Let’s talk about houses

: dwelling in (concrete) liquid modernity

Abstract

Dwelling is perhaps the primordial invention of human existence in response to Nature’sunpredictability and adversity. Culture Studies have been responsible for a series ofintersections in the research of certain issues such as “dwelling” which take on atransdisciplinary approach. This dissertation aims to think about what it means to live inLiquid Modernity, a concept introduced by the Polish sociologist, Zygmunt Bauman. Thismetaphor also serves as a conceptual framework for the analysis of the social, cultural andspatial changes reflected in dwellings since the beginning of Modernity, highlighted by ashift from a paradigm of stability to a paradigm of mobility. As the boundaries betweenpublic/private and interior/exterior are smoothing, the house is becoming an increasinglyfluid, permeable and porous space. More than on the interior, this work seeks to reflect onthe interiority of the dwelling. At first, concepts that were crucial during the research processare clarified and further analysed. In a second phase, these concepts are discussed based onthree single-family houses built in exposed concrete. Concrete — ‘liquid stone’ — isparticularly important in this work because it asserts itself as a ubiquitous medium ofconstruction that physically and metaphysically reflects some issues inherent to (Liquid)Modernity.

Date of Award	29 Apr 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Luísa Leal de Faria (Supervisor)