Towards Sufficient Dwelling? Dispatches from Switzerland

Through a comparative analysis of two recently completed housing projects in Switzerland, the article explores the notion of Sufficient Dwelling through three overlapping heuristic domains: Spatial Sufficiency, Material Sufficiency and Social Sufficiency. Over the course of the research inquiry, it is concluded that generosity is an important constituent of a Sufficient Dwelling, whereby the introduction of generous spatial moments in the domestic built environment can contribute to the “good life” of its inhabitants. The production of sufficient housing also necessitates the challenging of conventional modes of practice, requiring agility from architects in embracing “tentacular thinking" as a response to the binary ways of thinking that have led to, and continue to contribute to, a “crisis” in domestic architecture.