Dall'Orto / Rural Habitat at 0° Latitude

Rural Habitat at 0° Latitude The Architectural Project as a Tool for a Critical Investigation on Living

Author: Valentina Dall'Orto, Politecnico di Milano

Supervisor: Andrea Gritti, Professor Dr., Associated Professor DAStU, Politecnico di Milano; Antonio di Campli, Politecnico di Torino; Franco Tagliabue, Politecnico di Milano

Research stage: initial doctoral stage

Category: Extended abstract

Abstract

The research is focused on individuating a proper representation code, useful for the interpretation of the blurred condition of contemporary rural dwelling, through the analysis of the house. This particular object has been selected as a material expression of changes of inhabiting practices occurring in the Global South. Its architecture often expresses a process of cultural hybridization output of anonymous spatial paradigms in perpetual transition, rather than a strong relation with the territory.

The investigation will take place in the Andean region of Loja, in the southern Ecuador, a frontier land crossed by several environmental and socio-economic crucial issues, resulting in the generation of original praxis in the production of domestic space.

Architecture in envisioned as an important agent of transformation in re-shaping the future of rural environment, for this reason it’s relevant to speculate on the project tools to build up a critical representation of contemporary rurality.

Keywords: Rural, House, Global