Espaces de prestige: de l’hôtel aristocratique au palais rom/tsigane, en passant par la belle chambre du paysan

Abstract

In the era of spare space, especially in urban areas, we tend to think that all our fellow beings seek to occupy space with maximum rationality and economy. The phenomenon of private renting of one’s own space only further affirms this impression. But at the same time, with the democratization of secondary residence, with temporary or permanent migration, the number of unoccupied houses is raising. Based upon the example of the often unfinished and uninhabited so-called “Gypsy palaces” in Rumania, we intend to trace here the meanings and the antecedents of this ostentatious prodigal practice, as well in the aristocratic houses as in the farm houses.