Housing, Home, and Content(s): Fake House, Real Home

Housing, Home, 

and Content(s): 

Fake House, Real Home 

Kevin Huynh

Amber Barton 

Audrey Cavalera 

Laura Hejleh 

Kevin Huynh 

Chung Meng Loh 

Yang Liu 

Wei Lyn Song 

William Ward 

Zhijian Wu 

Hsin Yeh 

Ilhyeon Yeo 

with 

Pricilla Heung 

Colby Vexler

Housing, Home, 

and Content(s): 


Kevin Huynh

Contents 

Studio Preface 

Housing Home, and Content(s) 

Finding Home In: Site 

Finding Home for: Content(s) 

A House and Home 

i-iv 

i 

ii 

iii 

iv 

Precedent Research Material 

1-28 

The Agency of Mapping , Highlighted Abstract #1 1 

The Agency of Mapping , Highlighted Abstract #2 2 

The Agency of Mapping, Notes 

3 

Jean Baudrillard - Violence of the Image 

4 

Jean Baudrillard - The Murder of the Real 

5 

Jean Baudrillard - Image and Representation 6 

Notes from Personal Journal #1 

7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 

Notes from Internet Investigation 

14 

Experiment: Red Barn 

15 

The Treachery of Images 

16 

Can We Trust the Media? (Baudrillard) 

17 

Simulcra, Simulation and The Matrix 

18 

Scans of Sketch Journal #1 

19 


20 


21 

Simulacra & Simulation, Jean Baudrillard, 1981 22 

Simulacra & Simulation, Highlighted Abstract #1 23 






A Concept to Find Home for: Simulacra 

Simulacra 

29-30 

29

Finding Home In: Context as Site 

Fabric 

Site Diagram 

Site Plan 

Site Elevation 

Site Model Photograph #1 


Finding Home For: Content(s) 

Content 

Taxonomy 

Physicality | Virtuality 

Moment 1 Physicality | Virtuality 




Site Physicality | Virtuality 

Content Physicality | Virtuality 

Site + Content Plan 

Site + Content Elevation 

Mid Semester Presentation 

House and Home: Project Title 

Site 

Moment One 

Moment Two 

Moment Three 

A Critical on Reflection on Contemporary 

Domesticity 

31-30 

31 

32 

33 

35 

37 

38 

39-59 

39 

40 

43 

45 

47 

49 

51 

53 

55 

57 

59 

61 

63-86 

63 

66 

74 

82 

89-90

Preface 

Housing Home, and Content(s) 

The home may perhaps be the best avenue to explore “contemporary 

life”. That is, the convergence of human(s) in space, facilitated by the 

ideas, content(s) and containers of humanism, humanities and the 

human body. 

The house not only plays host to the physical human body, but all 

things that entertain the notion of humanism: thought, activity, ritual, 

signifying objects and spatial arrangements, this is where the house 

becomes home. 

“Architecture houses. It is at home in - and provides a 

home for - philosophy [concepts and thought], aesthetics 

[cultural and material objects] and those discourses 

which are thought to describe it.” 

Andrew Benjamin 

- Eisenman and the Housing of Tradition 

Philosophical, aesthetic and cultural reference will generate 

contextual frameworks that allow the home to find place, sustenance 

and the content(s). Here, architecture is considered as the in-between 

of thought and experience, where the house becomes a mediator 

between two parallel states, the conceptual and the material; 

revealing the unexpected, through the slippages, transitions and 

tension between ideas, content(s), user and space. 

This investigation will argue for the critical agency of architecture, 

evoking discourse and dialogue between ideas, disciplines, 

technologies and representations. The house produced will act as 

an agent for mediating, critiquing and navigating the limitations, 

possibilities and transferences between the conceptual and material. 

The project may become a critical survey, experiment or meditation 

between humanism, humanities and the human bodies. This is where 

architecture may be at home in - and provides a home for - 

contemporary life.` 

i

Finding Home In: Site 

Context, Frame and Site Students will each be assigned a precedent 

concept: 

Simulation 

Simulacra 

Paranoiac Critical Method Salvador 

Rhizome 

Deconstruction 

Serialism 

Jean Baudrillard 

Jean Baudrillard 

Dali 

Gilles Deleuze 

Jacques Derrida 

Sol Lewitt 

They will spend the early stages of the semester exploring this 

precedent via the web, print and various other sources, collating and 

filtering information regarding this project into a presentation as 

model, image and text. 

This material will act as a brief; a plan, representing a place, to frame 

and materialise a set of thoughts establishing relationships between 

their respective ideas; its users, content and space, a contextual 

framework that houses the content(s) and design to come. 

This brief will establish a critical and abstract site for the rest of 

the semester, this may assume the form of a plane, field, sequence, 

surface, framework etc. - enabling students to position the ideas they 

choose to explore within a spatial context- setting the site for what 

they will inherently house in the next phase of the studio. 

ii

Finding Home For: Content(s) 

Users, Activities, Rituals, Events, Objects, Fixtures, Fittings and 

materialised content. 

Students will develop a taxonomy - A curated selection of material, 

content and objects that signify a particular value toward the 

thoughts, activities and rituals related to the ideas generated by the 

site in phase 1. This content will be housed in the design to come. 

Outcome: Students will produce a mixed media visual presentation 

(painting, photography, drawing, collage, rendering, film etc.) This 

visual representation will outline and detail a number of selected 

objects and unpack notions of connections, overlap, nodes, field, 

distance, proximity, edge etc. 

Successful outcomes should generate an abstract inventory 

list or taxonomy and a distribution plan through the use of 

an organisational / operational strategy. The success of this 

task will be outlined by the students ability to understand and 

communicate a clear and abstracted system of representation 

derivative and relational to the previous “site” task. 

iii

A House and Home 

The house will augment the relationship between: Where architecture 

may be at home in - and provides a home for - contemporary life. 

The house produced will act as an agent for mediating, critiquing and 

navigating the limitations, possibilities and transferences between 

the conceptual and material, revealing the unexpected, through the 

slippages, transitions and tension between ideas, content(s), user 

and space. Here, students will begin to explore the use of materiality, 

program, tectonics, scale, junctions between the site of ideas and 

objects of content(s). 

Outcome: Students will design a “home” highlighting relationships 

between the context it is housed in and the content(s), users, 

activities and rituals it is home to. 

Projects will focus on the transference and meditation the home may 

play between the contextual and the material via three moments of 

the student’s choice. Here, students will explore the moments and 

their in-betweens with successful projects revealing the unexpected, 

through the slippages, transitions and tension between ideas, 

content(s), user and space. Successful projects will also develop a 

critical position on what “House” means, “Home” means and what it is 

to be at “home in” and at “home for.” The home may become a critical 

survey, experiment or meditation. 

iv

Precedent Research Material 

Cosgrove, D. (2002). Mappings. London: 

Reaktion Books, p.214. 

p.01 

The Agency of Mapping , Highlighted Abstract #1

Cosgrove, D. (2002). Mappings. London: 

Reaktion Books, p.215. 

The Agency of Mapping , Highlighted Abstract #2 

p.02

Notes and Summary of James Corner’s The 

Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and 

Invention 

p.03 The Agency of Mapping, Notes

“… now we have to deal with violence of a third type, a very different 

one. More radical, the violence of deterrence of consensus and 

control of hyper-regulation…” @02:40 

“… in all actual biological, social and augmented processors, violence 

has substituted violence.” @ 07:06 

European Graduate School, EGS Media and 

Communication Program Studies Department, 

Saas-Fee, Switzerland, Europe, 2004. 

Jean Baudrillard - Violence of the Image 

p.04

“… extermination means that it passes beyond its own end or its own 

seniority to exterminate is to problem something beyond his own and 

so that it no longer has any reason for being or any reason to exist.” 

@01.31 

“…extermination could only be achieved if the process of virtualization 

we’re fully realised.” @04:20 

“… they survive only as emblematic of simulating function a fake or 

alibi.” @07:06 




p.05 Jean Baudrillard - The Murder of the Real

“Today the photo the genuine anomalous photograph would rather 

testify of the presence of an immediate presence of subject to the 

object.” @00:32 

“Something else very dangerous from the image as a parallel universe 

is a fact that our world, the universe is becoming image.” @05:53 




Jean Baudrillard - Image and Representation 

p.06

Reseach notes and analysis regarding Jean 

Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulations 

p.07 Notes from personal journal #1



Notes from personal journal #2 

p.08







p.10







p.12




Reseach Notes and analysis from Internet 

Investigation of Simulacra and Simulation 

Notes from Internet Investigation 

p.14

Close your eyes and imagine a red barn. 

Now open your eyes, that barn doesn’t exist. 

It never has or will. 

The constructed image of the barn a 

perversion of a false reality. 

p.15 Experiment: Red Barn

Magritte, R. 1928. The Reason of Images. 

(Oil on Canvas) Los Angeles, California: Los 

Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Pipe is a perversion of reality, which masks 

and denatures reality. 

The Treachery of Images 

p.16

“It isn’t the lack of access to information that renders the news 

meaningless, it’s the proliferation of images that make it so 

untrustworthy.” @ 00:29 

“The multiple interpretations don’t make the word more accessible. 

The explosion of information, of events, makes the ability to 

understand the world nearly impossible.” @ 00.59 

The media creates a copy of an event. They create non-events, … 

trained to accept advertising, suggestion, and disinformation.” @ 

02:30 

Can We Trust the Media? (Baudrillard) - 8-Bit 

Philosophy , Season 2 Epsiode 3, 2015 

https://www.youtube.com/ 

watch?v=5RwhEHzuulA 

p.17 Can We Trust the Media? (Baudrillard)

LUTZKA, S 2006, SIMULACRA, SIMULATION 

AND THE MATRIX, Brill, The Netherlands. 

Available from: 10.1163/9789401201292_007. 

Simulcra, Simulation and The Matrix 

p.18

Questioning the existence of multiple 

different realities existing at once and how 

they relate to themselves the realities around 

them. 

p.19 Scans of Sketch Journal #1

Tracing back through space and time to the 

point there the reality is split. Additionally, 

with time the perversion of reality gets 

biggere and more powerful. 


p.20

Experimentation regarding the Simulacra 

having a physical material quality like that 

of a mirror, creating another reality where 

everyday qualities are opposite. 

p.21 Scans of Sketch Journal #3

Simulacra and Simulation, Jean Baudrillard, 1981 

Jean Baudrillard speculates that our collective human experience 

is a simulation of reality, that all meaning of reality is being render 

meaningless by being infinity mutable. This reality he explores is 

a human construct, governed by the simulacrum. The reality of 

simulacra Baudrillard refers to is society constructed from culture 

and media made from signs and symbols. Baudrillard considers the 

reality we perceive as real is essentially, fake. Baudrillard considered 

that our reality is constructed from ‘copies that depict things that 

either had no original to begin with or that no original have an 

original’. 

Steps from reality to a copy of reality: 

1. Faithful image/copy, where we believe, and it may even be correct 

2. Perversion of reality, where we come to belie the sign to be an 

unfaithful copy 

3. Mask the absence of a profound reality, where the sign pretends to 

be a faithful copy, but is a copy with no original 

4. Pure simulacrum, the simulacrum has no relationship to any reality 

whatsoever 

Simulacra is the true reality, it surpasses the real world becoming 

hyperreal; a world that is more real than real. This hyper-reality is 

the inability of our own consciousness to distinguish reality from 

a simulation of reality. Our perceived reality is a simulation of an 

operation, reality. 

The reality we perceive as real is fake, a human construct governed 

by culture and media made from signs and symbols. Our collective 

human experience is a simulation of reality. All meaning of reality is 

being rendered meaningless by being infinitely mutable. 

Simulacra are copies that depict things that have no reality to being 

with or no longer have an original. Simulacra is true. They are not 

merely mediations of reality, more deceptive mediations of reality. 

They simply hide that anything like reality is relevant to our current 

understanding of our lives. 

p.22

Baudrillard, J 1994, Simulacra and simulation, 

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 

c1994. 

p.23 Simulacra and Simulation , Highlighted Abstract #1



c1994. 

Simulacra and Simulation , Highlighted Abstract #2 

p.24



c1994. 




c1994. 


p.26



c1994. 




c1994. 


p.28

A Concept to Find Home for: 

Simulacra 

The main concept of Jean Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulation is 

the distortion and perversion of a profound reality where the user 

cannot differentiate between what is real and what is fake ultimately 

leading to the original true reality becoming completed meaningless. 

The users are ill-informed by social media, mass-reproducible 

products, mass-consumption of cultural media, signs, and symbols 

that reality becomes distorted and the images projected upon them 

becomes the truth. 

Everyone sees the world around them differently, this governed by 

past experiences and knowledge, ultimately resulting in the world you 

perceive, different from what others perceive. Baudrillard investigates 

the trend that society is heading towards a shared existence due 

to symbolism and imagery masking the reality. However, this everpresent 

reality can be avoided by informing the masses of this fake 

reality, allowing them to see the fake and then the real and ultimately 

allowing the user to choose what reality they wish to perceive and 

occupy. 

This distortion is an interesting notion as there must be an original 

to be distorted in the first place and leads to the question can 

what is distorted be undistorted or clarified without loss of 

understanding and information. Additionally, when thinking of the 

concept of distortion light comes to mind, how light reflects and 

refracts distorting itself, not acting a practice or a wave but both 

simultaneously and not. The concept of light can be applied to reality, 

where the fake and real realities both exists together simultaneously 

and not, with the fake merely being a distortion of the real. 

Furthermore, the physical motion of light as waves is similar to water 

and the waves it forms, where little ripples collide and mesh together 

to form bigger ripples, each interacting and relating to one another 

generating a seemingly random shattering from known origins. Could 

the site be a fabric or something that acts like water? 

The truth is revealed when the truth comes out, this can be achieved 

p.29

y informing the user of the truth, educating them and allowing them 

to see what is the real reality and what is fake. 

p.30

Finding Home in Site 

Fabric 

The society and reality we live in and perceive as real is fake, a 

human construct, governed by simulacrum. The reality we perceive 

as real and the true reality both exist in the same state and on 

the same fabric, yet bears no resemblance. This fabric transcends 

both space and time, both co-existing in multiple states and no 

states; connected and disconnected, entering and existing, both 

in a constant state of flux. Both realities co-exist together with 

a seamless transition between the two. The true reality and fake 

reality are essentially copies of one another, the fake reality made 

of simulacra and nodes which has been manipulation and distortion 

to the point it is unrecognizable to the subject. It is only those who 

are seeing from the outside in that realise that both are portals and 

connections into one another, both overlaid, existing and support one 

another in a state of tension. 

Subjects blindly circumnavigate between, through and on the fabric 

not realising they have exited one and entering another. There is no 

sense of reveal, you enter another state without realising that there 

has been a transition. There are no edges, boundaries or junctions, it 

is merely an infinitely vast and scalable field. 

The way in which we perceive reality is shaped and distorted by our 

past experiences and knowledge. As a consequence, the reality that 

we perceive is ultimately different from the realities perceived by 

another. It is only when we see from another perspective, that we 

realise that the reality we live in is fake. 

The material of the model reflects this idea of futility and 

reverberation of movement, a bounce in once reality will cause a 

bounce in the other. The fabric is seen to tunnel, fold and connected 

in a multitude of ways. 

p.31

Site Diagram 

p.32

p.33 Site Plan

p.34

p.35 

Site Elevation

p.36

Spandex fabric supported on perspex frame, 

manipulated to suit contours of site 

p.37 

Site Model Photograph #1

Spandex fabric supported on perspex frame, 

manipulated to suit contours of site. 


p.38

Finding Home for Content(s) 

Content 

The subjects are bias to perceiving whatever reality they choose to 

see however, they can be influenced at nodes points. These nodes 

acting as nexuses of information, a temporary escape from fluxing 

and distorted realities allowing them to see a clearer reality. At the 

nodes, the subjects and objects interact, the objects acting upon the 

subject allowing them to see a glimpse of the real reality. 

The objects are scattered and exist in all realities, affecting the 

subjects and hence the subject’s condition. The nodes are connection 

points between subject and object hence subjects with their realities. 

The nexuses are incarnated into objects, these objects just existing 

and seen as pure and uncorrupted forms, informing and influencing 

the subject. The subjects meander on the site, visiting and interacting 

with each nexus point, learning and unlearning knowledge to help 

them gain aspect to perceive reality differently. These objects acting 

as a portal between reality and fiction. The objects a manifestation of 

a metaphysical network. 

In this world, the objective for the subjects is to grasp an 

understanding of their profound existence. This can only be achieved 

by visiting each nexus point to gain a glimpse of the true undistorted 

reality. Each nexus point reveals something different to the subjects, 

it allows them to see a less distorted reality hence allows them to 

understand and see the world from another perspective. 

The objects will only guide the subjects to finding the true reality, 

it only allows the subjects to see from another perspective, never a 

clear or definite definition, those subjects seeking answers will be 

confronted with more questions. 

There is a hierarchy of taxonomy where the subjects inform the 

objects found on the site. Additionally, both the subjects and objects 

govern what actives and rituals take place on the site. 

p.39

Taxonomy 

Objects 

1. 3D Printer (Threshold between virtual reality and reality) 

2. Router (Physical object, Meta-physical network) 

3. Computer (Virtual Reality Device, connection point between subject 

and multiple realities) 

Spaces 

4. Thermostat (comfort and control) 

5. Smart Mirror (space distortion) 

6. Door Handle (threshold/ governor of space) 

7. Window (aspect and view) 

Rituals 

8. Bed (escape, rest) 

9. Dining Table (connection node between individuals) 

Activites 

10. Books (knowledge and escape) 

p.40

1. 3D PRINTER 

2. ROUTER 3. COMPUTE 

6. DOOR HANDLE 7. WINDOW 8. BED 

p.41

R 

4. THERMOSAT 

5. SMART MIRROR 

9. DINING TABLE 

10. BOOKS 

p.42

p.43 

PHYSICALITY |

VIRTUALITY 

p.44

p.45 

MOMENT 1

MOMENT 1 

p.46

p.47 

MOMENT 2

MOMENT 2 

p.48

p.49 

MOMENT 3

MOMENT 3 

p.50

p.51 

MOMENT 4

MOMENT 4 

p.52

SITE 





























p.53

SITE 





























p.54

CONTENT 






























p.55

CONTENT 






























p.56

p.57 

1. 3D PRINTER 

2. ROUTER 3. COMPUTER 4. THERMOSAT 5. SMART MIRROR 

Site + Content Plan

6. DOOR HANDLE 7. WINDOW 8. BED 9. DINING TABLE 10. BOOKS 

p.58

1. 3D PRINTER 


1. 3D PRINTER 


p.59 

Site + Content Elevation



p.60

p.61 

Mid Semester Presentation

p.62

House and Home for: 


The society and reality we live in and perceive as real is fake, a human 

construct governed by the simulacrum. The simulacra originating from 

Jean Baudrillard philosophical treatise where he seeks to examine the 

relationship among reality, symbols, and society, in summary, his idea 

is that the original object or reality is being masked and denatured 

by images of said object or reality, with culture and media being the 

major contributors. The reality we perceive as real and the true reality 

both exist in the same state and on the same fabric, yet bears no 

resemblance. 

Shifting in scale into home in and for, the site for my project is a 

fabric, this fabric transcending both space and time, both co-existing 

in multiple states and no states; connected and disconnected, 

entering and existing, both in a constant state of flux. Both realities 

co-exist together with a seamless transition between the two. The 

true reality and fake reality are essentially copies of one another, the 

fake reality constructed of simulacra. Subjects blindly circumnavigate 

between, through and on the fabric not realising they have exited one 

and entered another. There is no sense of reveal, you enter another 

state without realising that there has been a transition. There are 

no edges, boundaries or junctions, it is merely an infinitely vast and 

scalable field. 

Where the two alternate realities collide are the nodes of my 

moments. The collision between realities creates these nodes, 

nexuses of information. The subjects are bias to perceiving whatever 

reality they choose to see however, they can be influenced at nodes 

points. These nexuses of information, a temporary escape from fluxing 



subject allowing them to see a glimpse of the real reality in the face 

of domesticity. 

The nodes are scattered across the fabric and exist in all realities, 

affecting the subjects and hence the subject’s condition. The nodes 

p.63

are seen as spectacles, illuminating and providing distinction and 

clarity between the realities. The nodes are stages and performance 

spaces a connection points between subject and object hence 

subjects with their realities. The nexuses are incarnated into spaces, 

these spaces just existing and seen as pure and uncorrupted forms, 

informing and influencing the subject. The subjects meander on 

the site, visiting and interacting with each nexus point, learning and 

unlearning knowledge to help them gain aspect to perceive reality 

differently. These objects acting as a portal between reality and 

fiction. The spaces, a manifestation of a metaphysical network. 







My projects stands as an experiment, testing and critiquing 

domesticity when confronted with technological agents influencing 

naive subjects on a site that is constantly in flux. 

p.64

BOOKS 

BED 

COMPUTER 

DINING TABLE 

TOP 

SIDE 

SMART MIRROR 

DOOR HANDLE 

WINDOW 

BOTTOM 

3D PRINTER 

ROUTER 

THERMOSAT 

p.65 

Site + Moments

Moment One: 

In a typical domestic setting, the door handle acts as the mediator of 

space. The means of connecting or disconnecting one space to or from 

another. Although at times a threshold can manifest itself into physical 

form (door, wall, partition), a threshold can also be formed in a more 

profound way in the metaphysical realm. 

Thresholds allow slippages and transitions between two or more 

different states, within the context of the home the two main states are 

public and privates spaces. Each space is governed by an atmosphere 

or environment and where these two conditions meet the resulting 

reaction creates a threshold. The significance of a threshold is not the 

transition state itself but rather the journey and lead up to the transition. 

The magnitude and intensity of different emotions, atmospheres, and 

states all taught in the lead up to the transition ultimately resulting in 

threshold manifesting itself within the subjects. 

Not only are thresholds portals of connection and disconnections they 

are also mediators and facilitators of movement and flow. A threshold 

in its open state will direct and control movement between the two 

realms however if closed the movement is redirected elsewhere, away 

from the transition space. 

The transition state of the bed between low and high is this metaphysical 

threshold. The bed and technological agent sitting on a higher aspect 

is the first stage of separation, signifying a boundary between public 

and private. The subject can extend this separation to increase privacy 

by adjusting the height of the bed, ultimately adding more layers of 

separation, increasing tension and heightening the threshold. Here the 

subjects can adjust the atmosphere and quality of their surrounding 

space by adjusting the position of the bed. 

p.66

P R I V A T E 

S E M I 

P R I V A T E 

p.67 

Moment One: Plan

p.68

p.69 Moment One: Sectional Perspective

p.70

p.71 Moment One: Artistic Impression

p.72

p.73

Moment 2: 

All the smart technological devices within the home are all 

interconnected to one another and then to the outside world through 

the world wide web. These connections in the past have been through 

physical wired connections, however, today, all devices are attached 

to a metaphysical network generated by the router. The metaphysical 

network is something we cannot see but can perceive through the 

devices themselves. 

The metaphysical network has no perceived physical presence beside at 

the endpoints where it is converted and realised in reality. The presence 

of a metaphysical network can be gauged in order of magnitude of 

connection strength, this connection ultimately allowing the subject to 

connect with one another and additionally, to other realities. Whether 

it is the use of a computer to be connected to another via video chat 

or acting as a portal into other realities in situations of virtual gaming 

or watching a movie or tv show, the metaphysical network allows 

connections both within the home and external to it. 

Contrasting this idea of technological networks forming connections 

between subjects and subjects and other realities, metaphysical 

networks can also be formed by non-digital means. Around a dining 

table, the user interacts with another similar to gadgets interfacing 

with one another where instead of the router acting as the connector 

the dining table is seen to take upon this role. Other objects in a 

domestic setting can be perceived as a connector. Even though there 

is no physical connection there is still an interaction and interfacing 

between subjects and their realities. The home is a place of connection. 

Four individualised spaces each reflecting either connection, 

disconnection, physical, metaphysical, offline and online. The subject 

is allowed to experience each unique space and the slippages between 

them as the chair transports the subject from space to space. The 

technology is the facilitator of movement, where the user remains 

stationary and is shifted into alternative spaces or realities. 

p.74

p.75 Moment Two: Plan

p.76

p.77 Moment Two: Sectional Perspective

p.78

p.79 Moment Two: Artistic Impression

p.80

p.81

Moment 3: 

In traditional domestic architecture, the core of the home are the living 

spaces within. The living spaces determining the type and quality of the 

rituals and activities to be undertaken within. Where previously these 

spaces a place for communal escape and family gathering, the advent 

of technology and mass media has transformed the living spaces into 

a space of entertainment and knowledge. The tradition living room 

has transformed into an entertainment center where the subjects are 

transported to other realities through the media itself. 

The knowledge consumed providing the subjects with an escape from 

their current reality by masking the presence of a true profound reality. 

The consumption of midstream media placing naive subjects into 

believing mass cultural delusions of products, fear and political bias. 

Where previously comfort within the domesticated home was found 

in living spaces was centered around the ritual and activities partaken 

with family members and loved ones, comfort now is the escape and 

masking of the existence of a profound true reality. 

Controlling conform allows a house to become a home. The thermostat 

is a manifestation of the user’s ability to control their environment. 

The ability to control and coordinate gives the user the ability to affect 

the atmosphere and environment hence their comfort. Allowing the 

subject to control what they perceive through the tv or book has the 

same effect, the sensation of control within a space allows something 

impersonal, to become personal, thus house into the home. 

Comforts that reside within comes from the rituals that occur within 

the vicinity of home. Rituals between: subject and space, subjects and 

objects, subject with other subjects. Home is not only a manifestation 

of comfort but also the objects that surround a user. The space itself 

only becoming the home when user objects begin to occupy the space. 

This personal touch allowing the space to be an extension of self. 

Concealed within the home is the user itself. 

p.82

p.83 Moment Three: Plan

p.84

p.85 Moment Three: Sectional Perspective

p.86

p.87 Moment Three: Artistic Impression

p.88

A Critical on Reflection on 

Contemporary Domesticity 

“Architecture houses. It is at home in - and provides a home for - 

philosophy [concepts and thought], aesthetics [cultural and material 

objects] and those discourses which are thought to describe it.” 

Andrew Benjamin - Eisenman and the Housing of Tradition 

The quote above was what drove me towards this studio. Coming into 

the studio I was hoping by the end of the semester I would have an 

answer to what an architecture house is in the face of contemporary 

life, what it means and what profound implications it has for 

contemporary domestic architecture. Having just about completed 

the studio I can say I don’t have an answer, however, I have a clearer 

idea of what it could be. Entering the class is hoping for an answer 

at the end, this was quite naïve, it seems like a question that takes 

a lifetime of knowledge and experience as an architect to be able 

to answer. At this moment, my partial answer is the contemporary 

domestic home is an extension of the user, where the user has filled a 

house with personal content thus transforming it into to a home. It is 

the content within the gives meaning to home. 

During the first studio session, it was asked of the class what house 

and home meant, my response was they are one of the same, both 

serving functions to provide shelter for the user where a house is 

something temporary and home having more personal connotations. 

Revisiting the same question, I can say home is a house, however, 

having more profound meaning to the user. Whether it is the content 

within that transforms a house into a home or the memories that 

were conceived within a house that makes it a home, house, and 

home means something different to all. It’s quite didactic in nature. 

Finding a concept in simulacra was quite an eye-opening experience. 

After reading and analyzing the writings of Jean Baudrillard I began 

questioning the reality we are currently living within and the possible 

implications it could have on contemporary architecture. One notion 

that resonated with me was an image masking the existence of a 

p.89

eality. Not only does this affect contemporary architecture in the face 

of domesticity but also in contemporary life. Social media apps like 

Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook allowing users 

to post distorted reality in the place of true reality. This subversion 

allowing slippages of fake into real, ultimately allowing fake, distorted 

realities to mask the real. With social media being so integrated into 

society and contemporary life it becomes quite difficult to define 

what is real and what is fake. 

Moving forward my perception of a profound reality will be forever 

skewed. I will now be questioning the truth behind everything, even if 

I know it to be true. What fears me most is as society becomes more 

and more integrated with technology and social media, a true reality 

will be lost forever, ultimately confirming Jean Baudrillard concept of 

copies of copies that have no original. 

p.90

p.91

Housing, Home, and Content(s): Fake House, Real Home

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