KOOZ What prompted the project?

AA The project aims to investigate housing conditions in metropolises, trying to describe real (or possibly absurd) situations, through the canonical language of architecture. Starting from a graphic language that is halfway between that of real estate ads and the precise and meticulous one of architecture offices, the project tries to investigate the problems and contradictions of the contemporary city, both in written and architectural language.

KOOZ What questions does the project raise and which does it address?

AA What is” Milanesissimo“? it is certainly one of the main ones. In Italian, “Milanesissimo” is an absolute superlative “very Milanese” – and it is widely used, suggesting that there is a Milanese classification – something that is more Milanese than something else. Indeed in architecture there is a very strong identity of Milanese architecture and there are many publications in recent years that have used this adjective in the title: “Milanese entrances” “Milanese architects” “Milanese houses” … and then I wondered starting right from volume “Case Milanesi” (which describes a Milanese architecture of the masters, made of beautiful projects, which however today seems unattainable to most) what is the Milanese architecture today – or rather – the very Milanese one? The answer is sarcastically – that the housing solutions that best describe today’s Milan are exorbitant-priced studios.

KOOZ What informed the choice of the plan as projection through which to narrate the various speculations?

AA The architectural plan is that type of representation that leaves no room for interpretation. Real estate ad websites are full of photographs that purposely try to distort the spatial perception of the proposed homes. If a room is very small, the measurability in plan is objective; this type of language serves to feed the absurdity of the advertisements and the contradiction that may exist between description and representation.

KOOZ What is the dialogue between drawing and caption? How necessary is the latter?

AA The book has no written parts, with the exception of a final text by Cino Zucchi – entitled “Autocad sleep generates monsters” – and the captions. In this obsessive cataloged sequence of rigorously drawn architectural plans described by a few words that give the room a name and add information such as rental cost, location and contractual conditions, the drawing cannot do without text and conversely.

Therefore, it is not a question of simple captions describing the project, but real integral parts of the project, which reveal its meaning – absurd and surreal – and the theme that that house faces.

KOOZ What prompted the choice of Milan as site for the experimentation?

AA Milan is the city where I personally lived for several years, starting from my university years. It is a city that in Italy seems essential for certain sectors. It seems to be the most European and with the most future-oriented gaze. This is obviously good from certain points of view, but in my opinion also bad, if we consider some aspects. One of these is, as I try to make clear from the book, the compromise that some people are forced to undergo in order to live in the city: very high rents for a few square meters and solutions bordering on the absurd. I don’t think Milan has a consistent housing problem compared to Europe and the world, like London, Paris, or like many Asian cities, but it is important to ask the question about the direction in which a city is going: what is the model to which it is going?

KOOZ How does the project deploy the use of satire to critically define and explore the notion of "abitare" in the contemporary Italian city?

AA “Case Milanesissime” is not really about design: it is more about a sequence of plausible housing solutions, which are already part of the city and which do not (or at least, not always) have a design thought behind them; I would say that it is mostly informal architecture, situations that exist because there are landlords whose only purpose is to maximize profit – by placing as many beds as possible in a few square meters. (See – House for 5 students in the Bovisasca area). From this point of view, satire seeks to exaggerate existing situations that tend to the absurd, as an alarm bell to realize a problem – first social and cultural – and only later architectural.

KOOZ How and to what extent is this condition common to the contemporary city?

AA It is very important to specify that the book is not about houses for sale, but only about rentals. This is because I believe that the condition common to contemporary Western cities is transience. It is much easier to accept certain remedied housing conditions, thinking that one has to stay there for a short time – a few months or a few years – rather than for longer periods. The common feature of contemporary cities seems to me to be the widespread compromise that is made to have the opportunity to stay there.

KOOZ Reduced to an "Existenzminimum" whereby the user cannot even access the domestic space, how is the project a commentary on the increasingly expensive cost of living in cities today and the consequences that this may have on the fabric of our metropolis?

AA In the sequence of plans in the book, these housing solutions always seem to float around the sheet, where the inside is the living space and the outside is the unknown. I think that a fundamental role in countering certain market dynamics is played by politics – both in terms of controlling the increase in rental costs – and in terms of urban management. The problem of the small house at a high price is not a problem of the individual but a problem of the city, because if in your house you don’t have a living room, you must be able to find a counterpart in the public space. If this is lacking, the city has failed and politics has the task of remedying this problem.