Private dwelling : contemplating the use of housing PDF
Preview Private dwelling : contemplating the use of housing
Private Dwelling What do housing professionals, architects, estate agents and town planners do when they go home at night? Presumably they do the same as the rest of the population. They indulge in that ubiquitous and unique activity called dwelling. They use the housing planned, designed, managed, bought and sold by professionals for uses specific to themselves: and while they are doing it, so is everybody else. Housing is something that is deeply personal to us. It offers us privacy and security and allows us to be intimate with those we are close to. This book considers the nature of privacy but also how we choose to share our dwelling. The book discusses the manner in which we talk about our housing, how it manifests and assuages our anxieties and desires and how it helps us come to terms with loss. Private Dwelling offers a deeply original take on housing. The book proceeds through a series of speculations, using philosophical analysis and critique, the use of personal anecdote, film criticism, social and cultural theory and policy analysis to unpick the subjective nature of housing as a personal place where we can be sure of ourselves. The book will be of interest to students, academics and researchers in housing, architecture, and planning as well as social theory and philosophy. Peter King is a pioneer in the area of social philosophy and housing. His main research interest has been to differentiate how housing is used at the individual level from the manner in which it is perceived as a social or collective entity. He is the author of five previous books, which explore various aspects of housing, including A Social Philosophy of Housing (2003). He is a Reader in Housing and Social Philosophy at the Centre for Comparative Housing Research, De Montfort University. Housing, Planning and Design Series Editors: Nick Gallent and Mark Tewdwr-Jones, The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL This series addresses critical issues affecting the delivery of the right type of housing, of sufficient quantity and quality, in the most sustainable locations, and the linkages that bind together issues relating to planning, housing and design. Titles examine a variety of institutional perspectives, examining the roles of different agencies and sectors in delivering better quality housing together with the process of delivery – from policy development, through general strategy to implementation. Other titles will focus on housing management and devlopment, housing strategy and planning policy, housing needs and community participation. Housing in the European Countryside Edited by Nick Gallent, Mark Shucksmith and Mark Tewdwr-Jones Housing Development: Theory, Process and Practice Edited by Andrew Golland and Ron Blake Private Dwelling: Contemplating the Use of Housing Peter King Forthcoming: Decent Homes For All Nick Gallent and Mark Tewdwr-Jones Rural Housing Policy Tim Brown and Nicola Yates International Perspectives on Rural Homelessness Edited by Paul Milbourne and Paul Cloke Private Dwelling Contemplating the use of housing Peter King First published 2004 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004. © 2004 Peter King All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data King, Peter, 1960– Private dwelling : speculations on the use of housing / Peter King. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Housing. 2. Housing–Psychological aspects. 3. Functionalism (Social sciences) I. Title. HD7287.K559 2004 363.5–dc22 2004001851 ISBN 0-203-42140-X Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-68074-X (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–33620–1 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–33621–X (pbk) ISBN 0–415–42140–X (e-book) To no. 78 and its contents Contents vii Contents Preface and acknowledgements ix Introduction: Looking out and looking in 1 1 What is dwelling? 17 2 Privacy: when dwelling closes in on itself 37 3 A brick box or a velvet case? 59 4 Talking about houses 77 5 Ripples: sharing, learning, reaching out 97 6 Want it, have it! 115 7 Fear and the comfort of the mundane 129 8 Loss 151 Conclusions: The stopping place 171 Notes 181 Bibliography 189 Filmography 192 Index 193 viii Contents Preface and acknowledgements ix Preface and acknowledgements One of my obsessions has been to state, over and over again, that housing is a means rather than an end in itself. By this I mean that housing is something that we use rather than just have: its importance is that it allows us to do other things. This simple fact, which we all implicitly accept in our daily lives, is all too frequently forgotten when housing comes to be discussed by academics, commentators and policy makers. There is just far too much emphasis on the production and consumption of brick boxes, and not enough appreciation of what we need them for. Of course, one of the main problems in developing such an appreciation is that much of what we do in our little brick boxes we seek to keep private, and we want to share it only with those we know well. What goes on behind closed doors is really not a matter for public observation. But this does not mean it is not significant or important, merely that it is not to be shared with those we do not know or care for. Just because we cannot see something does not mean it is not there, nor that it is not of considerable import. And we know this precisely because we all experience it as such. We all have ends and interests that we have chosen, as individuals, as couples, or as families. We make use of our housing in order to achieve these ends. Housing can therefore be seen as a tool, albeit a complex and expensive one. Having been obsessed by this simple idea, and frustrated that it appears to be beyond (or beneath)1 the understanding of many, I decided to set about exploring what it actually means to use our housing: what do we use it for or to do, and therefore why is it so important to us? In doing so, I hoped to point out just what it is that other thinkers have been missing. The result of this is the speculations that follow. I have tried to consider some of the important aspects about housing, or what I have termed private dwelling. I have looked at the importance of privacy, how we describe our dwelling, how we share it, and how it is created and modified by desire, anxiety and loss. This is not a complete picture, merely a start, and many may disagree with my choice of topics. What has conditioned my choice of topics for these speculations is the method I have adopted in exploring them. Many people who I have spoken
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