Sloft #9

Sharing Space

By 2050, according to the UN, the global population is expected to reach almost 9.6 billion people, concentrating in cities, while the habitable surface of our planet is projected to shrink due to rising sea levels and desertification. It therefore seems necessary to prepare ourselves to "share space." This is what we at Sloft have been anticipating for several years by promoting a more compact housing design, implementing stimulating, beautiful, and originally "sensible" solutions, to allow everyone to envision a sanctuary in our expanding megacities.

In this ninth bilingual issue:

• 8 Exclusive Guided Tours:

In Charenton, Paris, Marseille, or Sydney, our new anthology reveals sensitive homes that serve as extensions of their occupants' bodies, allowing them to feel intimately connected to their environment and truly at home. This is the miracle of "lived-in" habitats, according to philosopher Céline Bonicco-Donato, unlike "interchangeable" accommodations for eternal "visitors," who, in doing so, might be monopolizing the space (and resources) of others.

• A special feature on "interior architecture": Sleeping at Villa Medici

The time for "Xanadus," those lavish and private estates symbolized by Charles Foster Kane's in Orson Welles's Citizen Kane—a primitive Mar-a-Lago inspired by ancient princely residences—is over. The Villa Medici in Rome, on the other hand, lives with its time and pushes the boundaries of openness and sharing of its magnificent spaces even further. A refuge for artists, it becomes a refuge for all thanks to its program of renovating former studio-apartments converted into guest rooms.

• An exclusive interview with artist Pier Stockholm

To experience the interiority of one's shelter as a motionless exploration of oneself and the world is to open up immense spaces without monopolizing the Earth. Artist Pier Stockholm envisions his studio as a primary envelope of life, within which he nests others, right up to his "cabin," a poetic and exploratory refuge where he recharges and expands his creative and spiritual horizons. For astrophysicist Aurélien Barrau is convinced: rather than seeking to uncover all the universe's secrets in a technological frenzy that propels us into intersidereal void, let us accept the mystery of the world by developing our poetic gaze. And in doing so, by preserving it, we will share it with all living things.

Eclecticism, poetry, art, escape, beauty, and innovation are definitely not a function of square footage!