“Building, Dwelling, Thinking” Still Today

The field of investigation to explore is the sense of dwelling, in the contemporary society. In a time in which the city seems to have lost its meaning, the search for the sense of contemporary dwelling is confronted by the apparent loss of sense of the city. Is the contemporary age really the “post-city age”? The theme is the architectural image of dwelling. Today there is a separation between the architecture of designers and dwellers. Building, living and thinking are activities that are carried out separately by contemporary men. What answers can be provided by architecture to this contemporaneity? Is there only one architecture or do others exist? When is a real experience of contemporaneity denied in the first and second case? And when is it, in both cases, a true manifestation of contemporaneity? Is it possible to compare contemporary architecture, due to its ability of containing difference and similitude, to the concept of style? How is our contemporaneity represented by style? The relativism of the modern condition has lead to the proliferation of styles and to the assertion of a weak thought. The paper intends to explore the consequences of the weak thought on domestic architecture. In this sense, contemporary plans should not destroy the architectures of the past, they should make them outdated, integrating them when necessary, so that those who recognise themselves in them is not compelled to deny the recognition, and can on the contrary enrich their identity. Architectural style implies a concept that is often forgotten: beauty. In architecture beauty implies many things, beginning with the paradigms chosen. The word beauty often brings to mind style and in the worst case taste. A further consideration will be made on the concepts of style and taste and on their consequences on sustainable architecture.