Reading 3: What is home?

This reading is all about what constitutes home. Mary Douglas suggests that home is rootless as it consists of a set of modern appliances and services, whereas Martin Heidegger looks at 'dwelling' and 'home' as being part of the one phenomenon. The way I've interpreted this is that Heidegger believes that a building supplies space which can become a dwelling. He also discusses how American architects don't necessarily build to the climate, instead they artificially heat and cool their houses. Whereas the Europeans for example are less dependent on these mechanical services by making the most of architecture and building to fit into the context. He also talks about going to a beach in American which was chlorinated and everything seeming clean, cleanliness supposedly being an initial excuse for air conditioning, and talks about, if they can get rid of everything which is unclean then what need do they have for buildings. Why would they need to escape nature if they can clean and control it. He investigates new technology and the concept of needing buildings as compared to the freedom and flexibility of just having appliances but living in nature. He questions the very concept of what makes a dwelling home and begs the question of are we just locked into the same thinking patterns of what a home must supply to successfully fulfill its name of a home.

Lane, B.M. ed., 2007. Housing and dwelling:perspectives on modern domestic architecture, London ; New York: Routledge. pp50-60.