To Build a Home
“There is a
house built out of stone
Wooden floors,
walls and window sills
Tables and
chairs worn by all of the dust
This is a place
where I don’t feel alone
This is a place
where I feel at home”
As I was about
to sit down and write this blog post, the song “To Build a Home” by The
Cinematic Orchestra started playing as I shuffled one of my Spotify playlists.
A beautiful song filled with long segments of pure instrument alternates
with pieces of lyrics like the opening lines above. As I am sure this song is
filled with a variety of meaning, the line “This is a place where I feel at home”
led me to think about the home and its relationship to everyday urbanism. Home in
my eyes is developed over time through routine, comfort, and familiarity, and while
reading Margaret Crawford’s ideas of everyday urbanism, it feels a lot like
home to me. These pockets of everyday life can not be perfectly predicted by architects
and I think that is okay. In our profession the “everyday” is often seen negatively
yet we are completely missing the beauty in what it means to have an "everyday".
So, where we
build the homes, let us leave room for the everyday.
I believe you are right, it is okay for architects not to be able to predict human actions at all times - if we could we probably would not be architects! I've heard many times throughout life that home is where your people [family] are...perhaps that is true. Yet, I believe your home is the place where the people have influenced your life most reside.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, home is where you are most yourself. I have always thought that houses are sort of the frontline of architecture and human interaction. It is where we spend the most time and a if we have an issue with our home, it affects our whole life. I think architects have to take that in to account when designing homes and as you said, leave some room for the everyday.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, I love this song and listening to it again brought back a lot of good memories. While listening to it again (more intently) I focused on picking up the different times the artist used "house" vs "home". Funny enough he only said "house" when refering to where it was, but once the artist began talking about details of the house, he referenced it as a "home". Maybe this is a complexity of the English language, or maybe it is our subconscious, but there is a big difference between a house and a home and I believe that the difference could be this room for the "everyday" that you talk about. A house is a thing, but a home is inviting, and I think you nailed it on the head navigating how these thoughts relate back to Crawford's writings.
ReplyDeleteDeep post! I love the way you put this together. Home is where the heart always is and it is where memories get created, it reflects everything that we are, our imperfections, the people and things we love and cherish as well as the sense of belonging it craft in us. If architecture was like building a home then of course the world would be a much better place but then as architects we need to rethink more on the everyday and shape structures that reflect us in everything that we are.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how celebrities feel in their cold, giant, pre-designed mansions? Somehow we have to leave room for inhabitation
ReplyDeleteI think architects put up a building and then the people who inhabit it make it everyday and filled with life. Unpredictable things happen, such as the street art you see on the building you've posted. These unpredictable moments are a light of life that architects may or may not have the ability to predict and design for.
ReplyDelete