A Study on the Circulation Space in the Residential Units of Luigi Caccia Dominioni

Abstract

This research aimed to provide materials for starting a critical/historical analysis of the figure of the Italian architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni (1913-2016); a designer whose position as an “outsider” has prevented, to date, in-depth critical studies. The study focused on the circulation space of the residential units designed between the 1940s and the late 1960s. The floor-plans, fundamental tool in Caccia Dominioni’s method, were used as a primary source. The analysis highlighted unique ideas, which differ significantly from the current practice. Caccia Dominioni, in his buildings, changes the concept of corridor from merely functional circulation space to real room, usable, livable, with the same dignity as the rest of the house, and able to provide the user with a visual/emotional experience (keeping even so its role of circulation). This change is achieved through features that the analysis identified as a) considerable size, b) functional zoning and usability, and c) complex, articulate and scenographic layout. Despite the uniqueness of each Caccia Dominioni's project -an architect who rejects the standard- the study was able to identify some recurrent types of corridor arrangement, which have been named linear, linear split, parallel, and "L"-shaped. For each of these features, the reasons and historical references –the latter an essential issue in the poetics of Caccia Dominioni- were discussed. From the specific topic selected, the study also extracted some more general considerations on 1) Caccia Dominioni's personal view and development of Louis Kahn's served/serving space concept, and on 2) Caccia Dominioni's belonging -but from a unique position- to those architects who aimed at “humanizing” the Modern Movement's paradigm. This research tried to show how the work of Luigi Caccia Dominioni is not that elusive topic that critics always approached with caution, but a theme that, once fixed some reference points, can be investigated with profit.