What is home?

A space becomes a place when it is defined by its use. When space has the purpose of sheltering someone, when it becomes a place where one lives, it is sometimes described as ‘home’. Questions abound: How do we experience home? How true is our idea that home is associated with warmth and safety? What impact do the senses have on the feeling of home? How does the body perceive the physical object that is home through the senses? How does architecture affect our perception of home. Where is ‘home’? Does the sense of home change? How are memories linked to the feeling of home? Is home defined by our belongings? And ultimately, what is the purpose of a home? This essay will attempt to find an answer to these questions by analysing the meaning of “home” and the relationship between material culture and people’s  perceptions of ‘home’, taking Mies Van der Rohe’s Farnsworth house as a case study.  

Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe was born in Germany in 1886 and died in 1969. He “is one of the most influential  architects of the 20th century, known for his role in the development of the most enduring architectural style of  the era: modernism.” His modernist architecture has been very popular for almost a century, with the Barcelona  Pavilion designed for the 1929 International Exposition being one of his most famous works.  In 1945, Mies Van der Rohe was asked to design a house in Plano, Illinois, for his client Dr. Edith Farnsworth.  This house has been a real success and is recognized as an iconic building which is now owned by the National  Trust for Historic Preservation. The house’s glass walls and openness create a strong relationship with the  surrounding nature, but also beg the question whether its role as a home was actually ever achieved.  While home is defined as “the place or a place where one lives”, that could be “a house or other dwelling”,  home is also a subjective concept that refers to the feeling of belonging one has, or develops, in a certain place.  Perceptions associated with this feeling of belonging are different for each individual as they are built on the  experiences we have in life.  

One common preconceived idea regarding the notion of ‘home’ is the warmth, intimacy, safety, and beauty it  has. This notion, proposed by Gaston Bachelard, is the idea of the ‘felicitous space’. He defines ‘home’ in his  book ‘The poetics of space’(1969), as follows: “…our house is our corner of the world. … If we look at it  intimately, the humblest dwelling has beauty…”. My understanding of this is that we take root in a vital space  where our aesthetic senses are satisfied, and that making our home aesthetically pleasing is a goal we possibly  all share, a traditional notion that most of us carry. There’s also the idea of ownership (“our corner of the  world”) associated with the home that makes it one’s own intimate and safe place. Mies designed a house  intended to become the client’s home, but which ran counter to this traditional idea of ‘home’. The relationship  with this glass house is different from the preconceived idea of the traditional home.  

How does that encounter between a person and his own space happen?  

We use our body to sense our environment. When the body encounters a space, it experiences it in a way that  will create a unique perception. The sense of touch, amongst others, enables one to understand a physical space:  “the skin reads the texture, weight, density and temperature of matter”. Much information is taken in to build  our perception. “There is a strong identity between naked skin and the sensation of home.” One might imagine  that a primitive human (in the sense of a person belonging to a nonindustrial society or culture), naked in the  forest, shows how much nature gives a feeling of home.  

In Farnsworth’s house, the relationship between the body and the architecture extends to the outdoors through a  discrete use of materials such as glass. The encounter is uniquely subtle.  

An informal survey I conducted showed that home is usually associated with the idea of a familiar place creating a sentimental attachment. The idea is that a home should provide comfort, security (shelter), privacy and intimacy (in the confines of a house). It helps the dweller to identify with his surroundings, to connect, whether consciously or unconsciously, and develop an awareness through the body’s sensorial experience. Farnsworth’ house was designed to create a relationship with its surroundings. It is a free and open space allowing the client to create a sentimental attachment with nature using the house as an interface, while at the same time giving a feeling of being secure due to the presence of physical boundaries.

Developing a sense of home  

These interactions and interrelations between the body and the surroundings are what develop a sense of place.  Specific use and relationship will define the place as a ‘home’. Home is where rituals take place as part of our  everyday experience to create those connections. “These relationships are home for me” said Taiye Selasi at a  conference . What are these relationships built by the architectural space? 1 

The conception of Mies Van der Rohe's Farnsworth House leads to a love triangle between the architect, the  client and the house, which developed during the design and construction of the house. “Mies and Farnsworth  do socialise between 1947 and 1950, and have many conversations about architecture, philosophy, and life"  which will create a relationship between them, developing a new perception of the place. The house becomes  home for connections to happen.  

Where is ‘home?  

"How can a human being come from a concept?" 

Finding home is part of the process of forming an individual’s identity. A home represents one’s personality and  helps one build one’s identity. “People make places in which to do the things they do in their lives- place to eat,  to sleep, to worship, to argue, to learn, to store, and so on and on.” In the same way, for three years of their lives, Mies Van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth use the house as a catalyst in and for conversations about life.  Does this mean the house had to be a home for both of them during that period of their lives?  “My experience is where I’m from.” says Selasi in a conference. Home doesn’t have to be linked to something  physical because of the time spent there. However, home is a feeling that you can get from a place, a sensation,  or an object. The idea that this sensation has to be linked to a place is associated with the need for a sense of  being in this world.  

Material culture such as architecture is there to give individuals “a sense of being in the world”. It has the  ability to give a feeling of existence but also to give an illusion of being protected. It gives a sense of scale that  allows the human being to feel alive. “We identify ourselves with this space, this place, this moment, and these  dimensions become ingredients of our very existence.” The comfort of knowing the limits and being able to  control them, and the life you create for yourself, is reassuring, it adds purpose to one’s life. The fundamental  purpose of architecture is “the conceptual organisation, and identification of place” . The feeling of home has a 2 temporary nature in which its impermanence is triggered by the many experiences of life, changing your  perception of reality.  

Impermanence 

Franz Schulze, author of the Mies Van der Rohe critical biography in 1985, states, in the 1997 monograph on  Farnsworth house, that the personal relationship between Edith Farnsworth and Mies Van der Rohe is  “inseparable from the history of the house.” This relationship, as well as anything that has happened in the  house, will give meaning to it and make it become Edith Farnsworth’s house and not just a physical piece of  architecture. With time, the meaning of the house, home to Mies Van der Rohe and Edith Farnsworth’s  relationship at the time, is left with change. The people entering this house have different life experiences,  different identity with different perceptions. This makes the focus of attention shift from one thing to another,  making the meaning of the place evolve with time.  

Can an unconditional home exist, when time modifies memories, perception and make identities evolve? Can a  home you’ve created for yourself stay a home forever? Old sights, such as a home, will always evolve and  become something different. ‘Home’ is not just a place where you were born or a place where you live, home is  “the place where you become yourself”. To ‘become’ is to evolve. Life is all about change, in a way physical  objects’ life changes with time, and involves the process of home becoming your own place, whether in the  same geographical place or not. Home becomes your future, a place where life events will take place.  “ Like language, architecture is not stagnant. Both language and architecture (as identification of place) exist  through use, and are subject to historical changes and cultural variation.” Time is an unlimited progress of 3 existence and experiences giving us more purpose to life through change. 

“The phenomenology of architecture is “looking at” architecture with its consciousness experiencing it.” For  the philosopher Edmund Husserl, the philosophical movement of phenomenology intends to discover the basis  of consciousness and experience. He describes this concept as “pure looking at” or as “viewing its essence”,  meaning the phenomenon, the things we perceive exist via our senses.

Phenomenology is a sensorial discovery of the built environment, a unique experience that cannot be perceived  in the same way owing to its extreme subjectivity. In the architectural context, it is the unique perception of the  atmosphere created by the physical space. It “is founded on verbs rather than nouns.” Verbs are used to depict  action (or emotion), while nouns are used to refer to objects, persons and all materials things. Architecture uses  space, light and materials to trigger different feelings and behaviours.  

The philosopher Martin Heidegger attempted to understand the meaning of being with a phenomenological  approach looking at poetry, architecture and technology.  

Is the experience of architecture different from the experience of other arts, such as painting, poetry, sculpture?  

In ‘Ways of seeing’ (1972), John Berger questions some of the assumptions made about the tradition of the  European painting - the way we see them now, in the 20th century - because ‘ we see these paintings as nobody saw them before’. ‘If we discover why this is so, we shall discover something about ourselves and the situation  in which we are living.’  

Looking at a piece of art in the context of our own life is very different to someone else's life context. The way  we see a piece of art is constantly connected to its environment and is influenced by it. “Once these paintings  belonged to their own place.”, “Everything around (a piece of art) confirms and consolidate its meaning.”, “it is  the image of the painting that is travelling now.” The same can be said for architecture: when, where and what  we see will lead to different meanings of that same architecture.  

In 1951, towards the end of a year long of construction, Edith Farnsworth attempted to sue Mies Van der Rohe for a cost overrun of $15600 (total cost $74000). An unconfirmed rumour was that this happened after the end of  a relationship. After Mies Van der Rohe won the case, Edith Farnsworth used the house as her retreat for the  following 21 years of her life. At the time of Edith Farnsworth’s lawsuit, the glass house was highly criticised,  in particular by a well known interior architecture magazine ‘House Beautiful’. Today, it has become a famous,  iconic piece of architecture. 

“The resurrected space of the bedroom is enough to bring back to life, to recall, to revive memories”. George  Perec suggests here that a physical space or object has the potential to recreate a feeling previously experienced.  Memories are associated with the feelings of architecture but not the architectural objects per se. The feeling of  home can work in the same way, so that it is not the object itself but the feelings triggered by the architecture or  elements of a place that give the feeling of home somewhere new.  

How can concrete materials used in architecture create a sense of home? The smell of wood can revive  memories that make you feel at home, or the contact of feet on the cold tiled floor. Can a sense of home be  applied to any material culture if all the conditions for this feeling to arise are met? Can even just one element  make you recall a space or object? The body is able to trace and experience the space it is in, with unerring  precision. The knowledge and memory of the body’s experience allows us to recreate, feel again this atmosphere  in another place. “An impressive architectural experience sensitises our whole physical and mental  receptivity.”Designing a home with a sense of place can maximize meaning and memory of place, increase  sensory pleasure by heightening the five human senses. “Architecture represents (…), identity and memory.”4 

What is ‘material culture’ 

Material culture is a notion used in sociology to describe the physical objects or spaces used by people to define  their culture, i.e. a way of life defined by beliefs, knowledge, and behaviour.  

Material culture is made up of the physical objects that take part in our way of life. Materialising the way of life  helps individuals feel they belong, exist, and matter. Most of the objects used in everyday life are owned by the  person using them. Those belongings go towards making us feel, in a way, at home. The meaning of home is  affected by the possessions we keep there.  

Home is a place where objects are collected with time, objects are stored as one of the ways to be able to  memorize the events in our lives, and helps us to feel purposeful. Frank Mascia says “we are living our life depending on the space we’ve got rather than creating our space to fit  our lives.” 

It is said that “modern architecture theory and critique have had a strong tendency to regard space as an  immaterial object”. Modern architecture has indeed a very minimalist approach.  

“Less is more” is the motto used by the architect Mies Van der Rohe. He described his buildings as a "skin and  bones" architecture and a “glass box residence”. Should home be defined by the belongings or by the  phenomenology of architecture? Maybe we don’t need belongings provided we take possession of a place, and  make it our own. Edith Farnsworth’s house became her possession, an expensive possession, where she was to  spend her weekends for 20 years. 

Interestingly, the concept of “homelessness” is related to the lack of physical object or space as your own. “A  homeless person is someone who does not have access to accommodation which they can reasonably occupy”.  The concept of homelessness is defined purely as something physically lacking, whereas having a home can be  very abstract and poetic in the sense that it is about the feelings associated with space that defines home. Why is  there such a difference? One wonders whether someone who does not have any accommodation can feel at  home in any way in this world today? It could be argued that home isn’t material but emotional, that it relates to  people and their presence.  

If we have our senses to connect with our environment, is material culture necessary to create a sense of home?  A historian, Maritz Vandenburg has written in a monograph on the Farnsworth House: “Every physical element  has been distilled to its irreducible essence. The interior is unprecedentedly transparent to the surrounding site,  and also unprecedentedly uncluttered in itself. All of the paraphernalia of traditional living - rooms, walls, doors, interior trim, loose furniture, pictures on walls, even personal possessions - have been virtually abolished in a  puritanical vision of simplified, transcendental existence.” The house becomes the most important possession  for the existence of the person, giving a sense of purpose, a feeling of safety, a sense of peace.  

An example of the contradiction between architecture and home is shown in the Farnsworth House court case,  between Mies van der Rohe and his client, Edith Farnsworth. 

 “Mies had designed one of the most important and aesthetically appealing houses of our century, but his client  did not find it satisfactory as a home.” This case shows how the relationship that developed between the  architecture, the architect and the client was not enough to satisfy Edith Farnsworth’s desire for a sense of home  at that time. The role of the house during their relationship was more significant than when it ended.  

How does material culture shape our perception of ‘Home’?  

The traditional idea of home is that home is a cozy space for one to rest. However, in reality, our way of life has  changed. We’ve developed a new relationship with our environment and material culture, while keeping the  ability to sense things and our unique relationship with the reality. We may feel that our home is built from  relationships, moments and sensory experiences. The quest for a home helps to form one’s personality. Home is  part of the process of our life and architecture helps people develop a sense of home.  Home is different to every person: what Mies Van der Rohe thought would be a home to Edith Farnsworth  ended in discontent concerning the design of the house, which, although beautifully expressing the architect’s  vision, failed to satisfy the needs of the client. “In my view, the task of architecture is to make visible how the  world touches us.” says Merleau-Ponty. The house as a physical object fails as a home if it is not experienced as  such by the individual for whom it was built.  

My experience is where I’m from. My home will change from place to place, inhabiting different architectures,  different atmospheres, helping me with different needs at different times of my life. “We identify ourselves with  this space, this place, this moment, and these dimensions become ingredients of our very existence.” But does a  

human being really need material culture to be someone? Mies Van der Rohe started this minimalist style in  architecture, with Edith Farnsworth’s house setting the example. Minimalism is now a movement as a way of  life, a life in which the few necessary belongings are those which give a sense of belonging in this world. Home  gives to people a sense of belonging that can be both material and emotional.

References

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The European Commission - Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (2007). Measurement of  Homelessness at European Union Level. p.56.  

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