Home and Phenomenology - Essay Example

Home and Phenomenology Home and Phenomenology Introduction In simplest terms, architecture is the creation of a structure, a physical confinement of space that defines and encloses. What the structure represents from the perspective of the architect can be very different, however, than what it defines for the inhabitant. A Cathedral, for example, can represent an opportunity to introduce the ribbed vaults and flying buttresses in order to contemplate the “metaphoric possibilities inherent in vast expanses of glass” (Dupre 2001, p. 4). However, to the congregant, a church can mean a place of peace, where the communion with God is at its deepest. The interior space and how it is developed will mean very little, but the phenomenon of sitting within the structure, the emotional connection that the congregant will make between the space and his or her emotional connection to their spirituality, this will have meaning. The concept of home is developed in much the same way. A home becomes defined by the emotional context in which it is experienced. A home will reflect the ways in which people relate to one another. According to Bechtel and Ts’erts’man (2002), a home will reveal conflict in its spatial relationship when compared to conflict within a family (p. 141). They go on to quote Rowles (1983, 1984) who discovered that in the elderly, the environment of home will become autobiographical. In a dichotomy of the inside compared to the outside, the inside environment will define their perspective on the world (Bechtel and Ts’erts’man 2002, p. 141). As a home is designed, there is more involved than just the architectural relationships that the designer will put into the structure. The structure will support the emotional context in which the people who inhabit the space live. Emotional Context of Home Lavin (2005) quotes Theodore Lipps who argued that an individual will project feelings into an object which will create “objectivated enjoyment of self” (p. 36). Space can be identified as a receptor of emotion, a place where the inhabitants can find their identity through the projected emotional content of their self perception. In order to connect the perceiving subject to the object o perception, a theory of empathy has been developed. This theory was widely examined during the late 19th and a long portion of the 20th century as a way to create a psychology of architecture. One aspect of the theory of empathy is that the body responds to shape. Muscular and neurological function respond to different shapes with some creating comfort while others creating discomfort (Lavin 2005, p. 36). However, empathy was never understood through terms of representation. According to Lavin (2005) “Empathy was a type of representational inversion and sublimation whereby what was on the inside of the subject appeared on the outside of a phenomenal object” (p. 37). Lavin (2005) explains the theories of Wundt in that the body was an instrument which allowed for consciousness by creating abstraction of sensory phenomena. The senses are stimulated by the surroundings which are broken down so that the identity blossoms within the environment. Space becomes a means through which containment exists for abstract psychic conditions (p. 37). Representational appearances are circumvented through the concept of space itself, as how that space is contained is less important than the design of what is contained. However, this concept of space, while valuable, does not tell the whole story of how individuals relate to their homes. Homes are developed to reflect the identity of the owners, cared for with the level of care in which they will instill within their own sense of being. Therefore, the way in which the space is designed and developed becomes central to the way in which the family and the emotional connection to the family is observed. Cohen (2006) sites a fascinating parable about the interest that has developed in the concept of the home. She discusses a reverend who noticed a disturbing trend whereby his pews were almost empty while home improvement stores were buzzing with activity. (p. ix). Identity Consumerism has become a way of creating an identity, fashion expressing something of the individual. According to Stearns (2006), there is a complex relationship between identity and consumerism (p. 124). In creating a sense of identity, lifestyle choices have become central to the choices that are made in consumerist activity. What one owns says something central about who one believes to be their identity. Stearns (2006) states that “Consumerism describes a society in which many people formulate their goals in life partly through acquiring goods that they clearly do not need for subsistence or for traditional display” (p. vii). The consumerist identity is developed through the connections that are made to certain types of branded lifestyles as they are then expressed through possessing objects that project that lifestyle. According to Friedman (2006), the home is the “theater of representation”, a structure in which social behavior, physical appearance, and personal privacy are interpreted. Within the creative tension between the architect and the client, questions concerning sexuality, identity, and visual pleasure are developed that will blossom into the creation of domesticity (p. 24). The art within the architecture will help to define the interpretation of style and ideals that the inhabitant wishes to express. The meaning of the structure becomes defined by what it expresses about its inhabitant and how the identity of the inhabitant reflects upon the artistry of the structure. According to Gomez (2006) in regard to quoting Paz states that , “the ultimate identity between man and the world, consciousness and being, being and existence is man’s most ancient belief and the root of science, magic and poetry” (p. 100). In Eastern philosophy, a sense of the development of harmony that includes the essence of the ancestral heritage is a core element to design. However the problem that faces the Western poet/architect, as named by Gomez (2006), is to create both identity and difference. The Western philosophy preserves the imagined self, rather than the expression of truth. It is the position of the poet/architect to evoke an experience with all of its contradictory qualities (p. 100). Home, Language, and Ritual Space is where language occurs, and this can be equated with the space in which the concept of home occurs. According to Gomez (2006), language and home both create the boundaries of human reality (p. 126). The ritualism that exists within the space of the home which forms the construction of reality creates the bonds with which relationships are built. Traditions are the ways in which communication between people is developed, how binding ties are sealed so that a sense of belonging is developed. According to Berg-Cross (2000), rituals are the ways in which family forms an identity (p. 143). The space in which ritualism is developed is within the home. Ritual is the way in which life commences, each aspect of daily life ritualized so that there is a sense of continuity. According to Friedman (2006), the daily activity of bathing, for instance, is defined by the space in which it occurs, the habits that are formed in creating the ritual, and the sense that it gives to the individual once it is performed (p. 226). The family construction of the ritual of bathing becomes a way in which the family becomes bound together, held within a construction of habituated movements that propels them towards a daily goal. The activity involved becomes the familiar, a way to relate to one another and understand what to expect so that a sense of safety and security is felt during moments of vulnerability. Therefore, the activities within the home are not defined only by the primary goal of the activity. A bath is not just a bath, but a way of communicating within the family construct. It is a way of creating a dialogue of connectivity that creates boundaries in which the family is defined. The child knows he or she is safe when she is put into the water because of the ritualistic history of having been put into the water. The husband knows that the shower will relieve his tensions and change his outlook towards his next moments. The shower itself becomes part of the structure, whether it is a high end multi-head space in which he can spread his arms and not touch the walls, or whether it is the cramped low end construction of a shower within a bathtub, the rustle of the shower curtain constantly hitting his shoulder with his head almost touching the one shower head. The feeling that it imparts by going through the ritual, by feeling the same experience within his space will help to create the identity of the family within the home. The ritualism within the home can become part of the language of the architecture of the concept of home. The language of architecture is founded upon the way in which the structure makes an initial statement to the world, defining the identity through the choices and shapes that create the structure and space. What the design elements say about the structure becomes translated into a dialogue about the family within the structure. The home and the family become one sense of identity, the structure as much an integral part of the dynamic as the emotional ties. Even when a family moves, the concept of home is moved as well, the new structure creating a renewed dialogue that is not changed, but shifted into the next three dimensional space in which the ritualism will commence once again, adjusted in order to include the architecture of the home into the dialogue. The Culture of Home According to Rice (2007), the concept of comfort has been learned, it is not a natural state in which the human species has always strived to attain. Material comfort is a further manifestation of learned behavior within the culture, suggestive that the pursuit of comfort is defined by the attainment of goods in order to facilitate comfort (p. 69). Rice (2007) states that “Material comfort gained force through the eighteenth century as a human right, where it could be incorporated into developing humanitarian ideologies, until at the end of the eighteenth century, physical comfort could be asserted as a right of the unprivileged and a humanitarian responsibility of the propertied” (p. 69). The concept of comfort is one aspect of the phenomenology of home. The architecture of a home can be considered to be similar to a piece of music. Music is developed through the layering of harmonic tones which sometimes step out of harmony to provide a bit a dissonance, a sense of the difference that might be sought in a piece of architecture, but comes back together towards a pleasing resolution. A home can be found to have a harmony that is in step with the culture, or have a dissonance that defines it from the immediate culture, but adds to the overall social construct (Baumeister and Lee 2007, p. 216). When a part of the music is out of harmony, when the dissonance has no cohesive resolution, the sense of comfort is jarred. This can be true within the family home as well. The home must not only fit into the culture of the family, providing a well defined space in which to create ritual and boundaries that define the family identity, but it must also fit into the greater culture in order to be in harmony with society. A structure provides a narrative in which a story is told. The narrative must become part of the cultural landscape to be in harmony (Vidler 1992, p. 28). This does not mean it cannot hold differences, but that those differences must communicate in the same language, connecting to the greater symphony of the city and creating a continuation of the story from one structure to the next. It isn’t about sameness, but about continuity so that connections can be established. Conclusion The phenomenon of the concept of ’home’ is designed around both the tangible structure and the human connectivity that is established within the structure. Home is not just a piece of language that describes a where, but it encompasses the who, what and why of an identity. The individual identity, the family identity, and the extension into the identity of the community is defined by the way in which home is constructed. A home is build, not just through the use of stone, wood, and plaster, but through the ways in which the structure interacts with its inhabitants. The inhabitants of the structure create a language with the building, the dynamics of the relationships within the human elements of the family coming into harmony with the structure. Comfort is a cultural construction that is defined by the fulfillment of needs as defined by the family dynamic. What will constitute comfort with one family will not translate to the experience of another. The classic translation of the real estate experience is that when a family walks into a certain structure, they feel they are ’home’. This feeling is abstracted and imbued into the physical structure, translated into a feeling beyond the construction. It is the emotional ties to the concept that defines what a home is to one person over the feelings of another. Home is where emotions are built, some negative and some positive, but the structure in which they are built becomes part of the narrative of the story of the lives that are lived within it. A home is a standing autobiographical feature within society, relating the construction of lives that have experienced a range of emotions within a space. References Baumeister, Ruth, and Sang Lee. 2007. The domestic and the foreign in architecture. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers. Bechtel, Robert B., and Arzah Tsertsman. 2002. Handbook of environmental psychology. New York: J. Wiley & Sons. Berg-Cross, Linda. 2000. Basic concepts in family therapy: An introductory text. New York: Bingingham Press. Cohen, Deborah. 2006. Household gods: the British and their possessions. New Haven: Yale University Press. Dupre, Judith. 2001. Churches. New York: Harper Collins Publishing. Friedman, Alice T. 2006. Women and the making of the modern house: a social and architectural history. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Gomez, Alpert P. 2006. Built upon love: Architectural longing after ethics and aesthetics. London: The MIT Press. Lavin, Sylvia. 2005. Form follows libido: architecture and Richard Neutra in a psychoanalytic culture. London: The MIT Press. Rice, Charles. 2007. The emergence of the interior: Architecture, modernity, domesticity. Abington Oxon: Routledge. Stearns, Peter S. 2006. Consumerism in world history: The global transformation of desire. London: Taylor and Francis, Inc. Vidler, Anthony. 1992. The architectural uncanny: essays in the modern unhomely. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press. Read More