ARCH_419 International Housing Studio: ‘Cagliari: Spaces of Relation and Privacy’

Climate, materiality, space, and ways of inhabiting architecture and the city are intrinsically related. The city of Cagliari, capital of the island of Sardinia in Italy, is strategically located in the heart of the Mediterranean between Italy, France, and Spain. Historically, it has been a place of transit for civilizations, cultures, and economies; therefore, this island has been a tactical place from which to control the “Mare Nostrum,” our sea.

These very characteristics have triggered important urban transformations and housing alterations due to the mass tourism that has emerged over time. The domestic architecture, both existing and new construction, does not meet the requirements of current residents. At the same time, real estate speculation is forcing many to move outside the city center.

The site for this course was an area located between the ancient walled city and the urban environment that evolved over the 19th and 20th centuries The extraordinary material and wealth of this place reinforces the value and environmental quality of the chosen site.

The house—the domestic space and interior distribution—was scrutinized to adapt a design for emerging economies related to tourism and living, such as room rentals or mixed commercial and domestic use, that affect private and public spaces. This involved reflecting on the relationship and limits between public and domestic spaces.

Students’ exploration of the domestic space allowed for relocating functions in the home to the extent that space, culture, climate, and private economies could be balanced. The objective of the course was to interrelate all these conditions by projecting the organization of domestic spaces, calibrating the relationship between residents’ collective spaces and the city’s places of transit, on the border between the urban space and the private space of the collective dwelling.