Homebound. An exploration of designed emotive objects as creators of a movable home.

Abstract

The notion of Home is universally understood, but has deeply personal and specific meaning for each of us. The reality of Home however, is shifting. Our relationship with it has altered considerably in recent decades. We no longer make a single transition from childhood home to marital or adult home, as our grandparents or even our parents did. We live in a time when significant advances in technology, communication and travel, have provided us with increased opportunity and mobility. We move city and country for work, love and experience. We make lives in rented apartments, hotels, short-term houses and shared rooms. This has left us with a wavering and less concrete version of home, one that is either ‘left behind’ in the childhood home or takes on a makeshift nomadic form. This thesis aims to explore how a transient way of living might become more grounded and well balanced through the consideration of Home as a collection of objects, rather than a place. When we experience an impermanently located life, our things become our constants, anchoring us to the buildings and spaces in which we dwell. This work explores that idea through theoretical research in the fields of anthropology, psychology and thing theory and with the overall perspective of object design. It also explores the topic through a practical design process. The ultimate aim being to create objects that heighten emotive connection to place and which trigger a kind of psychological ‘at-home-ness’ for the user. This process considers the emotional life of objects. Much has been written about the power of architecture to promote wellbeing and to create connection. This work propose that objects can provide equally powerful connections to place and in a more mobile world, are more practical and accessible talismans of comfort and bonding. Nowadays, we are less likely to have control over the spaces, houses and buildings in which we live, but we can more easily control our things, and through them, the spaces we inhabit.