De la banalisation de l’extraordinaire. La résidence secondaire du « pareil au même »

Abstract

This article addresses tested and untested assumptions in the dimensions of the significance of ownership and use of second-home by studying primary and secondary places of residence as two polarities of the same habitability. It suggests that secondary residences have, in effect, a personality which only appears to be secondary, since between the two polarities there is a reciprocity of identity and function, and each is incomplete without the other. While an idealised binary residential system may be conceived as a ubiquitous residential utopia (creating the possibility of being able to live in two places simultaneously) the result in practice is an invisible form of augmented and diminished realities, alongside hyper-visible forms ranging from pastiche to hyper-realistic kitsch. The author draws on his previous field studies in France and elsewhere to provide examples of ways in which the conceptual meaning of relating to two properties may be conceived, and how untested assumptions are expressed and how the articulation of these subconscious linkages may help to analyze the complex dynamics of multiple property ownership.

Keywords

• Second-home
• Augmented reality
• Living in it
• Ubiquity