The origins of domestic space

The Origins of Domestic Space

Professor Pier Vittorio Aureli

The course is part of a three-year trajectory dedicated to a comprehensive history of domestic space and its relationship with urban form from its prehistoric origins to neoliberal times. This year the course will be devoted to the origins of domestic space, from hunter-gatherer forms of life to the rise of private property.

Besides being a commonplace of our everyday existence, domestic space is a complex and often contradictory sphere in which care and oppression are constantly intertwined. While the term 'domestic' evokes a sense of familiarity and intimacy, its invention and development have often had more to do with government and power over subjects. The word itself, domestic, comes from domus whose etymology is linked to the Greek root demi, to build; yet, its many declensions gave origin to words such as dominion, domination, etc. We can say that domestic space implies a vector of command over its subjects. The question is why domestic space has become such a hegemonic form of life for the human species. The answer to this question is neither simple nor obvious, and we should resist any fatalistic understanding of domesticity as an inevitable condition of humanity. By studying the beginnings of domestic space, we can see how the process of sedentarization of the human species was far from being linear and instead consisted of a complex back-and-forth that involved a great range of place-making strategies. This little-studied aspect of domesticity--especially in architectural education--casts a very important light on the history of domestic space and forces us to question many assumptions about the most ubiquitous kind of architecture, the house. Indeed, the key goal of this course is not erudition in ancient history--although this is an important objective--but to challenge our presumed knowledge about things we take for granted, such as family relationships, the individuation of gender roles, and the hierarchical organization of societies in classes. Above all, we'll go beyond dichotomies such as savage vs. civilized or primitive vs. advanced that to this day still plague architects' understanding of architecture and social formations. The course will discuss examples from different parts of the world and will focus especially on the relationship between architecture, class, and gender relationships. A very important focus of the lectures will be what the archaeologist Richard Bradley has called the 'ritualization of life,' a reading that expands the concept of ritual far beyond our current understanding that limits the idea of ritual to the sphere of the sacred. On the contrary, ritualistic behavior was one of the most important aspects of human existence and perhaps the fundamental link between the human being and architectural form. Another important aspect that will be discussed is the politics of domestic space and how its evolution is evidence of power relationships within ancient social groups. For this reason, special attention will be given to the relationship between the house, its ecological context, the formation of settlements and in some case the development of cities.

- Lecture 1:

September 11th

Hunter-gatherers beyond the myth

- Lecture 2

September 18th

Are hunter-gatherers an egalitarian society?

- Lecture 3

September 25th

The complex transition from foraging to agriculture

- Lecture 4

October 2nd

From circle to rectangle: Early examples of domestic architecture

- Lecture 5

October 9th

The ritualization of life: from house to temple

- Lecture 6

October 16th

Early Cities: Sumer, Indus and Cucuteni-Trypillia

- Lecture 7

October 30th

Domestic space and settlement form in Ancient Egypt

- Lecture 8

November 6th

Domestic space and settlement form in Mesoamerica

- Lecture 9

November 13th

Polis and oikos in Ancient Greek Literature

- Lecture 10

November 20th

From megaron to oikos: the architecture of domestic space in Ancient Greece

- Lecture 11

November 27th

The domus: domesticity in Ancient Rome

- Lecture 12

December 4th

Negative utopia: the rise of the villa

Course assistant: Arch. scientific collaborator, Marson Korbi