Home Economics

A large black Georgian-style door, visible from Viale dei Giardini, indicates the entrance and heralds the “Home Economics” exhibition, curated by Shumi Bose, Jack Self and Finn Williams, in the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2016.

Inside are five scale 1:1 living spaces representing as many models of houses designed to be occupied for hours, days, months, years and, finally, decades. This is how the exhibition intuitively and effectively addresses a highly topical theme: the relationship between domestic space and the length of time its inhabitants spend in it. Often dictated by work and social reasons, irregular and shorter periods are increasingly replacing the permanent nature of the conventional home lived in for a lifetime by several family generations.

The linear and elegant design of the Pavilion interior plays on few colours, as does the interesting and packed accompanying catalogue. Every section is introduced by a phrase informing visitors and summing up the basic idea of that particular living model, each one developed by a different design group. The bed is the key piece of furniture, each one differing in design. At the entrance is the Hours home (by Jack Self, Finn Williams and Shumi Bose). “Own nothing, share everything” it says and, indeed, the communal sofa-beds that configure the space, arranged around a single central, large and transparent wardrobe, are constructed and set out to accommodate several people and different activities.

“Home is where the Wi-Fi is” appears in the immersive space by the Åyr collective. To be rented by the day in keeping with the Airbnb model, it comprises two inflatable plastic spheres containing rest spaces that revolve and are constantly in movement. Dogma and Black Square have designed “A house without housework”, in which to live for a few months, as in a boarding house or student residence. Here, the domestic space is enclosed within a compact two-storey parallelepiped, like a tall totem pole with a square plan; the bathroom and kitchen are on the ground floor and a bed fills the whole of the second floor. The surrounding outside space serves as communal space and for socialising with the neighbours.

A corridor then leads to a four-roomed house to be purchased and lived in for several years. Curated by Julia King, it is a “Space for living, not speculation” at the expense of the purchaser. Everything is provocatively reduced to the bare minimum with just walls, utilities, WC and a washbasin; even the bed is missing as the person who lives there will choose their own. The living space is reduced to a shell that corresponds to the property’s selling value, without the “extras” that disproportionately drive up prices. The last model on display, by Hesselbrand, seems almost anachronistic because conceived as a home where a family can live at length, even for decades. Described as “A room without functions”, there are no set uses and the diverse and multiple spatial and formal features are moulded by the light, opening and closing of spaces and a soft or hard surface consistency, while a large square bed dominates the whole.

At the exit from the Pavilion, the Georgian door, emblematically black and larger than life, seems a reminder that new economic and social demands, and the complexity of life have, for some time now, been challenging the British house with its own “front door” and forcing those designing housing to search for and choose, often shared, living models that fit the everyday reality. The home has become a core issue and, despite huge difficulties and constraints, must be addressed and seen as an opportunity and fertile terrain for making architecture.

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