Among 999 questions on the theme of living, everyone can find their own interpretive key to the most interesting, important or urgent topics for the future, which is already in the present. These are the most intriguing projects on the idea of home from the exhibition at the Triennale di Milan.
An open building site of proposals, a collective exhibition in constant evolution created with fifty curatorial subjects, companies, creatives, communities and schools: this is 999. Una collezione di domande sull'abitare contemporaneo. An exhibition born to pose questions to everyone, one that offers no ready-made solutions, but a broad and fluid panorama of projects revolving around the complexity of living in the cities and homes of our time, in which the future is already here. Until 2 April, at the Triennale di Milan.
These are some of the questions most in keeping with LifeGate's values, each matched by an interesting project. But the invitation is to go and discover, among the 999 questions, the ones most stimulating for each person.
Read also: Stefano Mirti. Con queste 999 domande scopriamo che il futuro dell'abitare è qui
This is the question at the origin of the project Strunà (Struttura/Natura) by Saperlab, Abc, Politecnico di Milano. The idea is to create modular units that can become a domestic garden, welcoming the spontaneous desire for nature and combining it with a structure that adapts to the space. The installation showcases the contemporary possibilities of computational design techniques, paired with advanced manufacturing systems.
The project is entitled I lari. Gli spiriti protettori della casa, by Tam Tam – Alessandro Guerriero and Antonio Zuiani + C-zone. The authors write: "Against the liquid flow of time in our cities and in the life of our homes, in a frenetic mingling that gives rise to unending change, to an obsessive exchange between centre and periphery, to a chase that no longer knows any gravitational centres, faint and pinpoint aesthetic presences stand in counterpoint, offering vital handholds: objects capable of expanding one's breath, after moments of restrained wonder; new objects that bring to mind wider spaces." These are the lares of the home — symbolic, protective objects. The first were designed by well-known architects: Andrea Branzi, Alessandro Mendini, Daniela Puppa, Franco Raggi, Lapo Binazzi, Trix and Robert Haussmann, and Michele De Lucchi, to whom others will be added; they will find in the exhibition space materials and tools to continue the project, making drawings, small sculptures in clay, in plaster or with plasticine, and much more, on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The diary is documented on Facebook and in timelapse.
What if people were not the only inhabitants for whom a home is designed? What if many invisible entities populated our dwellings, accompanying us in everyday life? The project House of the invisibles by All(Zone) Bangkok revolves around these questions, around the symbolic theme of the invisible inhabitants of a home — a folk belief that has always been one of the main concerns in South-East Asia when one decides to build a house. Wherever we choose to live, that place will already be populated by many living and non-living entities before we even arrive. To accept their invisible presence and begin a peaceful coexistence, we must therefore build a home for them too. And so, for the exhibition, they designed small spirit houses/shrines for the spirits that inhabit our homes.