SQM: The Quantified Home

The way we live is rapidly changing under pressure from multiple forces—financial, environmental, technological, geopolitical. What we used to call home may not even exist anymore, having transmuted into a financial commodity measured in square meters. Yet, domesticity ceased long ago to be central in the architectural agenda; this project aims to launch a new discussion on the present and the future of the home.

SQM: The Quantified Home, produced for the 2014 Biennale Interieur, charts the scale of this change using data, fiction, and a critical selection of homes and their interiors—from Osama bin Laden’s compound to apartment living in the age of Airbnb.

With original texts by Rahel Aima, Aristide Antonas, Gabrielle Brainard and Jacob Reidel, Keller Easterling, Ignacio González Galán, Joseph Grima, Hilde Heynen, Dan Hill, Sam Jacob, Alexandra Lange, Justin McGuirk, Joanne McNeil, Alessandro Mendini, Jonathan Olivares, Marina Otero Verzier, Paul B. Preciado, Anna Puigjaner, Catharine Rossi, Andreas Ruby, Malkit Shoshan, and Bruce Sterling.

The dust jacket is screen-printed on wallpaper in 22 different patterns, randomly mixed.

The book is published by Lars Müller. It is available for sale online and in selected bookstores.

Download the table of contents.

This publication is a part of SQM: The Home Does Not Exist.

Credits:

Edited by: Space Caviar (Joseph Grima, Andrea Bagnato, Tamar Shafrir)
Managing editor: Andrea Bagnato

Book design by: Studio Folder (Marco Ferrari, Elisa Pasqual)

“Home Screen” section: Simone C. Niquille
Flash fiction editor: Gianluigi Ricuperati with Caterina Toschi
Drawings: Studio Folder with U67
Assistant designer: Marina Mangiat
Research assistant: Bernardo Martins de Almeida
Publishing coordination: Rebekka Kiesewetter / Lars Müller Publishers
Proofreading: Danko Szabó

Printing: PurePrint, Belgium
Screen printing: Creafor, Belgium
Binding and finishing: Delabie Binders, Belgium

Thanks to Paola Antonelli, Jan Boelen, Piet Germonprez, Bruce Sterling

With the support of Biennale Interieur, Kortrijk, Belgium, and of the Flemish Commission

ISBN 978-3-03778-453-2

Press:

Domus
The Architectural Review, March 2015
Blueprint no. 339, 2015
Metropolis Magazine (print/2015 reading list)
Bruce Sterling
Nicolas Nova @ Walker Art Center
fabric|rblg
DisegnoDaily

Awards:

Special mention, XXIV Compasso d’Oro
European Design Award 2015