On Megarchitecture. Foundations for Architectural Contributions Addressing Environmental, Political, Social, and Cultural Matters of Housing.

This research undertakes a comparative analysis of postwar residential complexes, with a particular focus on the megarchitectural projects of the 1960s and 1970s. These architectures are reconsidered as potential tools for addressing contemporary challenges posed by climate change, rapid urbanization, and shifting social dynamics. The study centers on emblematic case studies located in geographically diverse contexts, emphasizing not local specificities but the transversal dynamics that cut across them. What emerges is a field of relational patterns in which the selected architectures are not isolated objects, but integral elements within a global network of urban imaginaries. Conventional interpretive categories—such as public/private, natural/artificial, and quality/quantity—are temporarily set aside to focus on other dimensions, including the necessity of form and the nature of spatial practices. What surfaces is not a taxonomy of architectural identities, but a cartography of intensities—composed of resonances and divergences that productively interact. This methodological stance aligns with the framework proposed by the New European Bauhaus, particularly Challenge 9, which calls for urban models that optimize resources and minimize environmental impact. The research highlights the potential of multifunctionality and spatial complexity, proposing a renewed reading of megarchitectures not merely as built utopias of the past, but as design devices that remain capable—still today—of offering adaptive and resilient responses. Reconsidering these residential spaces means reading them as manifestations of a fundamental continuity rather than of a clear rupture: the lessons they embody can inform livable models for the city of the twenty-first century.