The house as a Labyrinth: more than meets the eye

History of Architecture is full of examples of application of labyrinth, especially as a protective device in city and fortress’ walls and doors. But Labyrinth is a very ancient term comprehending very different structures and figures, all linked to the idea of human motion. The classic labyrinth is uni-cursal: it has an entrance, a long tortuous path leading unavoidably to a center and then back on your own steps. The mannerist labyrinth, the so-called maze, is poly-cursal: it has one or more entrances and a tree-structured path with t-junctions and cul-de-sac; you have to find the right way through it to get to its center. The third one is the net: it may have neither a center nor limits but endless entrances; each place is theoretically linked to every else place in it and each person follows a different route through it. These three models clearly embody different way of conceiving man’s role in the world as well as a house embody cultural peculiarities of a particular time and place. Nothing better than an house’s plan, with its walls and doors, can tell us about its family’s organization and hierarchies, as well as working and religious habits. We all are aware to be living in an era dominated by a culture of image that have been increasing since the application of the Renaissance perspective’s principles to the radial structures of French gardens. The loft is still the most wished apartment: its panoptical, flexible, open space, slightly rythmed by thin supports, represents the promise to keep everything under control and the freedom to choose each moment your own style of life. Contemporary architecture offers us a wide scenery of bizarre residences, which may be interpreted as an attempt to build a labyrinth, following the basic idea of a step-by-step space: a restricted visibility of interior spaces that has to be replaced by the continuous movement of its inhabitants. It is not an absolutely new way of designing house but it sometimes assumes today a metaphysical and symbolic character and represents an interesting trend to affirm the importance of a sensorial architectural beyond the eye. This application of labyrinthine models seems more and more interesting for it happens neither in a garden nor a museum but right in the private holy domestic reign. It probably has consequences on everyday actions like cooking or talking or watching TV. But we can’t’ disregard the important role the house plays for growing children: they unconsciously perceive its space as metaphor of society and they learn to think of world in a form influenced by the structure in which they live.