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According to Friedensreich Hundertwasser’s theory of the five skins, human beings do not inhabit only their bodies, but are surrounded by five concentric skins that define their identity and their relationship with the world. The third of these layers is the house.
House numbering, which we perceive as a neutral and even banal element, is in fact the result of a military imposition that was deeply traumatic for the population of the eighteenth century. It constitutes one of the great triumphs of a society obsessed with classifying, ordering, and making both territory and its inhabitants legible. Houses were previously identified in more organic ways, leaving room for confusion, but also for forms of orientation based on knowledge of the territory, relationships, and memory; systems that were, on the other hand, far less efficient and more frustrating.
The project investigates a completely naturalized element of the urban landscape through a central question: how can specific, personal, and local singularities be sustained within a system that tends towards standardization, efficiency, and dehumanization?