Denny Candotto

IN-HABIT-OUT

Five shadow boxes transform Milanese architecture into domestic miniatures; small

fragments of the city to hang, observe, and inhabit.

Extended Project Description

Milan does not reveal itself in tourist guides: it unfolds only to those who wander through

its authentic neighbourhoods, among hidden courtyards, green-painted railings and quiet

residential buildings. There, even the least experienced eye perceives the succession of

eras, styles and architectural languages, as if the city were a stage that suddenly changes

its scenery.

From this premise arises IN-HABIT-OUT, a collection of five shadow boxes: small

architectures to inhabit with objects, to leave empty, or simply to observe as fragments of

Milan in miniature. The title, IN-HABIT-OUT, is a neologism that follows a trajectory from

the inside outward: “IN” represents intimate and private space; “IN-HABIT” the individual

and social condition of inhabiting a space; “OUT” what inevitably manifests from that

intimacy into the outside world and therefore into the city.

Each shadow box interprets symbolic eras of Milanese living: from the quintessential

courtyard house to the most recent forms of social housing. Wood, the material from which

the “little houses” are made, is carefully selected and carries with it the flavour of each era:

warmth, ornament, grandeur, the taste of its time. Material becomes language and wood,

like the city, tells the story of what people leave upon their homes: ambitions, ideals,

compromises.

These shadow boxes are small suspended scenes, miniature urban theatres. But beware:

they are not souvenirs, nor simple decorative objects. They are provocations. Experiments

in scale and synthesis, images stripped of their context not to be isolated, but rather to

catalyse a personal reflection. The private invades the public, emptiness becomes

spectacle, memory becomes art.

The five episodes of Milanese living reinterpreted:

• Courtyard House;

• City Palace;

• Liberty Townhouse;

• Modernist Apartment Block;

• Social Housing.

IN-HABIT-OUT is a conceptual and material game: hang, observe, furnish, inhabit. Each

piece is a small urban theatre, a fragment of the city to manipulate and question. It is

architecture applied to art-design; Milan compressed into five frames. Here, the boundary

between house and city, between inside and outside, dissolves and perhaps it is precisely

there that authentic dwelling begins.

Short Project Description

IN-HABIT-OUT is a collection of five shadow boxes inspired by the symbolic eras of

Milanese living, from the traditional courtyard house to contemporary social housing. Small

wooden architectures give life to a conceptual game: hang, observe, furnish, inhabit. Each

piece is a fragment of the city to manipulate and question. It is architecture applied to art-

design, Milan condensed into five frames.