Porches, lobbies, staircases, elevators, corridors, shared terraces, bike rooms, vegetable gardens... Common areas raise questions about both their design and their use.
At a time when housing programming is expanding from eminently pragmatic resolutions to sometimes utopian considerations, the place of common areas is being actively questioned. Architects, developers and landlords are all aiming to create new spaces through sometimes experimental projects, giving them generous proportions and, above all, unprecedented common uses. Through a historical and analytical analysis, Aldric Beckmann and Jean-Philippe Hugron will take a closer look at this part of the world forgotten by historians and critics alike: common areas. In the form of both a scholarly inventory and a book-length investigation, this study will not only establish the history of common areas, but also their topicality and future. Part historical overview, part contemporary analysis and part forward-looking exercise, this study aims to reach out to the general public by tackling a subject with which they are familiar, as well as being, for architects and building owners alike, an aid to tomorrow's design.
