If the unmanageable enfilades of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century rooms without corridors, then the modernist fragmentation of the countless small Existenzminimums, and then the equally unmanageable prairies of more recent open-space layouts have challenged the balances of our increasingly less standardised domestic lives, we should not overlook those cases, those undercurrents, that seek an alternative to such standards and trends: choosing the sculptural gesture is always one of the most interesting.

Perhaps it is not a question of choosing the radical gestures of Gordon Matta-Clark, unequalled in powerfully exploring the deepest nature of houses, but perhaps a little difficult to inhabit – as they entailed uncovering, carving or cutting houses in two.
Still, reorganizing interiors around a core, choosing to think in terms of outscaled objects that unify space, rather than walls – oh, the common persecution of plasterboards – that fragment it, is something that has been fascinating us for long. It already fascinated modern movement itself, with the solid cores around which the transparencies of Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House and other glass houses were articulated; and today it has definitely gained the front row, as we get closer to understand how much we need to reuse the built heritage we already have, instead of building new buildings.

Amidst large, precious inhabitable volumes, shapeshifting totems, sculptural gestures made by subtraction (turns out Matta-Clark was not such an inappropriate reference after all), outscaled furnishings, color blocks, opacities and translucencies, we browsed the interiors we published recently, to select a dozen of those sculptures, born inside houses so that people can finally inhabit them as they wish.

An interlocking game reminiscent of the engineering of a Matryoshka doll, the reflections of Modern masters (from Jean Prouvé to Le Corbusier to Charlotte Perriand) on minimum housing and the material preciosity of the Barcelona Pavilion by Mies Van der Rohe: this is Golden Box, the interior renovation project of a small dwelling in Arzignano in the province of Vicenza, realised by young award-winning studio AMAA which, taking its inspiration from a challenging context, aimed to push the research on living experience beyond the limits of traditional conventions. Read more

Surrounding a multifunctional totem emerging in the space, distinguishing living and kitchen through a mirrored surface bordering the entrance, a bar area toward the sofa and a wine cellar toward the table, the new configuration of an apartment on Via Nava, articulates between dynamism, color, interconnected and open spaces. The intervention by studio Atomaa transforms in fact the traditional Milanese flat layout – subdivided into multiple rooms closed off by doors – into a lively and dynamic place with no barriers. Following the aim of merging rooms and dissolving partitions, few doors have been inserted, all different from one another: some standard, some double doors, one similar to a wall and high up to the ceiling. Read more

Spanish architecture firm TAKK has completed the renovation of a 50-square-meter apartment located in Barcelona with a total material execution budget of only 10,000 euros. After already several experiments in redefining domestic space, the studio was oriented in its choices with the goal of updating the house toward new patterns of use and environmental awareness in the context of the current energy crisis and climate change. Read more

An apartment in Dablice, a municipal district of Prague, Czech Republic, is located within a 1970s housing complex distinguished by standardized, prefabricated houses. The apartment, poorly lit prior to construction, was renovated by Papundekl architects, who shaped a versatile subdivision of space and inserted glass-cement partitions. Read more

A flat in the centre of Lisbon, in the Campo Grande district, has been renovated by Atelier José Andrade Rocha, which has transformed it by proposing a new distribution and organisation of spaces. The apartment is located on the top floor of a 1960s building and overlooks the park through large windows.  Read more