Anyone At Home celebrates the lived experience of design.
We have all lived a life before today- and hopefully a life after tomorrow.
Life is a continuum of change. There are some events we can control and some we cannot.
Political, sociological and technological shifts constantly disrupt, change and influence our lives. They shaped how we lived in the past and how we live today.
Our home is therefore the centre of a life lived through many different events. Through our own lifestages and changing personal circumstances it remains the physical locus of our choices, expectations and outlook. It is the one place/space that we make our own.
Everyone has a story to tell.
Anyone At Home puts design at the heart of people’s lives and experience of life.
In the Interviews section people from all walks of life talk about their home in the context of their lived experience. Their story always reveals ‘something’ about what makes this home their home.
Each of these accounts contributes to a wider range of personal stories. When viewed together they provide a unique view of home as a lived experience in both words and images.
Also featured in the Interviews section are charities that reach out to people at a time of need by offering a home, a service or support.
Also highlighted are associated individuals and industries who, in different ways, influence, shape and contribute to our concept and experience of ‘home’ and how we live today.
The Insights section is where I explore broad, far-flung, burning and blurred ideas, thoughts and questions that keep me curious and always thinking about what design actually is.
The Insights section enables me to discuss and develop themes that emerge from the interviews. Avenues for further research perhaps?
Design for me, is implicitly part of lived experience. Design is about what we want, need and have and how that all comes together in one space; the space we call home.
This site brings together visual and oral data connecting the physical environment to the richness of an individual’s life experience.
Each story is a reflection of a time and a place.
It is how we see the world and how the world is for us.
This website an open resource for anyone who is interested in experiential design.
It highlights issues associated with ageing, health, lifestyle, location and changes in personal circumstances.
If you wish to use the images or text (for which I hold the copyright ©) please contact me for permission.
My hope is that these stories will inspire others, spark ideas, develop understanding, widen connections, dispel myths and fill existing gaps in our knowledge of home.
I would like to thank everyone who participated in this project for letting me into their lives and homes so I could share this with you.
People × Society × Home × Design
BIO
Nuala Rooney, PhD, FHEA
Dr Nuala Rooney is an independent human-centred design research consultant based in Northern Ireland.
I have over 25 years experience leading design courses in higher education institutions in Hong Kong and UK. One of the first people in the UK to be awarded a PhD in the discipline of Interior Design, my work actively positions and develops new ways of looking at, and thinking about, the context of design, people and space in the real world.
My thesis was a break-through study of interior space within the context of high density dwelling and was published as At Home with Density,Hong Kong University Press (2003). To reach a wider audience I further developed it into an award-winning short documentary film, A Thousand Pieces of Gold.
I write widely on the subject of interior/spatial design in both academic and popular journals.
As a designer, my approach to research combines academic rigour with creative thinking to access and address wide-ranging hidden human concerns within the social/spatial sphere.
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Association (FHEA) and held appointments as External Examiner for academic institutions across the UK, New Zealand and Ireland. I have judged design at many prestigious design competitions including the UA Design Awards and Asia-Pacific Interior Design Awards (APIDA)
Anyone At Home is a radical approach to design and design research in the real world.
Life stories help us to see, listen, and think more about the questions, problems and solutions that affect people everyday. That is: anyone, anywhere. People just like us.
Which is why I believe a formal academic approach is not the best way to reach people or share ideas.
In a fast-changing world we need to respond with flexible, alternative ways of looking, listening and understanding the world around us. Design, in its broadest sense, provides a way-in, and a bigger picture, to capture data big and small.
I am very keen to work with business and industry to develop responsive, creative human centred design insights and creative actionable outcomes that fully address real-world problems, issues and scenarios.
Please contact me on: Email: nuala@anyoneathome.com