Abstract

The masters by research project was titled Inn Housing: The Delights of the Private Sector. It was a space for exploring my practice with the development of a conceptual piece about the shifting condition of the community housing produced in inner cities. The research aim was to develop an argument that inquired into the productive meaning of the application of glass walls on the city's housing façades; being these elements that represented a mode of living unknown to my experience and that challenged the way I perceive the relation between the interior intimate and private space of the house with the public city. A confrontation with a different proposal of housing that gave me enough room to speculate about a significant change that may influence the treatment of the private-intimate space of the housing with the public realm. Since the importance acquired by the glass surface seems to encourage (or put emphasis) on the visual experience by way these hermetic façades visually link the interior space of the house with the exterior, exposing views of either one side or the other of the glass skin. Thus the central research questions raised by this research were: what might be the conception that has shaped this housing where the interior appears connected to the exterior through the glass façade? And significantly, does the visual relation with the glass potentially influences individual behaviour and therefore constitutes different modes for dwelling? The method involved in the development of my argument was primary based on a theoretical framework in conjunction with a practice: the construction of visual material that respond to the stimuli generated by the readings. Whereas the selection of theory and readings was based on the obvious need for material that could help me understand and develop certain aspects of my research, images were used to explore my own thinking responses in states of uncertainty, as these offer me a more clear access to my own thinking material once are projected outside my mind