Greenhouse: abitare e costruire la poetica del sole. Diciotto logements a Rixheim di Lacaton & Vassal

From the 17th century to the late 19th century, the widespread adoption of buildings based on the greenhouse principle progressively blurred the boundary between interior and exterior, transforming the relationship between architecture and landscape through extensive use of glass. Originally tied to agricultural and botanical functions, this constructive tradition experienced a radical reevaluation in the second half of the 20th century, when designers such as Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal explored its typological, compositional, and climatic potentials. Their poetics centers on the use of natural light as a primary element for spatial quality, surpassing mere techno logical or sustainability concerns. The greenhouse thus becomes a design archetype and a tool to extend living space with lightness, transparency, and openness, promoting bioclimatic comfort and a fluid connection with the external environment. The Rixheim intervention, examined in this paper, reflects the transformation of the green house into a stylistic and compositional code that emphasizes humble, industrial materials, constructive simplicity, and economy of means. The concept of ‘free space’ highlights the generosity and flexibility of environments capable of accommodating changing uses while fostering inclusive and open quality of life. For Lacaton & Vassal poetics prevails over formal language in an essential and pragmatic architecture aimed at enhancing light and space as absolute protagonists, reaffirming architecture as a place of life and freedom