Defining Design for Generations

I recently had the opportunity to read a portion of The Home Within Us, architect Bobby McAlpine's second book. "McAlpine speaks poignantly from his head and heart about everyone’s personal search for home. Armed with the perspective of a southerner and an arsenal of architectural experience, he reveals his thoughts on grace, the human condition, tenderness of place and what we know to be true in our lives," As I read his words, I thought about how important home is. He speaks of the home within us, and continually reaching into this home within to help us create our physical homes. I have a son recently graduated from college who will soon be venturing out to create his own home...a new generation. I wonder what he will take with him from our home, what he will consider when designing, furnishing and creating his own home. What will be his "personal search for home"? Has our home he has occupied for 22 years affected his "home within?" My generation, and my mother's before me, considered so much when furnishing and designing our homes. My mother always considered us, her family, first. Our comfort, our tastes, and our "entertaining styles" even as kids. Of course there were "grown up spaces" (I'll never forget my mother coming into the LIVING ROOM -definitely a grown up space- to find my 5 or 6 year old self and my two girlfriends propped up on the sofa eating our popsicles!! I was "entertaining"! Of course we were promptly escorted to a more popsicle appropriate space). I, in turn, designed and decorated my home for my family. Kid friendly for years, now a little more sophisticated as they have grown. I have pieces from my mother, my grandmother, and my mother-in-law and I infuse these with the new things we continue to collect and acquire. My home within is comfortable...it is not trendy or pretentious. It is full of beauty, as it is my love of home and my chosen career to create beautiful, yet livable, interiors. But it seems, with this new generation, my children's generation, that things are changing. This instant era, created with the onslaught of fast food, immediate information via the internet, and disposable everything intrigues me. With everything changing so instantly, will they value "grace, the human condition, and tenderness of place" that Mr. McAlpine speaks so eloquently about? Will my son take with him any of his family treasures, or will he create the instant home from catalogs and box stores? Will home be a haven, a place true to his life, a comfort and shelter from the outside world? My hope is that it will be...that he, and others of his generation will continue to create homes that reflect their personalities, their needs, and that they will care about these things as they relate to home. Times change, styles change, needs change, generations change, but the need of the shelter of home stays the same. To me it is a need for family, a place to be myself, to be comfortable, sometimes to cocoon myself and my family from the outside world, and at other times to welcome friends and strangers alike, sharing a little of what my home means to me with others. I know to some it is to share beauty, design, and the landscape of their lives. To others it is simply a place to rest and re-energize in order to face the world refreshed each day. For those of us who plan, design, arrange, and understand the affect home has on our daily lives, we continue to hope that each generation that follows us will continue to plan, design and arrange...to utilize architects, designers and their own "home within", to respect the generations before and embrace the generations to come, to love tradition while welcoming change, and not to fall into the "easy" or the "instant" or the "fast". Take the time to explore your home within. Consult with an architect or an interior designer, they can imagine right along with you and turn your wants, needs and dreams of your "home within" into a physical reality to share and enjoy for years to come.