House or Home? It’s in the story.

Welcome back, gang! Last month we covered Style and what it means or doesn’t mean to architects across the nation. This month we’re segueing (maybe) into “House or Home”, a topic offered by Keith Palma.

Note: This is the twenty-fourth post in a group series called #ArchiTalks in which Bob Borson of Life of an Architect gives a group of us architects a theme or a set of questions and we all have to post our response… this month’s theme: “House or Home”.

House or home could be a contested topic. You see, people tend to ascribe the word House with a space that makes them feel unwelcome, that is “cold”, or that doesn’t feel inherently “theirs”. Whereas someone uses the word Home when they feel safe, included, or a sense of ownership. One person’s home is another person’s house. It’s subjective and typically very closely tied to emotions – no one likes someone else ragging on the place they call home.

See…even at the exterior of the home, bias creeps in. I bet most people would say the one on the right looks more like a home than the one on the left. If you agreed, give yourself a pat on the back. Just kidding, but really.

That’s the subjectiveness of house or home.

What if I told you that the first house looks like this inside?

Image via Facebook

I mean….it likely doesn’t. From a design standpoint, nothing matches. But, play along.

What did you FEEL when you looked at that picture? Does it feel like a house or home? Probably a home. There’s warmth, there’s a happy family, there are memories being made.

That last part? That’s the profession of architecture. Our spaces involve PEOPLE and memories. The making of things worth sharing.

A house is a holder of things. We need McMansions to hold our 3 cars, 1 speedboat, 6 tv’s, 4 couches, 8 closets full of clothes, 6 of which we never wear… A house stores all of our stuff, but it likely doesn’t store the most important thing – memories. If your objective in life is stuff, a house will suffice and a house it will become.

Image via McMansion Hell

But a home? A home is where you relax after a long day at work.

Where your puppy learns to take the stairs for the first time.

Where your child learns to walk, or bake cookies with you in the kitchen.

Where your teenager will sneak their first kiss or your parent will move into as they age.

Where you share laughs, holidays, family meals, and hot cocoa after sledding on snow days.

A home gives you the space to re-invent based on your needs, whether it’s blanket forts at 5 or slumber parties at 11. You can have lego-building sessions Saturday morning and wine night with the girls Saturday night. A home is where those memories are made.

Anyone can build you a house. They can know nothing about you and build you a space to house your things and your family. But where’s the love of that labor?

An Architect, however, will design (and build, sometimes) you a home. We will be with you every step of the way; walking you through the early layouts on paper all the way to walking you through the kitchen flow as you look around at studs rising tall and your dreams coming true. And then we’ll walk through it with you as you run your fingers along the counter, easily picturing the meals you’ll make on the stove while family laughs and shares the day’s adventures nearby.

You can have your house of stuff: go cheap on the design and build…and fill it with things that you hope will fill your heart, but never quite do.

Or you can have your home: let an architect guide you through the making of a space…where little is needed, but the laughter is plenty.

So what will it be for you: house or home?

To see the take on “House or Home” from other Architects, follow the links to the others in the #ArchiTalks group who are posting today on the theme:

• Bob Borson – Life of an Architect (@bobborson) “The Designation between House and Home”
• Marica McKeel – Studio MM (@ArchitectMM) “ArchiTalks: House or Home?”
• Lee Calisti – Think Architect (@LeeCalisti) “our house is home”
• Mark R. LePage – EntreArchitect (@EntreArchitect) “Emotional Marketing for Architects: House or Home?”
• Rock Talk – Wishing Rock Home (@Wishingrockhome) “House or Home — Discover the Difference”
• Michele Grace Hottel – Architect (@mghottel) “”house” or “home”?”
• Michael LaValley – Evolving Architect (@archivalley) “House or Home? Train for One, Design for Another”
• Brian Paletz – The Emerging Architect (@bpaletz) “House or Home? – Depends”
• Kyu Young Kim – J&K Architects Atelier (@sokokyu) “Making a House a Home”
• Jim Mehaffy – Yeoman Architect (@jamesmehaffy) “House or Home: One’s a Place, the Other a Feeling.”
• Jarod Hall – di’velept (@divelept) “A Rose by Any Other Name…”
• Brady Ernst – Soapbox Architect (@bradyernstAIA)
• Nisha Kandiah – ArchiDragon (@ArchiDragon) “Dwelling on a Macro scale”
• Mark Stephens – Mark Stephens Architects (@architectmark) “#ArchiTalks #24 House or Home?”
• Greg Croft – Sage Leaf Group (@croft_gregory) “House or Home”
• Jeffrey Pelletier – Board & Vellum (@boardandvellum) “Designing a House into a Home”
• Samantha R. Markham – The Aspiring Architect (TheAspiringArch) “6 Ways to Make your Architecture Studio feel like Home”
• Keith Palma – Architect’s Trace (@cogitatedesign) “I don’t design homes”
• Collier Ward – One More Story (@BuildingContent) “House or Home? A Choice of Terms”
• Meghana Joshi – IRA Consultants, LLC (@MeghanaIRA) “Architalks #24 : House or Home”
• Jeff Echols – Architect of the Internet (@Jeff_Echols) “House or Home? The Answer to Everything”
• Jeremiah Russell, AIA – ROGUE Architecture, Inc. (@rogue_architect) “house or home: #architalks”
• Tim Ung – Journey of an Architect (@timothy_ung) “Architalks – A House is not a home”