Poetics of Space

Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space is a study of space and our environment and how we understand ourselves. Bachelard describes the many manifestations of a home, the intimate harmony of walls and furniture that are found within it. The way he speaks of a house helps me to see that there is much more to a house than just the exterior structure, that it evokes feelings from within. "When a dreamer can reconstruct the world from an object that he transforms magically through his care of it, we become convinced that everything in the life of a poet is germinal." As we move throughout a house we expereince the different spaces and how they affect our behavior. One manifestation of a home is found in a box. Boxes are used to hold secrets, which means there is a need for secracy, and a lack of physchological threshold. The creation of the box helps to describe the secrets that are within it.
Being able to describe a place as a "home" is to see the relationship between ourselves and the space. A home becomes a place for secrets and a refuge from everyday life, a place for us to get away and be ourselves. Because we encounter this space everyday we are ultimately influenced by that space. Because of all of these aspects of a space we are affected and defined by our homes.