Ami Ogawa: The Form of a Fluctuating Home

I recall a conversation with students one day. When asked, "Who is your favorite artist?" surprisingly, everyone there answered, "No one in particular." They explained that they just listen to whatever is on streaming services. In today's world, where being able to choose anything is taken for granted, some say they don't know what to choose because there are too many options. This increase in choice overload is being sublimated into a choice of "not choosing"—not deciding on one thing, not staying in one place, and always accepting and letting go of encounters with new things and experiences.

In these times when respect for diversity is emphasized, people are constantly searching for a unique sense of "comfort" that stems from their own individuality. Even if they encounter a comfortable environment, they do not cling to it, but rather let it go willingly and seek the next encounter. By continuing to search for optimal solutions—not just one—from among the countless options that flow endlessly, they encounter discoveries they never knew before and feel the very act of living.

Lifestyles and ideologies are closely related to the form of the home. The ultimate example of the fluidization of housing is the "address hopper" lifestyle. There are various forms, such as living while moving from hotel to hotel, or moving the house itself in a mobile home. This also overlaps with the emergence of minimalists. By keeping the possession of things to a minimum, they enable a light-footed way of living, while also having an ethical aspect of sharing things.

Triggered by the pandemic, previous standards are being ousted from their positions. To begin with, a house, defined as "the range of the environment in which daily life is conducted," encompasses a role as a place for work as well as for eating and sleeping. The perceptions we held until now were merely intentionally created through spatial design based on the division of places by use and operational rationality. Now, after the pandemic, those divisions are becoming increasingly blurred. The normalization of remote work has encouraged the outflow of behaviors fixed to places such as workplaces and homes. Workations are blurring not only the temporal boundaries between work and vacation, but also the spatial boundaries that link place and behavior.

Where is the form of the home headed? Hints are visible in people's ideologies.