Architectural Design and Yourself – People don’t usually ask themselves about the relation of architecture and their behavior. However, the philosopher Alain de Botton, on his Architecture of Happiness, already said that we act and feel different at different places. The psychologist Jung, on Memories, Dreams, and Reflections, also believed that renovating a house can change the ones that live there. Every detail of a house can have a deeper meaning that affects us from a conscious to an unconscious level. Even the lower drawer of a shelf, parts of the basement and parts of the attic has a meaning to us and help us to spatialize our feelings and personality.
By designing our houses, we bring things from the outside world that has some meaning to us, like a photo of a loved person or a pan that we can use to cook, and put it on a place that is accessible for us. The easier that is for us to access something, the easier it’s for us to mentally and emotionally access them, and the harder that is to physically access something, the deeper in our unconscious it’ll be.
Is this scenario, the architect is someone that is organizing your mental and emotional space by organizing the physical space of your home. A living room with a TV is very different from a living room that doesn’t have one, as the people that are inside of them also are. In a room with a TV, people are focused on in it, what isn’t the best environment to a deep talk or to read. However, in this situation, people are, usually, more relaxed, since they know that no one is really looking at them, and they can see any program that they like. On a living room without a TV, there isn’t a screen to be the focal point. People must talk or focus on another hobby, like reading or playing an instrument.
There isn’t really the best option between the two, this is a choice between what space has a real connection with who you and your family are and like to be. There are, also, a lot of options in between those two examples. A good architectural design helps you to be who you are, nothing different. Bellow, you can see two ideas made by us for a different project, one on the Scuttlehole Road, and the other on the Halsey Avenue Compound.
Because of this relationship between a place and the behavior of those that are inside of it, it’s always important to have a good architect designing a home that reflects what you want to be and what you want to do. A good house isn’t just a place to stay. It’s a place of memory, action, emotion and to design your own future you.
