social spaces at home

The social spaces in any home are the areas where members of the household gather and where friends are entertained. They provide a congenial atmosphere for such activities as general conversation, games, parties, listening to or making music, eating, and children’s play. Most homes throughout history have included such communal gathering places in which the entire household could assemble for recreation, companionship, and often warmth. In medieval England the “great hall” of a castle or house functioned as a group space and was perhaps the only room that was adequately heated. American families of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries typically congregated in the kitchen, drawn by the triple sensory pleasures of warmth, delicious aromas, and freshly cooked food-all condusive to easy companionship. For the same reasons, the kitchen in many a home today serves as a magnet for the entire family. Comparatively recently, however, new kinds of activities have become important in family life-reading, watching television, listening to music, pursuing home crafts, hobbies, and even work. All of these, plus our increased leisure time (thanks to labor-saving devices), make different demands on the living spaces in today’s home, demands that architectural design is only beginning to satisfy. The social area is the one most intesely used by the inhabitants, as well as guests, in the home.

The emphasis given each social activity varies from individual to individual and from household  to household. Furthermore, our priorities inevitably change as we grow older and experience changes in family life and economic status. The group space that, for example, makes ample provision for children’s play will assume a different character when those children are grown. Because none but the must decide carefully which social pursuits are most important, then plan accordingly

A logical first step is to consider specific group activities, as well as the environment and equipment desirable for each, and then to design the living space so that it will best meet these requirements. Time spent in leisure refreshes the mind and body; the social core of the home should be pleasant and stimulating to attract people to it and, once there, encourage interaction with others or with the environment itself.

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by Probo Hindarto
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