A 20th century philosopher named Martin Heidegger proposed that people should attempt to respond to the ‘unique situation’ in an authentic way. This means that when we are posed with a problem, we should not simply “do what one does” in such a situation, but instead, use our knowledge and intellect to formulate the best solution. In many respects, culture provides us with many ideal solutions; we rely on the thought and effort of our predecessors to furnish us with methods and equipment for many of the problems we encounter in our daily lives. A hatchet, for instance, can be extremely useful for those of us who only need to chop firewood or hammer in tent stakes; most of us know very little about why the hatchet works so well or how it could be improved. In that sort of case we need to simply “do what one does” and use the hatchet. However, there are other cases for which we have both the need and expertise to formulate a thoughtful and (perhaps) novel response to a task.
One area that would be perfect for the use of unique solutions is home design. The home in which one lives can probably be considered the most important object of all, so it seems odd that its design is typically subject to culturally determined pressures and not those that may be most desirable for the user. This poses a problem for anyone who has needs or preferences even slightly different from the cultural standard. And this pretty much includes everyone, because the culturally defined ‘typical’ user might be an amalgamation of many prospective home buyers but this, in effect, makes a home moderately desirable for the greatest number of people while not being perfectly suited for any potential inhabitants.
The question then arises as to how easy it would be for home buyers to help design their future abode. I’m not exactly sure the answer to this, but I get a feeling that if the new home market were more geared toward finding these unique solutions then there would be a great deal more satisfaction on the side of the future occupants. I foresee people gaining some of the skills necessary to design their home and then only making use of an architect for verification that the plan will work the way they intend. There are actually a great many computer programs that make just such plans feasible and accessible to normal people who simply have an interest in making a functional home (both in the physical and psychological sense). The internet could also facilitate home designers in obtaining new ideas for living solutions; perhaps it could be thought of as open source architecture. Of course, there are other concerns such as resale value of ones home (a very unique home is likely harder to sell) and cost (it is far cheaper to make one design used to construct many homes than one design per home) but I think these problems could be mitigated by thoughtful design and use of materials that are economical and work well for ones area (for example, taking advantage of local weather patterns of the specific site to use heating and cooling energy most efficiently). This seems like a more authentic way of living and probably would lead to a great deal more happiness and self-satisfaction. <!– @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in All else failing, it would at least get rid of those undersized and totally unusable ‘shutters’ that are bolted next to the windows of many suburban homes; they don’t seem to offer a solution to any problem…..at least not one I can think of….