One hundred houses for one hundred architects [antikvár]

Architects' Houses DOMESTIC INTERIORS AND CULTURAL PRAXIS Because of its private and !ntimate character, the interior has never attracted much attention. This Iovk level of interest can perhaps be accounted for in terms of the short-lived nature of interiors. Private fittings and furnishings are tied to the necessity of meeting the current, subjective, specific and thus fugitive and changeable needs of the occupants. Criticism of architecture, by contrast, seels to identify permanent manifestations of general and collective values, of a kind such as architecture can comprehensively include and harmonise', and does not recognise in the private space any values specific to the field. This criticism does not count the peculiar features of the interior, its constituent features, or its compositional principles - in short, everything that distinguishes the interior from other spaces and lends it an autonomous nature. If, however, we examine the issues involved in the establishment of domestic space, the guestions that arise time and again are those concerning relations between the public and the private, the collective and the individual, the spectacular and the intimate. There is no doubt that the private has always existed, since in every age there has been at least one zone protected from the intrusive gaze of strangers, an area reserved for more personal and intimate activities, even if its boundaries have been variously demarcated according to period and culture. It is this circumstance that constitutes the true foundation for inquiry into the nature of domestic space. What follows in the present book is not an exhaustive presentation of individual works by a certain number of architects, but it does afford a hitherto unpublished, "transnational" panorama that differs substantially from what readers will encounter when leafing through the usual histories of architecture. This project, which showcases the residences of some of the most significant twentieth century European architects, aims not only to make visible an aspect of our culture that has hitherto been neglected by scholars, and to promote a public esteem and valuation of this cultural property, but also, ambitiously, to help assure the preservation of this shared international heritage. can be seen clearly prevailing over national traditions. The manifold network of connections linking the lives of these architects enriches their homes and affords concrete proof of the impossibility of confining a cultural praxis such as interior architecture within fixed geographic boundaries. A further concern of this book is to liberate architecture from its function as a utility and to highlight its quality as a "hybrid cultural praxis". Its argument presented to a wide public not consisting only of specialists, is that the private space is distinctly capable of absorbing cultural development. If we are better to understand the cultural and political frame of influence around the history of architecture, and to comprehend the ongoing interchange of thoughts, ideas and values that has been the hallmark of the modern era, we must of necessity take a close look at the houses architects have created for themselves. This is no act of voyeurism, nor any kind of intrusion into the private sphere. Private spaces not only reflect the manifold living requirements of a particular time, they are also invariably both the transmitter and receiver of influences, styles and crossovers. In examining them, we are able to place the fashioning of interior spaces in a larger context, one that transcends the national boundaries within which that context has The fact that it is indeed a shared international heritage, despite the location of the houses in specific places and thus their positions in specific national identities, is impressively documented in the present publication. The residences selected here reflect a new, transnational, inter-cultural dimension, in which mutual influences and thematic absorptions Cr. ?.T\\aimn. Authentic Décor. The Domestic Interior. 162Q-Í920, London, 1985 cr. N. Flora, P. Giardiello, G. Postiglione, 'llmpianto spaziale', in M. Vaodatti (ad.), Menoale di ristrimorezione e rinnovo degli embienti, UTET, 1999 Tlie present publication includes the work done by the MEAM Net research group at the Politécnico di IVlilano in collaboration with 27 institutions Europe-wide. This worii, titled 'One Hundred Houses tor One Hundred European Architects or the 20th Century', bore fruit in a trauelling exhibition and a website (http://www.meamnet.polimi.itl.