Embrace your home’s perfection
I feel tortured when my housekeeper moves things around the house.
Why does she move things that are perfectly placed; or why did she place a discarded gift bow on a sculpture? Is it a joke or a social commentary on my desire to live a perfectly poised life?
However, sometimes the things you despise the most have a way of endearing themselves to you
house’s primary task is to shelter us from the environment. It is also meant to hold our personal belongings.
Houses also are meant to protect us and collect us into groups such as family, friends or roommates.
Although houses are inanimate, they do tend to lay the groundwork for relationships, or savoir
vivre. In this regard, it is clear to see that houses, in whichever form, from apartment to townhome to chalet, all are cleverly deciding how we interact.
Architecture is a very powerful medium or language that a dwelling uses to engage inhabitants and their relationships.
The way a floor plan is laid out. either can unite a group A of persons in a house or disperse them throughout.
The windows and doorways can allow light to flow through the home or restrict it, which can affect people’s moods. It is possible to enhance someone’s mood with a good dosage of daylight and create an atmosphere of gloominess in a space that has little or no access to natural light.
All houses are obviously not perfect, but rest assured that someone’s hand or vision is at play in every built home, whether the architecture seems thought out or not.
It has taken me nearly a half-century to realize that houses possess power over all relationships under a roof.
Sometimes architectural spaces are able to make you relax such as a sleeping porch or balcony overlooking a beautiful view, and there are other spaces such as great rooms that, although well-intentioned, create anxiety and chaos when used by more than two household members because of the incompatibility of uses.
A good lesson to be learned is the Japanese aesthetic outlook of “wabi-sabi” which is to embrace imperfection and find beauty in the things that are transient and not considered complete.
In this vein, one acknowledges that a house is a living organism that is meant to change every time it is used or occupied.
The acceptance and celebration of good traits a house may posses is what makes the difference between a house and a home. A house is much more than may be believed. It is the stage for lives, and it interacts with inhabitants almost like a member of the family.