research, competitions

Kichevo, North Macedonia

2017

international competition-honorable mention

Anchoring our identity is a need. To remember who we are, we need to get home. Creating our home is one of the most meaningful activities we are ever engaged in.
In every dream of a house, there is a possibility for a huge cosmic house that allows us to daydream and to populate the Universe. The walls of the house can spread or shrink at our will, but, the home is conceived as a concentrated being. It calls for a sense of centrality.
Coming from a community where all the generations in the family live under the same roof, we envisioned the home as a balanced shape. Every activity is reflecting on its stability. It is easily thrown out of balance but always returns to its primary state. The focus point of the home is in the space where the family eats together and prepares food. Three generations of people gather here. Climbing the stairs we go to the higher points of the home where individual spaces appear, shaped by the needs and wishes of the people who inhabit them. They are the places of solitude and silence, used mainly for sleeping. These spaces are distributed around a vertical axis. As time passes by, the old generations are replaced by the new and they take their place in the home hierarchy.
The human being is a spiral, a defocused being. It is no longer clear whether it runs towards the center or is running out.
The key to harmony is synergy and mutual support. One can go out and explore the world but is always dependent on the stability the home offers. When difficult times occur and the home is shaken out of balance, the focal point of the “home“ is the place where the family can gather and endure the turmoil.