Why large homes are restricting : Framing personal space: vulnerability and volatility

Personal space is a spatial privacy layer that regulates access to the self, without it our ability to function properly is impaired. An attack on the personal space is an attack on the person itself. Thus, personal space can be seen as a part of the self. The environment can be a part of personal space and therefore also seen as part of the self. Personal space, as the direct space surrounding the body, is framing the conscious experience of self. Due to its abstract nature, it is more appropriate to impact that experience by framing personal space through the environment. How to bridge something that fleeting with something so concreate is not obvious. This thesis tries to find a useful methodology for this through available research, own experiments, and discussion. Theories about stimulation, affordance theory, and prospect refuge theory, seems to together capture the whole quite well into something more tangible. The experience of personal space is concluded to be too ambiguous to properly design around and letting the user regulate it themselves by moving through a dynamic environment seems more fruitful. Ambient factors impact the need of personal space but the thresholds between spaces are where dynamics of the larger environment is concentrated. Therefore, they are more decisive in framing personal space and the architect’s attention should arguably be directed towards these