Reconciling Existing Architecture With Contemporary Living: An Inhabitant-centered
Approach for the Renewal of Modern Housing

University of Naples Federico II, Italy

 Abstract: One of the challenges of the present is to understand how to update a large housing stock inherited from the Modern. Imagined as a genre of production, Modern movement design research was focused exclusively on housing determined by economic and regulatory parameters. The inhabitant was pushed aside. The modification of domestic living models due to contemporary social changes made it necessary to define new paradigms centered on comfort and on the respect for the needs of the inhabitants. Looking at two European examples, this contribution aims to define a new design approach in which the inhabitant is at the center. Reflecting on the interaction between inhabitant and domestic space, leads the contemporary architect to understand the importance of the performance of the inhabitants who continuously adapt living space according to their own aspirations. This almost daily action can be an important tool for contemporary architects to redevelop and renovate the existing residential heritage.