Homes and Emotions
Abstract
'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 af 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. Because of this process-like character, a home has sometimes been defined as a relationship rather than an actual place (Mahlamäki 2005, 116-119; Saarikangas 1998; Saarikangas [2006), 222; Vilkko 2001, 53-54). Furthermore, the 'home' is often connected with ideas of wellbeing, emotional security and good living. However, because of its dynamic nature, the substance af a home can mean different things at different phases of a person's life (Hännikäinen 1998, 174; Vilkko 2001, 23- 54).
