis 68 69 + 95, ElCroquis
Editorial, Madrid, 2007, p.76

70_

78_

Pernigotti Home, Milan, Italy, AG Fronzoni,

1978
from: Minimalist Architecture by Franco
Bertoni
ph: Aldo Ballo
79_
F.Gehry house, Santa Monica, California,
Frank Gehry, 1978-1979

Eduardo Souto de Moura, 1982-1984

from: Eduardo Souto De Moura curated
by Antonio Esposito and Giovanni Leoni,
Electa, 2005
88_
House in Porto, Portugal, Fatima Fernandes and Michele Cannat, 1988-1989
from: www.cannatafernandes.com

80_
Gilardi House, Mexico City, Lui Barragan,
1980
ph: Armando Salas, Portugal-Barragn
Foundation, Switzerland

89_
Neuendorf Villa, Mallorca, Spain, Claudio
Silvestrin and John Pawson, 1988-1989
from: Minimalist Architecture by Franco
Bertoni
ph: Aldo Ballo

81_
House of energy, michael Jantzen, 19811982
from: www.ateliernet.com

90_
Crate House, Allan Wexler, 1990
from: allanwexlerstudio.it

83_
House in Quinta do Lago, Algarve, Portugal, Eduardo Souto de Moura, 1982-1983
from: Eduardo Souto De Moura curated
by Antonio Esposito and Giovanni Leoni,
Electa, 2005
84_
Contact series, Gabriele Basilico, 1984
from: Contact,fotografa Polaroid in negativo, 1984
ph: Gabriele Basilico
85_
Ramot housing complex, Jerusalem, Israel,
Zui Hecker, 1985
86_
Silver Hut Residence, Nakano-ku, Tokyo,
Japan, Toyo Ito, 1986
from: www.toyo-ito.co.jp
87_
Alcaneva House, Torres Novas, Portugal,

91_
Grey Clam, interactive sculture, Jene Highstein, 1991
ph: Anders Norrsell
92_
Villa in the forest, Chino, Nagano, Japan,
Kazuyo Sejima, 1992-1993
from: El Croquis 77, Kazuyo Sejima 19881996
93_
House in Paros, Greece, Aurelio Galfetti,
1993-1994
from: aureliogalfetti.com
94_
The Vinyl Milford, Allan Wexler, 1994
from: allanwexlerstudio.it
95_
Living Unit_Andrea Zittel, 1994-1995
from: inhabitat.com
96_

Sea of japan, Tokyo, Japan, Hiroshi Sujimoto, 1996

ph: Hiroshi Sujimoto
97_
Maison a Bordeaux, France, Rem Koolhaas, 1997
ph: Hans Werlemann All rights reserved
98_
Extension of the charcoal-burners hut,
Santa Rosa, Chile, Smiljan Radic + Marcela Correa, 1998
from: www.eartharchitecture.org
99_
Tea house, Japan, Terunobu Fujimori,
1999-2003
from: www.archiportale.com
00_
House in a plume grove, Tokyo, Japan, SANAA, 2000-2003
from: El Croquis 99 - Kazuyo Sejima-Ryue
Nishizawa 1995-2000