Juan Domingo Santos, Granada, Spain, 1989-1999
218. Juan Domingo Santos /// Casa entre Medianeras /// Granada, Spain /// 1989-1999 Of Houses guest curated by The Intertwining (Paula V. Álvarez Benítez,
Nuria Álvarez Lombardero, Álvaro Carrillo Eguilaz, David Arredondo
Garrido, Francisco González de Canales, Vincent Morales Garoffalo and
Juan Antonio Sánchez Muñoz): “Opposed to those “architectural projects that wage war in isolation, putting their
trust in architectural discipline in order to carry out the work
successfully”, are those in which architecture helps give shape to
diverse events, conspiracies and relationships in order to lead to a way
of life that pleases the inhabitants. This is how Santos describes the
attitude behind “Casa entre Medianeras” a meta-house made out of 4
apartments whose inhabitants claim rights (desires) on the properties of
others, in order to be included into their own. The task of the
architect is not only to negotiate and define the exchanges, barters,
cessions or loans that may accommodate the (sometime conflicting)
desires of the inhabitants, but also to prepare architecture for those
yet to come. The result challenges the normative definition of what a
family, a home or a house is, envisioning new possibilities for
inhabitation. Traditional images of living and new conceptions for
inhabiting merge in the design, anticipating nomadic modes of existence
that, a decade later, and without the permission of architects,
initiatives like Airbnb would successfully work out. But in this house
architectural design is not just a scenario or a tool for inhabiting;
rather it is one of many actors in the promiscuous equations of life.” (Text: Paula V. Álvarez / Plans and images courtesy of Juan Domingo Santos. more info: http://www.juandomingosantos.com/Juan_Domingo_Santos/MedianerasTextos_eng.html .)
