Space in Common: Reading Collective Housing in Cinema through Form, Action, Threshold, and Time

This study examines how voids in residential buildings become spaces in common through everyday actions and relationships among users. Beyond a volume defined by physical boundaries, the void is understood as a dynamic formation whose meaning is reconfigured through movement, time, and sensory interactions. Adopting a qualitative approach, the study combines visual-spatial analysis, action analysis, and schematic representation. Its primary case is the old apartment building inhabited by Hulot in Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle (1958). Through interpretive elevation and plan diagrams, entrances, stairways, landings, terraces, and dwelling thresholds are examined in terms of form, boundaries, individual and collective actions, modes of interaction, and degrees of commoning. Action patterns are compared through the categories of intersection, separation, and convergence. The analysis suggests that commoning cannot be explained solely by physical proximity but also involves reciprocity, temporal organisation, and visual and auditory connections. By distinguishing common areas from voids activated through commoning, the study frames spatial commonality as a relational process unfolding in everyday life rather than a fixed architectural attribute. It offers an action-oriented framework for reading cinematic space.