The chattel, the glass House, and la casita: Intertwining flows of symbolic architectures of aspiration and resilie

Presentation The chattel, the glass House, and la casita: Intertwining flows of symbolic architectures of aspiration and resilie, by Island(er)s at the Helm researcher Aga Kus, MSc (Delft University of Technology).

In hazard-prone regions such as the Caribbean, housing research often emphasizes affordability and structural resistance. Yet houses are also expressions of culture, aspiration, and resilience—qualities crucial to designing homes that are contextually grounded and meaningful to their residents. These dimensions can be explored by decoding architectural symbolism through the analysis of existing dwellings, idealized references, and imagined domestic spaces.

This paper examines how domestic imaginaries and housing aspirations reflect cultural identity, resilience, and environmental adaptation. Building on reflections gathered during co-creative housing design workshops in the Dutch Caribbean, it analyzes three house types—the Chattel, the Glass House, and La Casita—as embodiments of housing aspiration, symbolism, and representation. The Chattel House emerges as a mobile emblem of independence and adaptability; the Glass House, a global symbol of modernist transparency, status, and fragility; and Bad Bunny’s La Casita, an industrialized yet emotionally resonant icon of cultural pride and climate resilience. The analysis draws on architecture, literature, and music to reveal the symbolic power of domestic imagery in shaping collective housing dreams and underscores the importance of integrating cultural aspirations into resilient housing design.

Aga Kus is an architectural designer specializing in collaborative housing design in hazard-prone areas and is currently pursuing her PhD in Architecture at KITLV and TU Delft. She has a strong background in resilient neighborhood planning and incremental building design, developed through her studies and work at TU Delft, Turin Polytechnic, and Wroclaw University of Science and Technology. Committed to advancing affordable and adequate housing through community engagement, her design work includes incremental social housing projects in Mumbai, India, and flood-adaptive circular housing in Bandung, Indonesia.