Place and Purpose

"It is never possible to speak of 'the experience of a building; every building is a fragmented space"
-pg 23 An American Icon


The reading from An American Icon made me reflect on the true purpose or function of a house. This quote made me realize that a house has no single function, but is a compilation of several purposes made necessary by the fragmented nature of life. On the most simplistic level a house is where a person lives. But what constitutes living? As students we live in dorms which can be social places, work places, resting places, sometimes eating places, sometimes even party places. In a house there is less of a melding of these purposes because houses provide separation between these activities through rooms. Separation of rooms and thus separation of activities takes away from the integration of purposes and makes it near impossible to experience a building as a whole. Each space has a purpose, but the purpose of the entire house becomes unclear.
  I also think the purpose of houses comes from 1) who lives in it and 2) what they own. This reminds me of the probate lists we studied a few weeks ago. A big part of who we are is what we own. For example if a student doesn't have a fridge, their room can't really be an eating place aside from dry snacks. Our desks can transform the room into a study place (or at least there's the option for that purpose.) It also depends on the personality of the inhabitants as to how the rooms in their house should be used. For example, I don't use my room for studying because I am a more social person. My roommate almost only uses the room for studying. It is her STUDY place whereas the room is my RESTING place. Again, of course living in a house is different than a dorm, but I think the dorm room illustrates the variety of purposes that a house as a whole can encompass.