ONCE WITHIN A SPACE

Domestic architecture as theological medium

(Choreographing space against loneliness)

Fer x CultivAR Architects

There is a dream within Western culture that rich and poor people follow equally— the belief that our truest self and our best life is formed and found when we are as independent and autonomous as possible. Within this ideal, anything less; anything that makes us more dependent on others and takes away some of our control will diminish our lives and our very being. Our domestic architecture serves this dream; our homes are built to this brief. And we are lonelier and more anxious within them.

Once Within a Space is an architectural home designed to a different brief. As an alternative, we offer a concept home that enables households to extend beyond the nuclear, biological and familiar and to live together in one place for life. The design is based on the reality that the best life is the communal life. But communal life can also be— to our surprise— the life that enhances our individual self and does not diminish it. Once Within a Space offers a model of a home designed to this brief; a home where we do not need to live at a distance from one another in order to protect the differences between one another.