Home Cultures, Vol. 3, No. 2: The Journal of Architecture, Design and Space

by Victor Buchli, Alison Clarke, Dell Upton

More than ever before, the home features in books, magazines, Sunday newspapers and on television. Whether as a concept or a physical place, it represents a key site of personal development. In line with this there has recently been a move towards the domestic as the new 'avant-garde' in contemporary art and design practice. In stark contrast, however, the maintenance of home remains a daily struggle in many parts of the globe. But wherever we are, one thing is clear: 'home' is profoundly symbolic. The domestic sphere is a highly fluid and contested site of human existence that reflects and reifies identity and values. Regrettably, much of the dialogue around the home has taken place as separate conversations within disparate disciplines. This new interdisciplinary journal is the first forum wholly dedicated to the critical understanding of the domestic sphere across timeframes and cultures. Heavily illustrated and handsomely designed, it will address a range of topics, including but not limited to:-The relationship between body and building-Consumption, material culture and the meaning of home-Design and new technologies-Aesthetics and furnishing -Homelessness -Politics, domesticity and social change-Moving cultures-The social consequences of planning and architectureHome Cultures invites submissions from design practice, design history, architecture, anthropology, sociology, archaeology, urban planning, contemporary art, geography, psychology, folklore, cultural studies, literary studies and art history.

128 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2006

About the author

Victor is Professor of Material Culture within the Material Culture Group at UCL and works on architecture, domesticity, the archaeology of the recent past, and critical understandings of materiality and new technologies. He also teaches on the UCL Urban Studies MSc and supervises on the Mphil/PhD programme at the Bartlett and the Slade and serves on the Board of the Victoria and Albert/Royal College of Art MA History of Design Programme as well as on the Steering Committee of the Victoria and Albert Research Institute (VARI).