Episode 003: Home

What is a home and what is home? This word is very intriguing and has no real meaning as everyone you ask will say something different but I believe that a home is much more just a 4 walls a roof. I’m an architect and of course I think that way right! Well yes although I design homes for a living and I am very excited with each new project I get I wonder what the deeper meaning is behind the 4 letters. We all know that a home is where the heart is, but what does that even mean? How can a home be both a place and a feeling? Can home be a person? These are the types of a questions that fascinate me during my every day job and I would like to take a dive into what is a home.

My experiences with homes has been vast to say the least. My Dad was in the military and like most military families we were posted often throughout the country. I moved 6 times from when I was born to when I graduated high school. I have never had a true family home to return too and even to this day the closest thing to that is my grandparents house, of which we spent a lot of time at. Even after graduating from high school I moved continuously not living in the same house longer than a year or two. My worst stretch I did not live in the same city longer than a year. When people ask me where are you from it really gives me pause. Even to this day I am not sure how to answer that question. I often go through the list. Edmonton to Cold Lake to Marie Lake to Comox to Courtenay to Edmonton to Vancouver to Calgary to Tokyo to Melbourne to Calgary to Tokyo to Calgary to New Westminster and soon back to Vancouver. I will have lived in 19 homes that I can remember since entering the earth, this does not include my mums’ home which I visited often in the summer. So, you think I would know something about what home is but I humbly don’t think I do since I have no lived in one all that long. I can tell you one thing is for sure….moving sucks.

I have gotten to a place in my own life where I had to make a promise to myself that I would not move every year. I raised that to every two years being the absolute minimum, I needed to commit to a place. I should really extend that to 5 years, but life takes you places and as an explorer I have never felt the need to root myself in the earth and refuse to leave. At times I had to move when I did not want to due to my Dad’s work, traveling, schooling or work, but I always did so with a sense of purpose and efficiency. It allowed me to cleanse my life of things I no longer needed, by necessity I went through an annual purge. The biggest move to Japan I sold everything it was a total purge of my life and I really saw what living minimally was. You can say it was almost a pilgrimage and cleansing through fire. The underlying lesson in all of this for me was I knew I could make anywhere a home. I am what you call a homebody, or a nester and there a few important steps when moving that I like to do.

I normally commit fully to leaving the current place I am living in, I start to take down art and allow myself to slowly let go of the current abode over a few weeks. I start packing things, far too early as some people tell me, I can have the entire house packed in a single day easily if you let me. I then go through the purge of things I no longer want or need. After the pain of doing the actual moving, I unload all the boxes and then eat some pizza, no one got time for cooking. I then go through the new place and do a good smudging using sweet grass and clear it of any negative energies and allow my positive blessings to be infused on the home. You may not believe in this but part of me does and even if it works on the subconscious level its powerful and effective. The very first room you make your own is your bedroom. Nothing is more important than a good night sleep and your bed should be fully made and facing the direction you want to be sleeping in. If I am still restless, I will unpack all the boxes that same night or at the very latest the following day. It’s amazing that in less than a few days home can switch from place to place almost instantly, however, as with all new homes you begin to explore it secretes and quirks and with time you begin to open up to it and it to you.

Now I cannot overstate this enough, moving this many times in your life is stressful and it has taken some good therapy to understand why I ended up moving so much. Is it really situations beyond your control or are you running from something? If you are running from something it will follow you to your new home so its best to resolve your issues where you are before you decided to make a move. But if it truly is beyond your control then view it as your current home and you are just not in alignment anymore but you should still be grateful for what it provided you. I know what you may be thinking, why is he referring to the home as if it is living thing? A home is not just a place it is you that gives it the energy to make it into a home. You nested and made a home out of the shell, part of you will always live on in every place we have lived because your memories of that home live on and so does your energies within it. If you believe that humans have the ability to transfer our energies to things, people or animals why could we not do it to a home?

Have you ever been in a place and sensed something was wrong about it? It’s cold and you feel something awful happened in that home? I believe that the energies of the past occupants remain as I believe that their a reality or dimension where those people are still living in that house. Past future and present all exist at the same time and I believe that those energies can transcend through dimensions into physical places or objects. Humans have a really strange ability to tie meaning on to objects, it can be personal, it can be emotional or it can be spiritual and I think architecture is no different. I would even go as far to ask the question does architecture, or in this case a home, have a soul? If it does have a soul, how can I capture it for my clients?

Every single one of you listening to this podcast are listening from a building or most likely on your way to a building right now. I ask that you take a moment to really look around your surroundings. You are currently inside something that was once in someone else mind. It is often formulated in the mind of architect after consulting with the clients who they themselves have images in their mind on what they wanted the house to look like. The architect visualized the space your in right now, the finishes, the parties, the fights, the cooking, the first birthday, the first kisses, the wedding parties, the funeral wakes, the seasons coming and going, the furniture choices and changing of fashion and technology we visualize a home filled with history. Then when it feels right, we start to draw or model on the computer what was once just in our mind and then it begins to take a life of its own. Depending on the size of the project their will be internal discussions about its aesthetics, functionality, code requirements and critique. The design is then created into an artistic render of what it would look like and we try and capture a particular feeling to convey to the client. If we did an excellent job the client says they love it and it goes into engineering, or we go back redrawing and going back and forth with the client several times until we get the sign off. The engineers work with us to make the dream a reality and we work back and forth a few times. The plans get more detailed as it meets the city requirements for their particular bylaws and it is looked over by several people within the city all trying to get a piece of the project and get it to change to how they all want it. Then the big day comes, and we have a building permit in hand. We then spend more time drawing and redrawing and redrawing to ensure that another set of drawings communicates to a contractor and a group of trades how to build the building. It then goes through construction that ranges from 6 months to 3 years all with many people coming and going building this house until the day comes where we sign off and hand the client their keys. A whole ballet and industries of people come together to produce something that was once in our head and is now something you walk into. part of me believes that with this much energy and effort that each building must have an essence and emotion built into it.

That emotion as seen on TV is often extremally overwhelming to people, they cry with happiness because they have a home that reflects not only the architect’s creativity but a piece of the clients themselves. If captured exactly right the soul of the building will be felt and strike the heart in such a way that someone will say this really feels like home. Nothing is more satisfying than to hear that and it I see it as my purpose on earth to make the intangible a reality. A life of a home does not stop here though, just like in the architects mind we see a whole history unfold in the space. This very history is what gives houses even deeper meanings and energies. Each occupant adds something to the house giving it a piece of themselves and as you look at the walls and ceiling of your current home can you visualize all the work and energy that went into something that now shields you and keeps you safe from the elements? Give thanks, to all of the energies, memories and imagination that went into the places you occupy, and you may just discover a new appreciation for my profession but also what it means to come home.

There will always be a time in a buildings life where it must come down and its purpose swept aside for larger more greater things and this is where the home transcends itself. Just like in my experience with moving around the country and the world home followed me. Although as an architect I instill a lot of value into a building, it is important to realize that not everything in this physical reality is meant to last forever, but you are. Your soul and consciousness are capable of expressing a deep seeded feeling of home within you. I know that all of you have felt this at some time in your life. When you’re with the right people, or you have arrived at the right place, or even when you met your current partner something about all these things beacons in your heart the emotion home. Have you ever considered that you have this feeling within your own self? Do you feel at home within your own consciousness and body? This is when home becomes a vehicle for healing. Mediations will often create a safe space or we build a home within our mind that allows us to sort through our thoughts and desires so that we can grow as human beings.

A remarkably interesting time is coming as human beings begin to leave this planet there will be a profound sense of loss of home. Astronauts have the unique perspective of seeing the entire earth as their home which is a unique perspective since most of us are focused being on the planet. These astronauts are testing the limits of what this emotion means and was the very first time we could fully understand that the planet earth is itself a home. As we walk among the dusts of Mars and the Moon there will be a whole new meaning to the word and will come with it several challenges for those all too brave human souls.

Some of you may have felt an entire country or culture as home, while traveling abroad. I know that after a few weeks abroad in any country there is a great desire to return home. Let me tell you, culture shock is a real thing. It is when your home culture is shattered as you explore another countries culture. While you abroad you must grapple with changing your culture a little to fit in with the local population. There is nothing quite like it, but it proves to me that home can be cultural. What is strange is when you get a sense of feeling at home when you’re in another country. For me part of my longs to be in Japan I feel very at home in Japan when I visit. These places speak more to my values or some may even think I had a past life in the country. I am not sure exactly but when you feel home that feeling is great.

If we are to conclude, home is what calls to you, and it is a powerful feeling and an important feeling of acceptance, love, hope, warmth, and place. It is what gives you protection, security, and shelter. The home is your dreams and your fears. The home is your memories it is your energy. Most of all, the home is within your heart and you should feel this sense of home within yourself as a form of love and acceptance of who you are as a person. Lets all go home, together.

This is the explorer signing off.