Description
Book SynopsisPoetic and political,
Strayed Homes invites architects, interior designers, and urbanists to think again about common concepts in architecture private', public' and home'. Whereas most writing about the public/private focusses on urban space, this book focusses on the domestic exploring those overlooked, everyday places where private and intimate activities take place in public. With four chapters set in four small, liminal spaces: the launderette, the greasy spoon, the fire escape, and the sleeper train - the book is part architectural history, part cultural history. It follows a series of allusions and impressions, to explore how films, adverts, books and anecdotes shape experiences of everyday architecture. Making a case for the poetic interpretation of space, the book can be used as a sourcebook for architects, designers, and theorists alike prompting the reader to rethink the emotional state of leaving home, intimacy in public, and lonely dreaming.
Trade ReviewStrayed Homes brings a valuable contribution on spaces as they’re occupied and used; a type of enquiry that is rare in architectural history, which tends to be concerned predominantly with designers. It would make heartening reading for architects who feel stuck in regulations and requirements and would like to rediscover spaces as sites of practices, movements and memories; and for anyone who enjoys cultural history written with care and attention to the small details, anxieties and pleasures of life in buildings. * Architect’s Journal *
This highly-original study offers a celebration of ordinary spaces – from fire escapes to launderettes – that connect strangers in cities. Providing refuge from regulation, these spaces of temporary togetherness, waiting and daydreaming challenge readers to ask: in what places can citizenship thrive? * Barbara Penner, Professor of Architectural Humanities, University College London, UK *
Strayed Homes explores everyday spaces that have none of the cultural or emotional investments of home but which, when examined as carefully as Edwina Attlee does here, tell us how we live. With an eye for the arresting detail and a poetic turn of phrase, Attlee opens up exciting new spaces for the study of everyday life. * Joe Moran, Professor of English and Cultural History, Liverpool John Moores University, UK *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments
1. INTRODUCTION Rocks, Dreams and Extensions 1. Secular
Eruvin 2. Question your teaspoons a. Reading: Roland Barthes b. The Everyday: Michel de Certeau c. Space: Gaston Bachelard
2. LAUNDERETTE 1. Gossip shops for lazy people 2. What was the state of Britain’s laundry in 1949? a. The public washhouse b. The commercial laundry 3. The arrival of the launderette 4. Play 5. Wait
3. COUCHETTE 1. Double negative: a. Location b. Consciousness 2. Cut up and carve 3. Hide and seek 4. Missing and Crossing 5. Strayed homes
4. FIRE ESCAPE 1. The long and heavy ladder 2. Trapdoor 3. Unmarried women 4. Theatre box 5. Left space
5. GREASY SPOON 1. The milk comes and the post goes 2. Home-cooking 3. Stay 4. Cramped 5. For the price of a cup of tea
5. STRAYED HOMES: Politics, Practices, Emotions Bibliography Index
