Home as a heuristic

Good design starts here.

Set aside any images of your dysfunctional (or highly functional—lucky you!) childhood home. Now imagine your ideal home. What comes to mind? A Saltbox? American Craftsman? Converted warehouse loft? A child’s pointy box with two rectangular windows and puffs of smoke emanating from a chimney? What would your ideal home look like if you were from Burkina Faso, Telluride, or the 18th Century?

Anyone’s guess, I guess.

How would you define the ideal home if you couldn’t describe it in physical terms? You might describe how the ideal home would make you feel. Home as a place of peace and comfort, a welcoming place where your needs are met, your safety and security are ensured, and where you feel respected, appreciated, cared for — even celebrated. A place that’s well-designed, where things work as they should, and where there’s a natural flow between centers of activity and calm.

You’d probably describe a kind of Platonic ideal for home-ness, a set of characteristics shared by almost anyone from any region, culture, or era, whether that’s Burkina Faso, Telluride, or the 18th Century.

Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
— Requiem, Robert Louis Stevenson