Decomposition – Composition: The Neapolitan Palazzo

Much has been written about the domestic life of Naples, which could be brought down to a simple word: frantic. Yet, the spatial setting of this frenetic life is its perfect contradiction: a hieratic and permanent architecture. The character of the city is deeply rooted is this combination : a timeless architecture supporting a diversity of uses and life trajectories. The notion of ‘referential type’ is a powerful tool to identify this character. The referential type is a housing standard, usually massively produced in the golden age of a place (the Berlin Mietshaus, the Haussmann buildings in Paris, etc.). It is an inseparable combination of spatial and socio-cultural features, offering a condensed overview of the dwelling characteristics of a specific place. Given this double - spatial and social - association, understanding the spatial constituents of a referential type enlightens the socio-cultural character of a particular place . In Naples, the referential type is clearly the 18th century palazzo