The Spaces of Everyday Eros. Designing Opportunities for Spontaneity

Abstract

Considering how critical sex is in people’s lives, it could be bewildering it could be bewildering to notice that architects mainly did not consider it. While dozens of sociological and urban studies have inquired into the sexual dimension of the city (with sometimes questionable assumptions and outputs), architectural design studies have quite invariably excluded sex, not even considering it among the various functions and standards of the house. However, it is possible to trace a history of the relation between space and eros: a continuous reciprocal influence detectable in buildings and imaginaries. The paper inquires this relation from an architectural point of view, extrapolating it from the field of the unsaid – and the unspeakable – and suggesting how to bring eros into architectural design. Such a design process requires “the discovery of a discovery”. By using indirect suggestions and faux proposals in a tactical way, the architect makes people aware of the relevance of space in their life and of the potentiality of the intimacies of space. This discovery will make people willing to discover what they were not aware they wanted, making it possible to inquire into their own erotic space. Such a space may reflect their desires but, most importantly, it should enhance the “occasions of spontaneity”, increasing chances for eros to happen.