Happy Homes: Placing people and their ‘Stuff’ as the focus of the Interior Design and Architectural process

McNulty, SA (2018) Happy Homes: Placing people and their ‘Stuff’ as the focus of the Interior Design and Architectural process. In: AMPS - Architecture, Media, Policy, Society, 25 January 2018 - 26 January 2018, Bristol, UK. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This paper will argue that using anthropological methodologies such as placing people and their ‘stuff’ (Miller) as the focus of the Interior Design and Architectural process, will create more emotionally durable new homes for people to live in. Currently in the UK, new home building is a priority as demand vastly outstrips supply. This paper will argue the long revered Le Corbusier mantra that residential buildings are ‘machines for living’ is now defunct and a more socially aware and inclusive process in needed to ensure the well being of new inhabitants and aid the establishment and longevity of communities in high density city areas. Specifically, this paper will focus Interior Design process as the medium by which institutional architecture and detached occupants can conciliate. The paper will cite a research study of first year undergraduate students moving to University accommodation as their first ‘home away from home’. It will disclose the efforts and dilemmas new occupants of purpose built institutional accommodation face in their endeavours to make a ‘home’ and establish a community for the first time. It will then compare the experiences of these students to those living in other institutional places such as council estates or prisons. (Clarke, Miller et al) and suggest that designing interior spaces with people and their possessions is key to establishing harmonious communities and better relationships between occupant and landlord.