Luxury architecture.

What is “luxury” in architecture?

Nowadays, to live “luxury” is to live in lifeless square meter houses, in uncharacterized spaces without the essence of inhabiting, to live “luxury” is to live in “fashionable” areas, in geographical locations often without the quality of services necessary to enjoy the “luxury” of enjoying. The “luxury” of today is often a contemporary copy of the classic “luxury”, where the family was divided into several private nuclei housed within a larger space, reaching the scale to create houses within the house.
We are creating “luxury” today as houses of 600m2 for a family of 3 in the exclusive area of ​​X. It’s taking a look at the main real estate search engines and everything that goes from 3 bedrooms and 200m2, as well as the property being located in the exclusive zone of X, is automatically rated “luxury”.

But what is “luxury” in architecture?


Are the many square meters built a sign of “luxury”?
Gone are the days when “luxury” in architecture was gold utensils, faucets, handles, ceiling mouldings painted in gold, frescoes, and furniture decorated in silver. In contemporary times, “luxury”, the real “luxury” is not the extra and empty square meters, the real “luxury” is the experience, the living, the sensations, and the dialogue created by the spaces and their inhabitants. The chapter on experience includes what gives me this space that no other gives me. The experience brings with it the dynamics of the house, the comfort, called domotics, geothermal, high-performance windows, etc. Sensations are the communication between textures, colours, materials and the inhabitant. Finally, the dialogue between spaces and inhabitants offers us the “luxury” of growing, expanding, recovering and relaxing with all the above ingredients.

The vast majority of “luxury” has a very strong social, cultural and economic value. Not only do we socially divide zones by “luxury” zones, but also by “luxury” houses, but also the cultural character that infuses the word “luxury” is quite strong, it means power, it means having, strong nouns that often do not express the lived architectural reality, economically “luxury” is a source of profit and sometimes profit for “luxury” is empty without experience, meaningless.

But, living the “luxury” what will it be?
Living “luxury” can be living in a 20m2 wooden cabin on a cliff overlooking the sea, living “luxury” can be living in a 30m2 glass house in the middle of a forest, or living in a 250m2 industrial loft, living “luxury” can also be living on a plane from city to city.

On one of my trips to Portugal, I had the opportunity to visit a big project, in a “luxury” area, with “luxury” houses, sold at…”luxury” prices!
A pleasant visit to one of these properties was simply the realization that “luxury” is sold with inferior quality finishes, spaces and equipment. Spaces of many square meters empty of intention, rooms without just space, areas of toilet treated like any bathroom in a warehouse of materials, details without thinking, low-quality utensils, among other pearls… at the end of the visit, the price… I believe that the target customer of these spaces is the customer who is delighted by the location of the house and not the experience inside it, because there is no “luxury” experience there, Portugal and this area, in particular, are in vogue, but putting the label “luxury” ” in this context is little more than ridiculous.

In my experience with many “multi-million” clients, the so-called “luxury” is not what we regularly sell in architecture. For many, “luxury” is a space with well-thought-out details, with well-proportioned, balanced geometries. “luxury”, it’s the texture of the plans, the way daylight creates games of light and shadow and how the night and artificial lighting transform the daytime theatre into another environment, it’s the quality of materials, vibration and communication of the same with the inhabitant; but above all, for everyone the true “luxury” is the experience, the experience of home, of shelter, of retreat, of the safe harbour, of mothership where they recover and expand after the end of the day. For others, it’s the small retreat spaces with the sea and the sunset on 15m2, minimalist without the slightest distraction…

Is luxury an economic or an emotional issue?