A Dream House
2026
A Dream House is a collective gaming practice proposed for We Will Design 2026, Milan Design Week at BASE Milano, that positions imagination as a practice of resistance and a site of revolution. The project builds on a central hypothesis: that darkness is the absence of images, the systematic invisibility of the spaces, structures, and everyday environments where power is exercised, envisioned, and gestated. In a contemporary reality where conflicts unfold not only on military battlefields but also across perception itself, power increasingly operates through images, images that actively construct reality and its regimes of truth. Currently, we are all part of a continuous battle for perception; for this reason, we propose this gaming practice as a first step toward an intrusive tactic in the war of images, where, as Rebecca Solnit asserts, imagination becomes the first site of every revolution.
This installation responds by reclaiming the production of images as a collective, emancipatory act. It proposes to imagine, and therefore to render visible, what systematically remains unseen: the everyday domestic spaces of those who lead and benefit from the main power structures that hold contemporary society in place. It is an attempt to produce images depicting the environments where the desires of power are rehearsed, normalized, and projected onto the world.
The work unfolds as a collaboratively built digital house inside the online game The Sims, transforming a familiar simulation of domestic life into a political tool for collective world-making. The house is composed of seven immersive digital rooms, each corresponding to a specific sphere of contemporary influence: the Living Room – Technology, the Kitchen – Food Systems, the Storage Room – Natural Resources, the Bathroom – Media, the Bedroom – Entertainment, the Office – Weapons & Warfare, and the Library – Knowledge. Together, these spaces visualize the invisible architectures of power shaping everyday life on a planetary scale.
Each space is symbolically associated with a prominent figure embodying that sphere of influence, not as portraits but as symbolic representations of power, shaping the architecture, objects, and narratives within the rooms. Together they construct a voyeuristic yet critical domestic landscape where everyday life becomes inseparable from geopolitical power.
The installation operates through two interconnected modes. In the working mode, unfolding across seven consecutive days, one room is collectively built each day by five in-person players and five online participants. Each session opens with a short critical provocation by a contemporary thinker, activating reflection on the specific form of power addressed. Throughout the process, visitors are invited to walk through the installation space and voyeuristically observe the live digital rebuilding, witnessing imagination as a collective political act in real time.
In the exhibitive mode, activated every evening, the room produced during the day becomes an immersive environment projected across four digital walls/screens. Visitors enter and interact with the speculative 3D domestic space, navigating the images collectively produced.
A Dream House ultimately frames imagination as a form of soft power against domination, a collective practice of producing counter-images in a world where the struggle for reality increasingly unfolds through what can and cannot be seen. To imagine is to resist.
HOUSEKEEPERS
Day 1 - Living Room (Power of Technology)
Character: Jeff Bezos (Amazon CEO)
Housekeeper: Marta Handenawer (Creative and Research Director of Domestic Data Streamers)
Day 2 - The Kitchen (Power of Food)
Character: Travis Kalanick (Uber, Cloud Kitchens and Cooklane founder)
Housekeeper: Gerard Ortin (Researcher and Film Director)
Day 3 - Storage Room (Power of Resources)
Character: Rebecca Kujawa (NextEra Energy CEO)
Housekeepers: Mon Cano and Íñigo Barrón (Researchers and Founders of La 4a Piel)
Day 4 - Bathroom (Power of Media)
Character: Cristiano Ronaldo (Most followers on IG 2025)
Housekeepers: Clara Escalera (Researcher, Strategist and “Te la pinto” Podcast Host)
Day 5 - Bedroom (Power of Entertainment)
Character: Sophie Rain (Highest income on OF in 2025)
Housekeepers: Ozziline Mercedes (Sexworker, Dominatrix and writer)
Day 6 - Office (Power of Weapons)
Character: Alex Karp (Palantir CEO)
Housekeepers: Filippo Rosati (Technology, Cognitive Warfare and Brain Organoids Researcher)
Day 7 - Library (Power of Knowledge)
Character: Ijad Madisch (ResearchGate CEO)
Housekeepers: Toni Navarro (Philosopher, Researcher on Gender and Technology)
CREDITS
Project done in collaboration with Manuela Valtchanova for Milan Design Week
Produced and hosted by BASE
With the support of Institut Ramon Llull