Casa contra arquitectura, Bernard Rudofsky y el “arte de habitar”

Abstract

Are house and architecture the same? Adolf Loos states two possible architectures: one with a practical, material purpose, which we name House; another with an artistic, selfless purpose, which we call Architecture. The home would be made against the architect, because the house does have a purpose (to inhabit), and will only be possible when someone decides everything for himself. This paper explores the possibility that the house is not more than the result of wear and tear by a family: accumulation of objects and memories. But we need to learn how to inhabit. That is why Bernard Rudofsky distinguishes between apparatus and instrument. Apparatus, which works automatically, against instrument, which requires a non-automated individual to produce its own sound. His two houses in Procida and Malaga can help to clarify what is exactly the "art of living". For Rudofsky, the most wonderful house in the world would not mean anything if we don't know how to inhabit.