Lou Pourtoun is a nationally and internationally recognised architectural work, a contemporary interpretation of a traditional Occitan typology which, thanks to a roof that embraces several buildings, creates a protected space for work and relationships, an alternative to the dichotomous distinction between inside and outside. Nearly one thousand square metres for just a few inhabitants: a challenge to common sense. Or simply the spatial manifestation of a vision and a desire: a space for a future community, designed and built at a time when it was difficult to imagine that such a community would ever exist again. A public work of architecture capable of representing a society in the process of reformation (after its almost total eradication during the last century): the new population of the Alps and Apennines which, despite its relatively small number compared to overall population, continues to fascinate many. Through a diary from 2020, tracing significant moments of the “Viso A Viso” association’s management of the space, this article tries to capture the significant elements of the project through the delineation of contents, relationships, synergies, and processes. As such, it investigates the possibility of a project that goes beyond the architectural dimension to embrace the entire life of the building, overcoming the container / contents dichotomy, which not only share the same root, but also the same design challenge, that of the real livability of towns and cities, and the same possibility of developing a new idea of community, and even society.
