In contemporary design, storage is no longer merely a service space intended to contain objects; rather, it increasingly takes shape as a spatial device. From this perspective, storage becomes an inhabited wall, an equipped thickness capable of integrating different functions and redefining the relationship between solids and voids within the architectural project.

The idea of using the thickness of the wall as an active space is not new. In traditional architecture, wall thickness often accommodated niches, built-in cupboards, and small storage areas; in Mediterranean houses or historic palaces, the wall was never simply a boundary but also a place of service.

During the first half of the twentieth century, modern architecture embraced this idea: from the rationalization of interior spaces and the built-in wardrobes of modernist houses to the experimentation with integrated systems that concentrate technical and domestic functions within compact elements. One might think, for example, of the “inhabited wall” in Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation, or of the experiments of the 1970s by Joe Colombo, where a single element was capable of redefining the model of contemporary living.

Today this logic has become even more radical. The fitted wall turns into a residential infrastructure capable of concealing and at the same time organizing space: within it are containers, technical systems, passages, and sometimes entire rooms. Through sliding doors, movable panels, or modular systems, storage becomes an element that can reveal or conceal functions, making spaces more flexible and adaptable over time.

In this sense, storage does not act only as a container but as an architecture within thickness, an active threshold between rooms and different uses. The inhabited wall thus becomes a design tool capable of simplifying space and freeing surfaces in order to create transformable environments.

Today the theme of storage returns to the center of architectural reflection. Increasing urban density and the reduction of living space require new spatial strategies. Storage is no longer just a hidden container but becomes an active element of the project: a structure capable of organizing space, defining functions, constructing sequences, and mediating between order and flexibility.

This issue of Area proposes a reflection on storage as an architectural device. Through projects, research, and contemporary interpretations, the theme is explored not only in its functional dimension but also as an opportunity to rethink the relationship between domestic space and ways of living.