I´ve been wondering about what home is. The short definition of home is safety, but I´m sure this definition is much too simple. So I´ve asked myself at what times I´ve felt at home the most.

Roots
Right after I finished highschool I went travelling. The relation to my parents, sister and brother was at the time very bad, with many endless fights. At the time of departure I didn´t feel attached to anybody at home and I was convinced that the physical distance would make me free from my past. I thought that my journey would be one long holiday, away from these awfull people. Of course it all went very differently. After some months I missed my parents and even my whole big family very much. Their absence made me think and reappraise our relation. I also missed to speak my own language and the humour of it, to sing danish songs, celebrate Christmas. There was also another kind of longings: for a place without corruption, a social wellfaresystem where the poor are taken care of, for a place with no pickpockets, fixed prices, where busses drive on time... And I also missed having an everyday life.

Social relations
Another kind of home experience is when I feel at home without physically being home. I think of the times when I´m with friends. A good example of this is the N.C.- meeting in Istanbul. In Turkey they truly know "the art of being a good host" ; to make the guest feel welcome, loved and 100 % present in the situation. They were so good hosts that I forgot I was a guest. A few days before the N.C.-meeting started all the helpers met with the organiser to do the practical work. Unfortunately the organiser was stuck in the traffic jam, and the helpers couldn´t start without him because he brought everything with him. When he finally arrived everybody was ready. Nobody had left because of projects etc. I was impressed. The same thing could never have happened in Denmark because we are so busy with our own projects to wait 4 hours for anybody.

Challenge & Interest
Once I was hypnotised. The hypnotiser told me in advance what was going to happen. He would ask me to experience a place where I felt comfortable and from where I could "collect energi". I expected that it would be a beautiful and peaceful place from my journey in Asia, maybe a beautiful valley in the Himalaya or a palmbeach? Luckily my subconsious mind was not affected by my ideas. I was hypnotised and ended up in a completely different place. A place where the atmosphere was very stressed and all spare energy was played to do my very best. I was at the exam toenter the school of architecture. It surprised me very much that this was the kind of place I thought of in the trance. Could I collect energy from an exam? After this experience I realised that I have more need for challenges than being alone in nature.

These three experiences are examples of something very basic in life.
Roots is the attachment to a place and to the family, to the past with both memories and influence from culture.
Social relations is about being among friends and in the moment - where everybody feels respected and loved.
Challenge and interest is where you can be creative - both in your profession in other relations. It is the thing that has the least connection with "safety -home". Still it gives you homefeeling in the sense of feeling comfortable and collecting energy - using your abilities and reaching your aims.

As architects we should consider these conditions for human well-being. We need physical surroundings that can keep us in contact with our roots, improve our social lives and challenge our couriosity and creativity.

The development has made the world smaller and made many changes in our society. We have more choises to make - and also more possibilities to escape from people and places. We fullfill our own dreams and our jobs/studies become very important for us - important for our identity. With this development roots and social relations often get a lower priority. The result can be seen everywhere!

We often think these problems should be solved by the society - meaning to leave it to professionals like psychologists, social workers, politicians...and the problems are out of our sight. But things can only be solved if we also fullfill our responsibilities as human beings. To look after each other and take care that the social network is tight enough involves all of us, so therefore:

Be a good architect and a good human being!