Earlier and better (?) than Vitruvius

Review of Saber habitar. Oikonomikos, by Xenophon. Translation and notes by Josep Quetglas

Abstract

The Asimétricas' book presents Quetglas's version of Xenophon's Oikonomonos, accompanied by an extensive prologue. Quetglas challenges the centrality of Vitruvius in architectural theory, highlighting the importance of knowing how to inhabit over building. In the Socratic dialogue, Xenophon distinguishes between the art of inhabiting and that of building, linking habitability with functionality and proto-Heideggerian thought. He also discusses the relationship between housing and climate, domestic economy versus the accumulation of wealth and the conception of the home as a shelter. Quetglas points out the patriarchal limitations of the text, such as the subordinate role of women in learning to live. The notion of home in Xenophon is associated with the efficiency of ships and functional economy, principles taken up by modern architects such as Le Corbusier and Loos. Quetglas thus reinterprets Oikonomonos as a theoretical basis for functionalist and ecological architecture.