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D W E L L I N G W I T H D E S I G N
Introduction
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The previous chapter discussed design as it appears from the point of
view of storing products in the home. This chapter takes a look at the use
of design. These points of view are not exclusive, since, while nearly all of the
products that the interviewees talked about were being stored in the apartment,
most of them were also being used.
My interpretation is grounded in the notion that the households can be
seen as using products through curating the home as a hotel, a museum and a
gallery. Within this account, the museum’s and gallery’s meanings in particular
differ from their ordinary figurative usage. This is important to keep in mind,
because many of the interviewees expressed an explicit dislike of viewing their
home as a gallery by not appreciating someone putting together homes that
look like they were taken straight from an interior design magazine:
E: it was decorated just like in the style of interior decoration magazines,
like Avotakka, like whatever is currently “in”. It was quite amusing.
But it lacked all those personal things that travel with you, and we
have a lot of those. (Sakari & Elisa 05 45-48)
Likewise, there was outspoken scorn towards a “museum-like home”:
T: I have always managed to avoid my home being like a museum or a
showroom or (pause) I mean, it’s not that I despise people who want
to keep their home terribly clean and all, of course not. We all have
right to do just as we want, but I would get really anxious if my home
were like, full of museum objects that have to be cleaned every day.
(Theo 04 235-239)