Every home should be one’s light in the darkness – a space that truly embodies the idea of shelter and resonates with one’s spirit. To that end, Tabanlıoğlu Architects’ ‘HousEmotion’ installation illuminates the fluidity of the concept and experience.
More specifically, the installation considers the emotional meaning of home in an age of increasingly transient living. ‘There is a variety of perceptions of what home really is today,” the practice says. ‘The question “Where are you from?” prompts myriad answers. The meaning of home for a person may simply be a smartphone with a full memory.” Or it may be something more fundamental to our sense of self – Tabanlıoğlu also references the psychoanalyst DW Winnicott and his groundbreaking work on childhood development, Home is Where We Start From.
Tabanlıoğlu’s pavilion starts with the most elemental idea of a house: a cubic form. This is created using a series of white rods, a simple border demarcating the limits of the home. The gaps between the rods lend a semi-transparency to the structure, drawing visitors in but also allowing the home to dissolve into the wider environment. The walls, perhaps even the home itself, are seen to be illusory.
Once visitors step inside the structure, it again takes on the homely role of a shelter. A divan is placed in the heart of the space, which Tabanlıoğlu describe as being “like a mother’s lap”. It is a place where visitors will want to spend time, relax and meet new people. At night, lights embedded in the rods will turn the structure into a glowing lantern, or perhaps a warm hearth.
Check it out at: Dubai Design District (d3)
Outside Building 11, North Terrace
