293 Ideas at Home. Housing Concepts in Architecture Domesticity Within a Historical Centre: A Case for Safeguarding Diocletian’s Palace Ana Šverko Senior Research Associate, Institute of Art History – Cvito Fisković Centre, Split, Croatia asverko@ipu.hr; asverko82@gmail.com KEYWORDS: collective space; domestication of public space; historical architecture; touristifcation; urban concept of housing Te City as House: Collective Living in Diocletian’s Palace Troughout History Diocletian’s Palace is an ancient monument erected in the transitional period between the late 3 rd and early 4 th centuries CE. In the Middle Ages, it became part of the city, and today – as a World Heritage Site – it forms part of the historical center of Split, Croatia’s second-largest city. 1 Te Palace has continually responded to changes in the social and political life of its residents, but these changes did not engender new forms, rather fostered a long and continuous process of adapting the existing structures to the new functions and requirements. Considerable parts of the original were reused, and many parts were also added to over time. Tus, the result we are able to see and experience today inside the original perimetral walls of the palace stems from the natural coexistence of the ancient layer together with the medieval, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the past two centuries’ ones. Trapezoid in shape, the walls enclose an area that is 175–181 × 216 meters in size. It is divided into four quadrants and has two orthogonal streets – the Cardo and the Decumanus. Te central square is located at the intersection of these two streets. 2 Te original, ancient parts of the Palace are robust and preserved enough to transmit the memory of the urban and architectural whole to which they once belonged. Tey are the dominant bearers of the appearance and identity of the entire urban bricolage – the spontaneous city that gradually developed around them. (Fig. 1) As Aldo Rossi notes, the character of a city has always been largely defned by individual habitation. It can be said that cities in which the residential aspect is not present do not exist, and never existed. 3 Te monument is the primary, lasting form of the city, and habitation its primary function. It is precisely the energy of its residents that has acted as the primary force preventing the Palace from falling into ruin, instead ensuring its preservation and furthering its development. Te capacity of Diocletian’s Palace to respond to new uses with minimal changes throughout the centuries inspired numerous architects and architectural theorists in their studies on the relationship between function and form. I would like to focus on just one of them as a starting point for my theory: Aldo Rossi and his interpretation of Diocletian’s Palace. Reading Aldo Rossi with a focus on habitation gives us an excellent starting point for understanding the reasons why the ancient stratum of Diocletian’s Palace survived, despite being fragmented, and why Diocletian’s Palace has managed to preserve its residential character until today. Te sturdy, ancient base of Diocletian’s Palace is surrounded by prominent perimeter walls that enclose a system of open, semi-open and closed public spaces, such as the central square – the 1 Joško Belamarić, “The Date of Foundation and Original Function of Diocletian’s Palace at Split,” Hortus Artium Medievalium, 9 (2003): 173-185. 2 On the morphogenesis of Diocletian’s Palace and its role in the urbanistic context of the city of Split see: Ana Šverko, Grad (ni)je kuća. O dijalogu između novog i starog Splita / urbanistička predigra [A City is (not) a House. A Dialogue Between the New and the Old Split / urban design prelude] (Zagreb: UPI 2m plus, 2016). 3 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1982), 70.