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13/01/2022

Харьков в 1959 г. Трамвай на Свердлова (сейчас - Полтавский Шлях)

13/01/2022

Clean your way to happiness: unpacking the decluttering craze
Sydney’s first Muji store opened in 2015 and with it came attractive minimalism, simplicity, and functionality – a kind of consumption that was somehow about consuming less.

The Japanese retailer offering home-wares, furniture, clothing, and stationery describes its formation as the “antithesis to the habits of consumer society” and sells items that have undergone a “careful elimination and subtraction of gratuitous features”.

It is hard not to be seduced by long-lasting items that challenge the planned obsolescence of products – the in-built limitation of a product’s use, functionality, or desirability at the stage of design (just think about how often earphones need to be replaced).

Clear your mind by tidying your closet
The Japanese “organising consultant” Marie Kondo’s best-selling book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing (2010), encourages readers to adopt a certain relationship to objects: if it doesn’t “spark joy”, discard it. Her latest book, Spark Joy: An Illustrated Master Class on the Art of Organizing and Tidying Up (2016) adopts a similar ethos with practical tips about tidying.

Websites such as Unf**k your Habitat show us the aesthetic pleasures of decluttering with before and after photos of newly tidied household interiors. One-on-one organizational coaching is available for those who want professional guidance on decluttering.

A number of do-it-yourself websites, articles, and books encouraging simplicity and minimalism have also popped up, with mantras such as “bust clutter”, “let it go”, and “clear your mind”. What these slogans have at their heart is the idea that our things mean more than just the functions they serve.

Our things tell us about ourselves. As accumulations of memories, souvenirs from another place or mementos from another time, they somehow reflect back on us. Who we are, have been, or would like to be, how others know us, and where we belong are all things that are tied up to our relationship with objects. In the shadows of this trend is the idea that you may be perceived as being too involved with your possessions.

Scientific housekeeping
The US documentary television show Hoarders (2009-), now in its eighth season, involves staging interventions for those categorised as having a psychologically disordered personality linked to their tendency to accumulate.

The United States idea of a hoarder as participating in “material deviancy” came about in the mid-20th Century. Scott Herring’s 2014 book The Hoarders: Material Deviance in Modern American Culture explores the idea of “scientific housekeeping”, which involved

the promotion of social, personal, and material hygiene that advocated efficiency, cleanliness, and material orderliness in the home.

Decluttering, the natural heir of scientific housekeeping, can therefore be seen as a form of distancing yourself, physically as well as socially, from things that often have negative connotations: disorder, dirt, deviance, hoarding, as well as the kinds of people and bodies that are usually seen as in need of transformation in order to “better fit” with certain social ideals.

In decluttering we are not only throwing away things but associations. In decluttering we re-draw the boundaries between ourselves and others, and between our things and what they mean to us.

There is also something to be said about how the movement is tied up with our ideas of Japan, of Zen living, and the way that spirituality and a philosophy of living are evoked. How we imagine a Japanese way of life to be simple, organised, and orderly also forms part of the appeal.

Anti-conspicuous consumption
The trend is open to interpretation. Is it about stripping back to the “bare essentials”, to a supposedly more “authentic” way of being? Is it driven by an interest in the growing movement towards sustainable living? Is it fuelled by an anti-consumerism akin to James Wallman’s idea that we are living in an age of “stuffocation”? Perhaps it has to do with the idea that by discarding and re-organising, we will become renewed, more efficient, and more productive? A New Year’s resolution all-in-one.

Or perhaps its popularity has to do with the feeling of being refreshed and renewed after decluttering – an idea that leads one commentator to describe decluttering (unflatteringly) as “the new juice cleanse”.

The recent trends towards decluttering encourage us to change our relationship to the things we surround ourselves with and to be more discerning about what we include and exclude from our homes and from our perception of ourselves. However, where do these things “go” when decluttered?

Do they become “out of sight, out of mind” as they head towards landfill? Do they become clutter in other people’s homes? If our objects are holders of memory, stories, and biographies will our memories of them be erased? Will we regret giving them away in moments of scarcity?

What is a necessity now may become clutter in the future, and what is clutter now may be of use later. Will there be a lingering nostalgia for that possession that was once discarded but is now painfully longed for?

13/01/2022

How do you design a home for someone with autism?
What if every time the bathroom fan buzzed, you became unhinged? Or you lived in a place where it felt impossible to avoid curious neighbors whenever you went outside? Or where the location of kitchen appliances made it feel like a combat zone every time you tried to cook a meal?

Only then might you start to feel like the many autistic adults who struggle to live in homes that don’t accommodate their needs.

Today, while the majority of adults on the spectrum live in the home of a parent or other family member, their caretakers are now wondering what will happen when they get older and can no longer take care of themselves – let alone someone on the spectrum.

Over the last decade, investments in autism research and interventions focused on children and adolescents have grown. In 2010 alone, nearly US$350 million funded research projects in the United States.

But autism is a lifelong condition, and just 2 percent of these research funds are focused on the needs of adults.

In the past, autistic adults had few options to live independently in a community. They’d often end up in developmental centers, nursing homes or intermediate care facilities. Only in recent years have families and professionals started to consider designing, developing and choosing residences in the community.

In order to respond to these specific needs, we wrote a book – “At Home With Autism: Designing for the Spectrum” – that provides a robust set of guidelines for architects, designers, housing providers, families and residents.

No ‘one size fits all’
There’s a saying in the autism community: “If you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism.”

In other words, there is no single set of characteristics for those on the spectrum. Each has varying degrees of difficulty with social situations, verbal and nonverbal communication, and repetitive behaviors.

They could have a range of medical and physical issues – seizures, sensory sensitivities, sleep dysfunctions and gastrointestinal problems. Some excel in visual skills and pattern recognition, while others are especially adept at music, math and coding.

With all of this in mind, there’s no umbrella approach for housing those with autism. The best-case scenario would include a generous range of residential options – available within a single community – so that individuals could discover and choose which best suits them.

This, unfortunately, is not feasible, making it challenging to find a home that’s a good fit, especially when the options are so limited.

Planning for independence
Researchers, support providers and design professionals are only now starting to explore how to plan for individuals on the spectrum once they age out of the school system, including where they will live, how they can set up a home, and the best way for them to become members of a community.

For those at the beginning stages of planning for their autistic kids or grandchildren to move out of the house, the questions and concerns are manifest: is it better to live in an urban apartment, with the mix of services, amenities and vitality that cities provide? Or would they be better served in a gated community developed specifically for individuals on the spectrum?

What about roommates? Are there advantages to having them? If so, how many? And are there home technologies that can enhance security and independence without invading privacy?

Then there are the home’s layout, room sizes and configurations. Design aspects that most don’t think twice about can be a huge deal for someone with autism: proper lighting, wall colors and appliance noise levels need to be considered.

For those who haven’t cooked or cleaned before, the arrangement of countertops, the sturdiness of cabinetry, even how the water flows out of the kitchen faucet can be the difference between mealtime being a frustrating or satisfying experience.

A lot of little things can add up
Several years ago, a local autism organization asked us what was the best housing design for adults on the spectrum. We were stumped. So we began to sift through countless reports, personal accounts and emerging research studies on adults with autism that could inform us of better ways to design such residences.

We wanted to craft design guidelines for residential settings that would enhance key quality-of-life goals that are particularly important to those on the spectrum. They include sensory balance and being able to control privacy and social interaction, in addition to having choice and independence, clarity and predictability, and access and support in the neighborhood (to name a few).

With these goals in mind, we developed key criteria to assess the suitability of a home, outdoor space and community, and what design modifications might be needed to maximize its livability.

The guidelines encompass everything from big-picture suggestions at the level of the neighborhood to specific tips for individual rooms; they range from the community’s social life to the durability of household fixtures.

For example, to make it easier for individuals to assimilate into the community, when adding exterior features such as fencing, it’s important to make sure the materials and forms fit in with the rest of the houses in the neighborhood, and aren’t fortress-like or institutional-looking. In the yard, raised garden beds provide good opportunities for sensory-seeking people with autism to touch and smell plants.

A video doorbell that features a speaker and microphone. Scott Lewis/flickr, CC BY
Inside the home, predictability can be a big deal to some on the spectrum. Each room should have an obvious purpose, transitions between rooms should be smooth and their boundaries should be clear. This may help an autistic person establish routines and increase independence, while minimizing anxiety.

There’s also a wide range of technologies that can mitigate stress and promote independence. Installing an exit/entry system with a camera and intercom/telephone allows the resident to preview visitors before opening the door. Meanwhile, activity monitors and task prompting systems can help autistic people feel like they have greater control over their lives and more independence.

For those with sensory sensitivities, air conditioning and heating systems should be as quiet as possible. Ideally, they’ll be situated away from bedrooms to minimize disruption.

Open shelving with organizing bins. iStock
In the bedroom, closets with built-in organization systems and good lighting can help with daily dressing and grooming tasks, while in the bathroom, toilets should have heavy-duty seats and bowls to accommodate wear that could come from repetitive movements like bouncing.

Since requirements, needs and tastes of those on the spectrum vary widely, it’s necessary to work closely with residents. The importance of doing this cannot be overemphasized: a well-designed environment that addresses the needs and aspirations of individual residents might not only improve their quality of life and ability to live independently, it could also minimize long-term costs associated with relocating residents when homes aren’t a good fit.

13/01/2022

The fortress complex: how the West became obsessed with home security
That famous phrase, “an Englishman’s home is his castle”, neatly captures longstanding ideas about what the private home really is: a place which we can control and defend, a private territory where we decide who enters and who doesn’t. We all share a deep and primitive fear of intrusion and invasion, which lead us to see the home as a place of refuge.

So it seems strange that while crime has broadly declined over the past two decades across the Western world, we have also seen the appearance of many more gated communities and homes with extensive security systems.

In our new book, Domestic Fortress: Fear and the New Home Front we explore some of the explanations for this surprising trend. For one thing, withdrawal from public life has become something of an escapist fantasy, promoted by high-profile celebrities who use their wealth to pursue privacy. Think of Richard Branson’s island escape on Necker, the Barclay twins’ castle on Brecqhou in the Channel Islands, or Mark Zuckerberg’s purchase of neighbouring properties.

Castle Barclay on Brecqhou. Chris_Northey/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND
Yet in societies with high levels of inequality, these escapes may also create certain risks: in particular, sites of extreme wealth present targets for theft, which require additional protection. The result is defensive domestic architecture, which typically takes two forms: “spiky” or “stealthy”.

“Spiky” architecture displays security measures in plain sight, including towering walls, formidable gates, CCTV cameras and sharp projections. By contrast, some homes are so stealthy that they are almost invisible; disguised as bunkers or partly hidden underground.

Caught off guard
Consider Kim Kardashian’s recent ordeal, when she was robbed at gunpoint at the Hôtel de Pourtalès – a private residence which Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio also use when in Paris. In the early hours, five men dressed as police officers entered the building and forced the concierge at gunpoint to give them access to Kardashian’s apartment. Kardashian was tied up and gagged, while the thieves made off with £8.7m worth of jewellery.

Kim Kardashian (right). Eva Rinaldi/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Although 20 staff service the nine apartments, the site has little visible security. The exterior of the mansion is completely discreet, with a private entrance from an underground car park; it is characterised by stealth rather than spikiness.

It’s unlikely that a similar intrusion would have been successful at either of the luxury mansions owned by Kardashian and her husband, Kanye West in Bel Air or Hidden Hills – a gated community so private that it is blanked-out on Google Streetview. There, full security – including structural and technological defences, as well as a personal armed guard – is provided 24 hours a day.

Feeling insecure

Build your own fortress home. Rowland Atkinson, Author provided
The insatiable demand for news about celebrities means that images of these properties are available whenever we want to see them. This feeds our aspirations and status anxiety about our own homes, encouraging more people to seek out further security, protection and fortification.

As a result, gated communities and various domestic security systems are now attracting the interest of people with more moderate incomes. Technologies such as infrared security lighting and burglar alarms have become cheaper over time, and their increased use has no doubt contributed to the declining burglary rate.

While around 700,000 households are burgled each year in England and Wales (one of the highest levels in the Western world), the reality of this risk is much greater for particular groups. It is not the ultra-wealthy, as one might assume – rather, people living in deprived areas (and minority ethnic groups, in particular) who are at the highest risk of burglary.

Housing tenure is also a significant factor: private renters are nearly 40% more likely to be burgled than owner-occupiers, while social renters are nearly three times as likely. Tenants typically have fewer security devices to protect their homes, and more importantly do not have the right to install additional defensive measures or modify their home, as they do not own it.

At risk. SomeDriftwood/Flickr, CC BY-NC
Instead of addressing these inequalities with public welfare and security provision, Western governments continue to encourage private home ownership as a form of financial security during old age, as well as a type of shelter that can be reinforced and secured using technologies, in ways that rented accommodation cannot.

Forting-up
But making fortresses of our homes can have destructive consequences. What has come to be known as the Castle Doctrine means that in most US states today, homeowners who feel that they or their property are under threat can kill an intruder with impunity.

In the US, a furore erupted when George Zimmerman shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed teenager walking through the gated community where he was staying and where Zimmerman was a member of the neighbourhood watch. Zimmerman was arrested, then almost immediately released, because Florida’s “stand your ground” laws meant he had committed no crime. He was charged with murder six weeks later, and ultimately acquitted by a jury.

So, the “forting-up” of homes and private neighbourhoods across the West can be linked to the fear of burglary and intrusion, but also to other modern insecurities. Obsession with ownership, concerns over national and urban insecurity and anxieties about social status combine to produce what we can identify as the “complex” of the fortress home. This is a general sense of anxiety, which is woven into wider fears about our future emotional, physical and financial security and family well-being that are strongly connected to the private home.

As young peoples’ aspirations to own their own homes are thwarted by escalating house prices, and anxieties about crime, terror and ecological risks spread, it seems likely that this complex – and the rise of “stealthy” and “spiky” domestic architecture – will continue.

13/01/2022

13/01/2022