Vol. 39 (2012): Homes and Emotions

'Home' is a multidimensional concept and phenomenon. Just as places get new meanings through personal experiences, a dwelling is transformed into a home through actions and repetitions, through the special meanings that are connected to a place. What is important in the process in which a place becomes a home is the fact that the dweller has the possibility to rework her or his environment and to break the repetitions in it, to have autonomy and functional freedom over the place. A home can be defined as a combination of physical space and the artefacts and atmosphere in it, including the dwellers and the relationships between them. To be a home a dwelling needs its dwellers, and in this sense the concept itself is dynamic by nature.