Imaginarios del dormitorio : Arquitectura y literatura en Buenos Aires (1950-1970)

Abstract

Valeria Bril’s book studies both established and alternative imaginaries of the bedroom in housing in Buenos Aires during the period 1950–1970, based on a selection of novels and architectural publications from the time. The author proposes a journey through the bedroom spaces depicted in novels, revealing a range of images and metaphors that, from the realm of the “unreal,” question the “real” images produced by the discipline regarding this same space—one whose function and meaning quickly escape the boundaries of its own definition as a place for sleeping. It is through the contrast between literature and architecture that the book seeks to shed light on issues related to the inhabitant, spatial configurations, objects, and the symbolic dimension that distinguish the bedroom from other parts of the house. In doing so, the author demonstrates the complexity and multiplicity of meanings condensed in this space. Ultimately, she invites the reader to cross the threshold of the bedroom door and enter a different universe, where images of intimacy, confinement, the soul, and death, among others, may take on new meaning—and thus contribute to rethinking the established representations of bedrooms in architecture.