Fedora's Room
This study was organized by Architecture magazine to call into question common assumptions about housing the elderly and to illuminate the lives of older, less-mobile people who continue to live independently. The elderly are unique and individual, not an abstract catagory. Their surroundings and rituals become inspiration for further research.
Disturbed by the limitations of "housing" for the elderly, we described the room of a real individual, Fedora Polli, a member of our extended family and a vital part of her courtyard neighborhood in Trieste, Italy.
Fedora's Room is a vision of a place for the living. Fedora keeps in touch with her neighborhood from her balcony and presides over the rituals of her day at the table. The shelves on her wall hold within reach both the mementos of the past and the television and radio - windows to the outside world. We believe that the most visionary idea might, in fact, be rooted in the essential elements of her life.