Vince la stanza multiuso nell'uso dello spazio domestico

Italians use their homes more and more intensely to carry out various activities, also thanks to the many technological features that homes are equipped with today. In this trend, the most used domestic space is the living room, a multi-purpose common area, not surprisingly called the "living room" by the Anglo-Saxons, a definition that underlines the dimension of relaxation and socialization. According to a Censis survey, it is now the favorite place for Italians to watch television (52.7%), but also to read books and newspapers (35.1%), and even to surf the Internet (27.8%).

This prevalence also derives from the change both in the social structure and in the housing itself. In recent years we have witnessed the progressive reduction in the average size of families, with the decrease in couples with children (-4.8% between 2000 and 2010) and above all with the boom in the number of people living alone (+38.9%) and couples without children (+20.2%). It follows that, on the one hand, where the house one has is large, there is often a tendency to use only some rooms (as in the case of single elderly people) and, on the other, when the house is purchased on the market, there is a tendency to buy real estate units of limited surface area. In 2011 in Italy, studio apartments and small homes represented as much as 35% of the total number of sales.

If the family and the house become smaller, the domestic living environment tends to coincide with the living room. There are of course significant differences especially in relation to young and old people. In their daily behaviour, young people aged 14-29 differ greatly from other age groups as they mainly tend to confine themselves to their own spaces. The majority read books and newspapers (42.3%), surf the Internet (38.4%) and listen to the radio (30%) in their bedroom, while secondly young people tend to move around the various rooms of the house indifferently. On the other hand, the older age groups (65-80 years) prefer to carry out these activities in the common areas of the home, but in addition to the living room they attribute considerable importance to the kitchen. In the case of TV, the percentage of elderly people who watch it in the kitchen is 37.9%, in the case of radio the percentage is 27.6%, for reading it is 22.2%. Television seems to partially reduce intergenerational differences, given that it is mainly seen in the living room without significant differences in relation to age.

«In addition to the crisis, what makes Italians stay at home more are the technologies that have transformed the domestic space into a workplace, in a central place for information, entertainment and reading", said Giuseppe Roma, general director of Censis, commenting on the data. «We have smaller houses for smaller families who do many different activities. For designers and construction companies, the challenge is to think of new residential typologies no longer based on the old functional divisions into living and sleeping areas, but as total bodies that can be used 24 hours a day. A cultural movement that could also serve to rekindle the desire for real estate", concluded Roma.

Without a doubt the house is destined to be increasingly technological in the future. But towards which facilities is the demand of families directed at the moment? The technology that is clearly most requested is the one least present in the home today, that is, the one linked to energy saving. The topic is reported by as many as 51.8% of those interviewed, without significant gaps in relation to age, a sign that the current crisis phase, the debate on the energy and environmental issue, as well as the introduction of tax deductions for those who invest in the energy efficiency of their property, have in recent years increased a strong awareness of the centrality of the topic among Italian families. The construction sector presents, together with the transport sector, the highest potential for savings, if we take into account that in Italy two thirds of the buildings were built before the entry into force of the first measures on energy efficiency (which date back to 1976) and therefore do not present any type of measure in this regard.

Among the technologies that are most needed are anti-theft devices for home security, the need for which is highlighted by approximately a quarter of the sample (24.3%). Thanks above all to the weight of the responses of the older age groups, technologies supporting the care of the elderly, such as life-saving and tele-aid devices, smoke detectors, etc., come in third place. (16.9%). For approximately 30% of those interviewed between 65 and 80 years old, this is the most useful home technology today. Finally, home entertainment technologies (home theater, etc.) and those linked to the web (wireless, etc.) are especially highlighted as priorities by residents of large urban areas (cities with more than 500 thousand inhabitants).