Making Home: Domestic Rituals and Forms of Dwelling at the Turn of the 21st Century

Drawing from different interdisciplinary vantage points, the thesis aims to retrace the complex evolution of domestic spaces, specifically looking at how different ways of living translate into architecture. The ritualisation of everyday life, while being an essential object of analysis in anthropological and archaeological studies, seems to elude the current architectural discussion on home. Yet, rituals, habits and cycles have always played a crucial role in shaping the way houses are inhabited, domestic hierarchies are formed, and spaces are designed. Especially today, urban living is confronted with persistent conditions of uncertainty, scarcity and contingency, which translate in the continuous fluctuation of groups of coexistence and of domestic relations of cohabitation. In this context, domestic rituals offer a method of measuring time and space, defining a framework to establish relationships with other human beings in the attempt to form communities and societies. Moving across different temporal and geographical contexts, the research examines the evolution of rituals and cycles and their respective spatial responses in the attempt to frame their influence on the domestic environment. The inquiry critically assesses built and unbuilt projects, uncovering what legacies of thought endure today, what are the new emerging habits, and what is their significance in the evolution of contemporary forms of urban dwelling.