Honey I’m Home

Photo: arcspace

An exhibition about modern "homeliness"...

In an age where everything seems possible, and global information is available to everyone, many people feel detached and stressed. There is a growing demand for products, experiences and surroundings, that foster intimacy, wellbeing, calm, relaxation and reflection.

The distinctions between private life and work life are blurring, we display our homes in reality shows and all the world's problems are pouring into our homes through TV and the internet.

Network HomeForce4 Architects/Danish Ministry of Social Affairs

Gone FishingMorten Harttung/Halskov & Dalsgaard Design

Flexible elements in the AtriumJohan Carlsson RACA/FischerKeinicke

Can a person live in a sandwich?Jan Bo Vinter Poulsen/Copenhagen Office

Newly graduated design students collaborated with the Danish Center for Design Research creating new designs for the home.


ChandelierDesign by Stine Lindberg Osther

Knitting ChairDesign by Tine K Heuser

Louise Campbell collaborated with Stelton designing boxes for storing and transporting papers etc. between the workplace and home.

Don't judge a car by its cover - dog & hair-drier.

The sense of homeliness does not necessarily relate to the home, it can arise in relations to people, animals, materials...and cars!

Skibsted Ideation presents the Volkswagen Polo, in plush upholstery, with accessories for man's best friend - the dog.

Photo: arcspace


How do you create a sense of homeliness in new urban developments?
Mutopia architects worked with local residents, on a project called "user-controlled temporary urban spaces," developing design solutions for Mikado Square in Ørestaden.

Photo: arcspace

The need for "homeliness" may look like a fad, but the nostalgia for the past is also about reconciling the two conflicting needs that drive modern man; the need for mobility - physical, mental, career-related - and the need for feeling anchored and attached.

The concept of "homeliness" stems from Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud was interested in the dual nature of "heimlichkeit", which means both homeliness and secret. According to Freud, the notion of the home as a blissful, original state contained its own opposite, created by bourgeois repression and secrecy, the unhomely and scary home, a "coffin" where the family was buried alive. The reason for the great current popularity of the home is that the "closed coffin" has sprung wide open; there is no escape from the world inside the home!

The Danish Design Centre is designed by Henning Larsen.


photo: arcspace