Tabanlioglu Architects’ housEmotion @Dubai Design Week 2018
housEmotion by TA_ responds the call of Dubai Design Week celebrating the universal power of design
Held under the patronage of HH Sheikha Latifa Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors, Dubai Culture & Arts Authority, Dubai Design Week is the largest creative festival in the Middle East, reflecting Dubai’s position as the regional capital of design. Design, arts and culture community of Dubai will see the works of ambitious designers, innovators and cultural bodies gather to celebrate the power of design and explore the role of design in our collective futures.
housEmotion
Tabanlıoğlu Architects explores the ambiguous question of where we belong. housEmotion looks like a house, but is it a home?
Tabanlıoğlu Architects’ installation considers the emotional meaning of home in an age of increasingly transient living. “There is a variety of perceptions of what home really is today,” the practice says. “The question ‘Where are you from?’ prompts myriad answers. The meaning of home for a person may simply be a smartphone with a full memory.” Or it may be something more fundamental to our sense of self – Tabanlıoğlu also reference the psychoanalyst DW Winnicott and his groundbreaking work on childhood development, Home is Where We Start From.
Tabanlıoğlu’s installation starts with the most elemental idea of a house: a cubic form. This is created using a series of white rods, a simple border demarcating the limits of the home. The gaps between the rods lend a semi-transparency to the structure, drawing visitors in but also allowing the home to dissolve into the wider environment. The walls, perhaps even the home itself, are seen to be illusory.
Once visitors step inside the structure, it again takes on the homely role of a shelter. A divan is placed in the heart of the space, which Tabanlıoğlu describe as being “like a mother’s lap”. It is a place where visitors will want to spend time, relax and meet new people. At night, lights embedded in the rods will turn the structure into a glowing lantern, or perhaps a warm hearth.
With kind supports of Nurus, Tepta, Osram and Debbas, HousEmotion was opened to visitors at Dubai Design District (d3).
