The hidden talk of domestic space: family patterns embodied in the apartment layouts of contemporary Lisbon

Abstract

This paper corresponds to an initial development of a research that gave rise to a PhD thesis, called Home and Social Change: reading Portuguese society change through home, concluded in 2010 in ISCTE- Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal. In order to identify a typology of domestic structures, we developed a content analysis of the interior plans of housing, using real estate advertisements that were published in a popular Portuguese weekly newspaper (N= 70). The analysis identifies a typology composed by 6 types of domestic structure: 1) the pure modern matrix; 2) the transition traditional – modern; 3) continuous couple’s privatization or the modern matrix with moderate reinforcement of conjugal privacy; 4) continuous privatization of the whole family; 5) radical couple’s privatization; 6) radical privatization of the whole. Despite the predominance of the domestic modern matrix developed by the architects of the Modern Movement, the few changes observed were essentially related to the private sphere of home: the bedroom area. This should be interpreted as the partial embodiment of one of the main aspects of contemporary society: the process of individualization and the need for autonomy within the family.