Cross-Cultural Rules for the Optimization of the Living Room

Abstract

This article starts from the hypothesis that the arrangement of a specific domestic environment such as the living room has an internally coherent and organized character and that the different modes of implementing it can be interpreted as implicit, culture-specific rules that people apply to satisfy a set of environmental needs. In particular, differences and similarities between two different national contexts (France and Italy) are discussed in relation to the need to ensure, by means of living room arrangement, a certain degree of aesthetic enjoyment by the inhabitants and a suitable setting for interpersonal relationships.