Architecture
Tell a Story With Design for a More Meaningful Home
Go beyond a home's bones to find the narrative at its heart, for a more rewarding experience
I just finished listening to the TED Radio Hour piece about storytelling. While it shouldn't come as a surprise that books, plays, poems, paintings or music tell stories, many folks don't realize that home design can, and should, tell a story too. In a sense, a home's design should go beyond just the factual, quantifiable (2,000 square feet, three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms etc.) and readily discernible (colonial, gourmet kitchen, wonderful view).
But how does a home's design do this? How, in fact, can a collection of wood, brick, concrete etc. tell a story?
Let's see how.
But how does a home's design do this? How, in fact, can a collection of wood, brick, concrete etc. tell a story?
Let's see how.
Can we create a narrative? While it may be satisfying to have the story all laid out before us, the opportunity to make up our own narrative based on just the barest of facts can be richer. For a home to allow this, it has to be inviting. It has to draw us in. It has to encourage us to create, to use our imagination.
Will we care? Whether with the simplest of forms and commonest of materials or not, a home should tell us how it was crafted. And it should enable its inhabitants, past and present, to tell their story. The ways in which they lived, their memories of past events and their hopes for the future should somehow be written in bricks and mortar.
Embark on a journey. From works by Homer to Conrad to Pixar, the stories that resonate are those that include a journey, a traveling from point A to point B. Can our home do this as well? Can our home tell us about a journey from bedroom to kitchen? Can our home tell us what season it is by the way the light falls on the floor? Can our home mark the passage of time, as with grooves notched on a door frame indicating the growth of a child?
Does the first impression draw people in? Like the cover of a book, the exterior of the home should draw us in. It should make us want to learn more. It should beckon us to knock on the door and ask to be invited in for tea.
Know that there is no single story. Homes may be filled with many people as well as their pets. We each have a story to tell and, together, we have our family narrative. Our homes, like the best of opera, should allow for each story to occur simultaneously without just creating noise.
Create drama. A home, like a story, is at its best when filled with meaning and purpose. A good story grabs us and takes us somewhere interesting. A home can have a sense of purpose and life that goes beyond four walls and a roof.
And it means that style doesn't matter. In fact, storytelling is style blind. Whether the home is traditional or modern, we are better for having learned its story.
Understand that caring is what's important. Many years ago I came across architect Charles Moore's book The Place of Houses. Moore says it better than I can when he states:
"If you care enough you just do it. You bind the goods and trappings of your life together with your dreams to make a place that is uniquely your own. The crucial ingredient is concern, care for the way that a house is built and the shape it gives to your life."
No matter where you live, be it a rental or a more permanent home, it's always desirable to strive to make it yours and create a home that tells your story.
Tell us: What stories does your home tell, and how are they told?
"If you care enough you just do it. You bind the goods and trappings of your life together with your dreams to make a place that is uniquely your own. The crucial ingredient is concern, care for the way that a house is built and the shape it gives to your life."
No matter where you live, be it a rental or a more permanent home, it's always desirable to strive to make it yours and create a home that tells your story.
Tell us: What stories does your home tell, and how are they told?