Arch. Viola Curti 11.3.2025 @2024 Giovanetti Home SA
Oliver Marc, a French architect who has also long been involved in psychoanalysis, argues that: architecture was perhaps the first of man’s artistic expressions, and the home was the most perfect expression of the self.
From all this comes the essence of dwelling, because we arrive at dwelling, as Heidegger says, first through building. And dwelling means etymologically “to be sheltered,” but also to live and exist, that is, to represent a way of being and understanding the world (cited in: The home, an instrument of psychological and social analysis, Paola Coppola Pignatelli, Rome).
The house is thus the image of the self, and, in fact, psychoanalysis recognizes the house that manifests in dreams as having multiple and profound meanings. What takes place “in the house” takes place within us. We ourselves are often the house. It reproduces the most complete and ancient manifestation of the soul and the deepest needs, things that have been forgotten in our poor city houses during this last century, in pursuit of so-called functional solutions, which have encased humans within cells placed in identical containers in Africa and Europe.
With respect to these different aspects we can distinguish, first of all, introverted from extroverted homes. The former reflect a rigid division within the family according to predefined roles and poor social relations for women and children. We have an example of this with the Arab-Muslim house, built around the inner garden, sharply divided into a department, close to the entrance, of male life and one, much more interior, for women, accessible only through a maze of rooms. Examples of extrovert dwellings are, on the other hand, the Italic settlements of the south, centered on the street where people work, play, chat, and represent themselves: the house faces the street through balconies, windows, and crowded stairways. Equally extroverted are the housing in the new neighborhoods in Holland and Denmark, with large glass walls open to the living room, giving the impression to passersby, that they are standing in front of a theater where scenes of family life are depicted. In these dwellings women are visibly freer and more independent, the taboos less.
In fact, much of Western housing lies along a continuum from one extreme to the other, manifesting a greater tendency for one or the other aspect, more or less sharply accentuating the separation between a “private” (the house) and “public” (the community, neighborhood, etc.) space. In fact, the various elements and structures common to most houses have a definite symbolic value, both on the collective, public level and on the individual, private level. For example, the threshold of the house corresponds to the archetype of passage and transformation; it is the boundary between inside and outside, the sign of entry into the private zone. The door, on the other hand, represents a zone of connection, where an exchange takes place between two different realities, settings. The fence is represented by the perimeter walls and corresponds to the archetype of defense. The staircase represents the connection between different planes, both of our personality and of our psyche. It corresponds to man’s need to climb, it is connected to the idea of elevation and communication, it represents the contact between heaven and earth. The atrium, according to how it is designed, gives back a different perception of the entire accommodation. The dark atrium, for example, which acts as a filter between the outside and the inside, is a sign of not total openness to those who are entering, while, the absence of an atrium, an open-space, indicates the willingness of those who live in the house to welcome those who enter, making them part of their experience. In general, the atrium represents a “preparation” from one state to another. If the atrium is characterized by curved shapes, it promotes welcoming, as the curved line invites one to enter because it recalls the feeling of “taking refuge” and thus protection.
In accordance with what has been said so far, it seems obvious how the home can turn into a kind of “therapeutic environment,” as long as it is organized and built as much as possible in harmony with its surroundings and with oneself.
