De Casas para Casas

Abstract

Inhabiting stands as one of the most debated and studied themes in the scope of the discipline of Architecture. Believing that it's through the House that the architect gets the closest to the "end user" of its work, the inhabitant, in the housing project we assume the commitment of creating the space that will not only shelter as well as induce/conduct ways of appropriation of the House. The excessive construction of new buildings led to the abandonment of the existing aged buildings, which led to the need or imperative of recovery and reutilization of these buildings, in the perspective of sustainability. This dissertation aims, in this way, to present a reflection about what it is to rehabilitate a house so it can remain a house, recovering lost qualities and integrating what it needs so its existence can be extended. This work is developed around a small proposal, an exercise of experimentation, exploring and searching for the clarification of concepts and ideas conducted by the theoretical investigation. The process is enriched by crossing this with the analyses of case studies as a sample of its built application through distinct approaches. Most buildings allows, through it's life span, the overlay of shapes and new uses, accumulating and stratifying several meanings, but not all have the same ability to be reutilized. The adaptability of buildings of urban housing was always an essential condition for the development of the city that we should enhance. The development of an analyses about the theme of housing and the transformations verified at the level of its adaptation and circumstances that alter the uses and the ways of domestic space, presents a small gathering of reflections about housing in the city. It's important to perceive the contemporariness, or lack of it, of some of these ways of inhabiting, knowing that, supported by the experiments from the past we can safely idealize a way of inhabiting in tune with our time.