“Open” and “Closed” Homes: Sustainability and the Aesthetic Ecologies of Things

Abstract This article explores the relationship between the aesthetic ecologies of homes in different socioeconomic sectors, and their disposition towards conserving or discarding objects. More specifically, it analyses how domestic practices, the ways homes are produced and maintained, can impinge on a greater or lesser propensity towards sustainable forms of life. Based on qualitative work carried out in homes of upper and working classes in the city of Santiago, Chile, we distinguish three relevant dimensions that would explain such tendency: materiality, functionality, and temporality. Whereas upper class homes are characterised by more “closed” and restricted ecologies, that strongly resist sustainable practices, working class homes present a more open aesthetics ecologies, with lineal temporalities and multifunctional spaces that explain to a great extent their propensity towards the coexistence of diverse materials and objects.