Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Master of Interior Architecture, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, The University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
In contemporary architecture, dwelling is often reduced to housing, understood primarily as a physical entity intended to satisfy functional and biological needs. In contrast, the concept of home refers to a meaningful lived experience of dwelling in which memory, individual and collective identity, imagination, a sense of belonging, and human relationships with space are closely intertwined. This study focuses on the concept of home and seeks to identify the phenomenological components constituting the meaning of home in Gaston Bachelard's thought by addressing the following research question: What are the phenomenological components constituting the meaning of home in Bachelard's thought? To this end, theoretical texts in architecture, environmental psychology, and the phenomenology of space were systematically reviewed and analyzed to identify shared themes, clarify conceptual relationships, and organize them into a coherent conceptual framework. Throughout this process, fragmented concepts across the theoretical literature were critically examined to reveal their underlying conceptual connections and to provide a more integrated understanding of the meaning of home. This analytical process also enabled the identification of recurring conceptual patterns across different disciplinary perspectives. The findings indicate that the meaning of home is a multilayered phenomenon emerging from the interaction of four interrelated dimensions: physical–architectural, social–lifeworld, psychological, and symbolic–imaginative. While the physical environment provides the conditions for the experience of dwelling, it is memory, a sense of belonging, imagination, and human relationships that ultimately endow it with meaning. Accordingly, home should be understood not merely as a residential unit but as a setting for the constitution of lived human experience. The conceptual framework proposed in this study provides an interpretive basis for understanding the multidimensional meaning of home and may also serve as a foundation for future research on the meaning of home and dwelling, particularly within human-centered architectural studies and research concerned with the quality of residential environments.
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