Neuroarchitecture

117
Home
House—Community—Identity
Home: this can be an explosive topic and was the theme of the German
Pavilion at the 15th International Architecture Biennale in Venice: Making
Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country. 239 It not only deals with current waves of
migration but also covers problems and experiences of hospitality, integration,
and cooperation for those settling into new urban situations. However,
I will not go as far as that yet. First it is necessary to explain the concept of
Heimat (home) in the context of architecture. Where in the house does the
experience of home occur? What images remain in the memory until very old
age? Do requirements for dwelling change at different stages of life? What
can blueprints for the future glean from the past? What factors play a part in
determining what is home, apart from the atmosphere of rooms?
The following section will discuss not only the memory of rooms
and the associated stages of life but also describe models of communities
and their architectural frameworks. Currently, the significance of communities
and their local characteristics in the field of architecture are being rediscovered.
The French Pavilion at the International Architecture Biennale in
Venice in summer 2016 also focused on this topic under the title Nouvelles
Richesses, 240 displaying models of historical settlements and neighborhood
meetings in modern projects, introducing the idea of village communities as
having worthwhile potential in urban contexts. Home and community are
becoming the focus of interest. Home as a concept? Probably work in progress?
What actually makes up the art of current architectural planning in relation
to requirements for housing in the changed lifeworlds at the turn of the
nineteenth and twentieth century? These are simple questions, encouraging
us to look back into the history of the topic when it is a matter of finding the
ideal forms for creating a typology. The theme of modern living can be understood
from the extremes, whose fundamental principles reach into the past
and into the future. A broad spectrum opens up, stretching from the ideal
of a return to the countryside and stylized rural simplicity to narrow, strictly
functional dwellings in densely populated urban areas. Aspects that came