Housing, dwelling, city, world: Towards an embedded philosophy. Interview with Philippe Simay

Philippe Simay; Andrea Borsari; Francesco Di Maio; Claudia Nigrelli

doi:10.60923/issn.2612-0496/23856

Authors

Philippe Simay Paris-Belleville School of Architecture

Philippe Simay is a senior lecturer in philosophy at the Paris-Belleville School of Architecture. He hosted the documentary series Habiter le monde on Arte. His most recent publications include La Ferme du rail: pour une ville écologique et solidaire (with Clara Simay, Actes Sud, 2021) and Bâtir avec ce qui reste (Terre Urbaine, 2024)
Andrea Borsari University of Bologna https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4146-8390

Andrea Borsari is full professor of Aesthetics at the Department of Architecture of the University of Bologna and Faculty member at its Doctoral School, directs the book series “La vita e le forme” (Bup) and is deputy director of “Iride. Rivista di filosofia e discussione pubblica” (Il Mulino). He was recently visiting professor at UCLA, ENSA-Paris La Villette, the 4 Cities Unica Euromaster in Urban Studies - University of Copenhagen and the University of Sichuan, and visiting fellow at University of Amsterdam, University of Buenos Aires and Brown University – Providence. Among his publications: Mondo, cose, immagini. Sulle forme dell’esperienza estetica (Bup, 2018); Mimicry. Estetica del divenire animale (Mimesis, 2018); as editor, Philosophical Anthropology and Critical Theory (Iride, 02/2022) and Temporary. Citizenship, Architecture and City (Springer, 2023, with P. Ascari and A. Trentin).
Francesco Di Maio Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna

Francesco Di Maio is a member of the Architectural Humanities research group and works with the Department of Architecture at the University of Bologna. He has edited the Italian editions of Dark Deleuze by Andrew Culp (Mimesis 2020) and Qu’est-ce que l’écosophie? by Félix Guattari (Orthotes 2025). He has published Univocità e individuazione: Gilles Deleuze lettore di Giovanni Duns Scoto (Ventura 2023) and Saturazione ed eccedenza. Il problema dello spazio nell’estetica e nella Naturphilosophie di Schelling (Orthotes 2026).
Claudia Nigrelli University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI, Mendrisio)

Claudia Nigrelli is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), where she works on the Aerial Spatial Revolution project. She earned her PhD from the University of Bologna in joint supervision with the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, with a dissertation on Helmuth Plessner’s philosophy of architecture. She is a member of the Architectural Humanities research group.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.60923/issn.2612-0496/23856

Keywords:

Dwelling, Urban aesthetics, Historical city, Materiality, Audiovisual mediation

Abstract

This interview with philosopher Philippe Simay takes as its point of departure the television documentary series Habiter le monde, using it as a critical entry into broader reflections on inhabiting, urban aesthetics, and the historical city. Through this audiovisual project, Simay develops what he defines as an “embedded philosophy,” grounded in situated encounters with diverse architectural practices, forms of life, and material environments. The conversation situates inhabiting within a relational framework that connects bodies, spaces, and histories, challenging abstract and universalizing conceptions of the city. Particular attention is devoted to vernacular architecture, material resources, and practices of reuse, understood as socially and politically embedded processes that shape the aesthetic and ethical experience of urban and non-urban spaces alike. In dialogue with contemporary debates on the historical city, the interview proposes an understanding of history not as a static heritage but as a stratified and contested dimension of lived urban experience. The discussion also addresses public space and mediation, highlighting the epistemic role of images and audiovisual formats in articulating the sensory and temporal dimensions of inhabiting. Overall, the text contributes to critical frameworks in urban aesthetics by linking history, materiality, and lived experience within a non-instrumental conception of inhabiting today.

References

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Simay, Clara et Simay, Philippe. La Ferme du Rail: Pour une ville écologique et solidaire, préf. Baptiste Lanaspeze. Paris, Actes Sud, 2022.

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---. Bâtir avec ce qui reste: Quelles ressources pour sortir de l’extractivisme? Vincennes, Terre Urbaine, 2024.

--- (dir.). Capitales de la modernité: Walter Benjamin et la ville. Paris, éclat, 2005.

--- et Füzesséry, Stéphane (dir.). Le Choc des métropoles: Simmel Kracauer, Benjamin. Paris, éclat, 2008.

Simay, Philippe et Meyer, Clotilde. Habiter le monde. Paris, Actes Sud/Arte, 2019.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton, Princeton up 2015.

Housing, dwelling, city, world

Towards an embedded philosophy. Interview with Philippe Simay

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