Up close

Designing living spaces requires attention to several aspects. Firstly, attention is paid to social changes, which translate into new ways of living and of understanding public and private spaces. Secondly, attention is paid to urban and territorial design, which balances movement and use in evolving spaces. Thirdly, attention is paid to the overall design of the building through its distributive and connective devices, which define and relate different and complementary rooms and gestures in a tense balance between specificity and interpenetration. Finally, attention is paid to construction, sustainability, and environmental well-being. Alongside these, another aspect seems limited to the final stage of the design and construction process: the 'close-up' design of architecture. This is defined in terms of its material form, spaces, margins, and equipment, and corresponds to a specific way of living in a specific place with a specific attitude. This text aims to explore and develop this latter focus by critically analysing housing projects carried out since the early years of the third millennium, primarily in Europe and the Western world. The proposed examples complement those already collected and analysed in the Atlas, offering an additional interpretative perspective on how rooms in residential buildings are constructed, focusing on their characteristics, materials, textures, colours, and lighting. This reaffirms the response to new housing needs expressed by new cohabitation units and renewed economic requirements, even on a small scale, in everyday use, and in close contact. Through a 'close-up' project that examines their materials and construction in detail, these interventions address the complex issues raised by their potential inhabitants. It also explores the role of equipment as a boundary between furniture and architecture, or even as architecture that performs as furniture. It connects wall margins, usable space, and furnishings with people, and it is precisely this relationship that guarantees a shared, accessible quality capable of expressing the profound meaning of architecture, which goes beyond its use, and that shows itself in a coherent response to the daily gestures of those who inhabit it.