Scratches and Indentations: Architecture and the Importance of Home

What is home, and why are we drawn to spaces which elicit this feeling within us? Why is it that we are immediately able to achieve a type of rapport with some spaces, while others remain indifferent to us? What is it about home that makes it such a special place? These are questions that would give pause to many designers. How many of us can say with certainty that they can make a space in which an individual will feel at home? Can we tell our clients that we know how to make their lives better through design? This book seeks to establish the importance of the concept of home to our development as individuals and our ongoing psychological and physical well- being, as well as demonstrate the connection between what psychological study has found to make us feel "at home," and factors over which architects hold sway. Once thought of as ethereal, the feeling and space of home are too important to continue to allow their creation to be left entirely to chance. This work is an introduction to the hidden dimensions of the world, and should be of interest to design professionals, students, or any one interested in the concept of home.