We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.  Winston Churchill

A loving home is the unity of a specific dwelling, all those people and things that it
shelters, and the sense of treasuring and being treasured. In its fullest form, everything
about the home has been conceived in love and inspired by beauty––not just the physical
aspects––but the relationships, values, and daily rituals. The result is the happiness that
Aristotle argues is the deepest desire of humanity. This is not just the happiness of
pleasure or peace of mind; it is the happiness of participation in something meaningful.
The act of conceiving arises from your inner life of imagination, understanding, and
creativity. It pervades every aspect of your special place and your interaction with it,
starting with your arrival home.

When do you feel you have returned home? Is it as you see your familiar site from the
street corner or pull into your driveway? Is it as you open the back door, fold your arms
around a loved one, or sink into your favorite chair? Perhaps the answer changes with
circumstances. I have different moments that ring the bell of my heart and announce,
“I’m home.”

… Our homes have tremendous potential to nurture and heal us, to help us grow, and to
surround us, as well as those we love, with beauty and harmony. Today, homes are a
great treasure for far more people than ever before in history, but the meaning of home
has changed considerably over the centuries. By the latter part of the 20th century the new
field of environmental psychology, the science of place, asserts that your behavior and
the places within which it occurs are an integrated unit. Describing one without the other
is capturing only part of the picture. Winifred Gallagher, author of The Power of Place
and House Thinking, explains that “Not unlike medicines, places have effects, and when
accurately ‘prescribed,’ they can make us feel better.”

Clare Cooper Marcus, in her book House as a Mirror of Self, points out that part of our
human development involves meaningful relationships with significant physical
environments as well as with people. Home has not received enough attention because all
the typical fields of study slice and dice the world in ways that do not take into account
one of our greatest emotional connections. Welcome to a journey into this world where
we will draw on insights from many fields but, most importantly, from people who love
their homes.