The Foundation of the Architects of Milan and the Social Housing Foundation have promoted the open call “Domestic Tales” addressed to architects, artists, professional and amateur photographers with the aim of investigating, through photography, the new ways of living in view of the continuous processes of spatial, social and economic transformation involving contemporary cities and people's lives.

In front of the genesis of new urban landscapes, new domestic landscapes open up as unusual scenes of everyday life, trying to respond to the individual's ancestral need to find a safe shelter and, at best, a place where they want to return in the evenings.

There are the informal and spontaneous spaces where domestic routines flow fluidly and reassuringly, from yoga (Federico Bianchini) or boxing sessions (Silvia Meazza), to evening reading inside the bathtub (Fulcro design); from laundry (Giulia Sansovini), to conviviality (Isil Argimak), to relaxing in the hammock (Chiara Lanfranconi, P22 Group).

There is the room that peeps out among the creepers (nice to think not because of neglect but because of the “green thumb” of its inhabitant, or because of the somewhat Ruskinian taste for nature's prevailing over architecture: Biagio Palmieri) and there are those who are content to enjoy green in the appurtenant spaces of an apartment building (Gianluca Rizzello).

There are the living “forges,” where the domestic space merges with that of work and creativity (Caterina Fabbrici, Federica Dattilo) among PCs, walk-in closets (Diego Papadia) and carpenter's tools (Mattia Gasparini), or in search of an order in the Kaos (MYH + VCASALINI).

There are the “suspended” and vaguely metaphysical spaces, waiting for something (a salvation?) to come (Studio AMMA), which one tries to glimpse from behind a window in the flow of life outside (Caterina Magatti) or which one catches accidentally, as Eugenio Montale foreshadowed, in an unexpected and revealing phenomenon, like a thread of light that rips through the darkness of the laundry room (Ilaria Gambuti).

Finally, there is the fortuitous shelter of those who adapt to live on a makeshift mattress, under a porch (Sabrina Giannasi) or at the market (El Castellari) or those who find in community relations the only real "living room" worth living in (Inhabiting Outdoor).

Although in the contextual and cultural diversities of the different approaches, common denominator is resilience: the adaptive capacity of spaces and people to find that magical fit thanks to which dwelling, in the best of cases, is not only a necessary and sufficient condition for survival but the key to identity and belonging to a place, however changeable or random this may be.

The initiative is part of the “Cara Casa” Festival, organized by the Foundations of the Architects of Milan, Genoa, Venice and the Association of Architects of Bologna, in collaboration with the University of Genoa, the Social Housing Foundation and the Association AmbienteAcqua APS. The event, which will take place between April and October 2023 in the four Italian cities involved and in foreign venues in Paris and Amsterdam, aims to promote contemporary Italian architecture by raising awareness among a wide audience on the issues of urban quality, planning and regeneration.

The 20 best images selected in March by the judging panel as part of the open call “Domestic Tales” will be displayed in Milan in a traveling exhibition, in the venues identified by the Festival. The complete programme of the Festival can be viewed on the website of the Association of Architects of Milan.