Transforming the corridor into a space for habitation

For much of architectural history, particularly in grand European residences, movement through the home worked differently. Rooms were organised as a sequence of spaces that connected directly with one another.

According to a feature published by designboom.com, in Italian villas, for example, aligned doorways could transform a sequence of interior spaces into a continuous route. This meant that moving through the house inevitably involved passing through spaces where other people might already be sitting, eating, sleeping or entertaining guests.

Architectural historian Robin Evans identified the hallway as evidence of a much broader transformation in residential design. In his 1978 essay Figures, Doors and Passages, he refers to John Thorpe’s plan for Beaufort House in Chelsea, dating from around 1597, as one of the earliest documented English examples of a house in which a central corridor provided rooms with independent access.

Even the word itself suggests movement. “Corridor” derives from the Italian corridore, which is associated with correre, meaning “to run”.

Today, a narrow space dedicated almost exclusively to circulation seems entirely self-evident. Yet at the time, something fundamental changed: the room acquired the ability to protect its privacy.

When Movement Moved Out of the Rooms

Once circulation could be separated from the spaces used for living, the floor plan began to distinguish between different forms of presence.

One family member could remain in the drawing room while another moved through the building along a corridor without interrupting the activity taking place in the room.

During the 19th century, large residences developed increasingly complex circulation systems. Back staircases and service corridors allowed domestic staff to move around the family’s living spaces. The floor plan thus began to create privacy.

Although the social and class structure that gave rise to these houses was highly specific, their spatial logic gradually spread to the middle classes and, later, to apartments. Service areas were grouped together to accommodate recurring household tasks, while rear entrances created a separate means of access for shopping, supplies and deliveries.

The people carrying out domestic work changed. In many homes, residents themselves took over tasks that had once been performed by domestic staff. The floor plan, however, retained many of the same conventions.

What Happens When the Hallway Becomes the Room Itself?

Contemporary architecture has begun to reverse this logic. House No. 11, also known as Corridor House, by MOS Architects, created for the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, takes the hallway and transforms it from a circulation space into a space for living.

The installation consists of narrow units, roughly based on the dimensions of a conventional hallway and a sheet of plywood. One contains a bed. Another contains a desk.

The hallway, usually treated as a neutral void between two destinations, becomes the destination itself. The idea is almost paradoxical: a space created to make circulation more efficient suddenly acquires a life of its own.

A similar approach can be found in Three Corridors House by Taku Sakaushi and OFDA in Japan. A long central corridor runs through the single-family home, while two narrower passageways along the northern and southern sides simultaneously function as terraces.

Bathrooms and storage areas are positioned between these spaces, while study areas are also incorporated along the circulation routes.

Circulation thus becomes the organisational framework for the entire interior. The corridors are sufficiently wide and open to accommodate additional uses.

The project highlights a curious truth about the conventional hallway: a space designed to prevent interruptions can become one of the most social spaces in the home when architecture stops treating it as wasted space.

When the Laundry Room Moves Out of the “Back” of the House
Some of the most striking examples of this reversal can be found in spaces associated with maintenance and everyday domestic tasks.

In House Within Three Gestures by Fala Atelier, in Gondomar, Portugal, the laundry room is detached from the main volume of the house and elevated into a small tower. The choice is unusual, but revealing.

The laundry room is typically hidden behind a door or squeezed into a cupboard. Here, by contrast, it becomes one of the most explicitly functional spaces in the house, influencing even the form of the building as a whole.