Moving, Making and Atmosphere: Routines of Home as Sites for Mundane Improvisation

Abstract

In this article, we examine how everyday atmospheres of home are made, maintained and improvised through habitual routines of movement, and the implications of this for co-design for energy demand reduction. Drawing on our ethnography of how people experienced and constituted a sensory aesthetic of home, we analyse the example of lighting use in night-time routines. We propose seeing these routines as sites of the possible, where everyday making might be engaged for co-design. Thus suggesting refocusing ethnographic design research beyond what people do in their homes, towards how they move through and make the atmospheres of their homes.

Key Words:

• Movement
• Atmosphere
• Home
• Improvisation
• Light
• Ethnography

Additional information

Funding

Funding. The interdisciplinary LEEDR (Low Effort Energy Demand Reduction) project, based at Loughborough University, is jointly funded by the UK Research Councils’ Digital Economy and Energy programmes [grant number EP/I000267/1]. For further information about the project, collaborating research groups and industrial partners, please visit www.leedr-project.co.uk. The authors would like to thank all the households who have generously participated in this research. In the context of this article, we are especially grateful to Alan and Lee.