Collecting Homes
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Following this unconscious interest on collecting series of cars, homes or any other built type, I have been taking these
straightforward and ‘objective’ pictures of different single-family homes in, so far, three distinctive cities. Displayed
them together, like stickers, these sequences recall the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher. Ever since they accomplished
those projects this way of operating has been transformed into an analytical and conceptual system for visual exploration.
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Yet, comparing houses inside each location and collectively from one place to another, we may also get back into the
identitarian discourse of the American city housing developments. Paradigmatically in the case of Sun City, developed
by Del E. Webb in 1960, the repetitive typology of the only five different home models sited along the circular urban
layout generates a strong visual impact that moves us to revalidate or discard this way of collective living. Along with
its contemporary Dan Graham’s Homes for America project (1967), we need to make explicit our own critical approach
towards this alienating and monotonous suburban landscape and to inquire immediately on the notion of private and
collective living, the useless interaction with the public space and the added value of the individual architectural design.
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As opposite, the 'freedom of speech' of the architectural language we find in Santa Monica or Tucson Historic District
neighborhood reveal a broader understanding of ownership related to the different architectural shapes and styles and
the way the private front garden is transformed into a cover letter of the indoor dwellers. Leaving aside the particular regional
stiles linked to the local traditions or climatic concerns, the notion of character comes along as well as the pulse between
free individual reassertion –for better or for worse– and the imperative protectionism of the collectivity.
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Ultimately, it's also really sad to confirm the failure of the modern project in a place like Los Angeles, its cradle during
the postwar period. The overall notion and idea of what a 'home' is for the Americans is still, and I suspect it will remain
being, quite far from the models brought and offered by the modern apostles.
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Iñaki Bergera, Tucson. August, 2012