Abitare oltre la pandemia: verso un nuovo habitat domestico

The search for ways of living adapted to the changes of society is gaining in importance in the context of the current Coronavirus pandemic. The domestic confinement, in fact, is revealing as never before the inadequacy of our homes to contemporary life. The juxtaposition and, in some cases, the hybridization of domestic activities with those traditionally carried out elsewhere, puts in crisis the concepts of type, room, furnishing and dimensional standard, no longer capable to respond to the new degrees of flexibility and privacy required in our homes. The advent of the individual and mobile digital device puts in crisis the hearth of the house and, therefore, leads to the dissolution of a space of exchange and conviviality in the domestic environment. In order to react to a dramatic condition that is affecting especially the inhabitants of the metropolitan micro-apartments, we must conceive an environment in which intimate spaces for private life, flexible spaces for collective life, technological devices and symbolic objects find a new synthesis. We must recover some of the founding elements from traditional models of dwelling, such as the wall, the room, the hearth and the piece of furniture. We must transform them to generate a domestic model where they could interact actively with the body and the psyche of the inhabitants. Only through the conception of this sort of ecosystem, made up of significant spaces, vital stimuli and an alternative community, we will manage to define a domestic model that is no longer a traditional dwelling but a habitat: from existenzminimum to existenzmaximum. The new habitat will be made up of a series of components contributing to define a device that goes beyond the «Fundamental Acts» of life, to respond to people’s «deep needs». The Inhabited Wall: a barrier between the metropolis and the habitat that hosts intimate and private spaces, whose activities go beyond survival to generate «new rituals». «The Big Box»: a neutral and flexible environment at the service of the community. The Utensils: devices that, through a synthesis of high technology, action and symbol, allow multisensory collective experiences. The Domestic Theatre: the fulcrum of collective activities consisting of a conversation pit which, combined with a scenic tower, becomes a stage for the mise en scène of domestic life.