private and public use of the living room - Bilkent University

2. THE USE OF THE LIVING ROOM
In this chapter, the previous studies about use of the living room are discussed. In
the first section of this chapter, the previous studies about house and its specific
rooms are discussed in the context of binary oppositions and their functions with
respect to different cultures. Specifically, different functions of the living room and
the family room are examined. In the second section, the studies that reveal the
public and private uses of the living rooms are examined. Then, the idea of living
room as a reflection of identity is discussed and the objects in the living room are
examined. In the last section, the factors affecting the use and the interior design of
the living room are discussed.
2.1. House and Its Specific Rooms
Previous studies that examined home with a special emphasis put on its specific
rooms were constructed on the idea of binary oppositions (Bachelard, 1969;
Bourdieu, 1977; Altman and Gauvain, 1981; Korosec- Serfaty, 1984). Based on the
idea that home is constructed on vertical hierarchies, Bachelard (1969) claims that;
… We should consider two principal connecting themes: 1) A house is
imagined as a vertical being. It rises upward. It differentiates itself in terms
of its verticality. It is one of the appeals to our consciousness of verticality. 2)
A house is imagined as a concentrated being. It appeals to our consciousness
of centrality (p. 17).
Verticality of the house occurs by the polarity of cellar and attic. Roof is the rational
element of shelter and the cellar is irrational element of the dark entity of the
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