This project involving “houses with a central plan” upsets the traditional organization of the dwelling, based on distributive and functional diagrams, and turns towards a household space defined first and foremost by its poetic and affective dimension. Since the early 1980s, Andrea Branzi has been highlighting the “weakness” of the architectural project, and focusing his research on objects in the environment. Complying with a logic which situates the sensitive individual in the middle of his environment, these houses actually stress the fundamental role of furnishing elements, with architecture being no more than what is “around” objects. In trying to invent new ways of using space and giving rise to novel relations, the architect thus starts out from the domestic object (a table or a carpet placed at the emotional hub of the home) and gives the other functions of the house their sense and cultural relevance.
