Research Information System
Conceptualising Environment (s): continuity and change, Liverpool, England, 22 - 24 November 2025, pp.43, (Summary Text)
This paper rethinks the concept of domesticity as a relational ecological condition rather than a private, human-centered space. In response to escalating environmental breakdowns and spatial
injustices, this study explores how architecture can reposition domesticity beyond anthropocentric frameworks. The paper proposes an ontological and ethical reconceptualization of the home as a generative site of multispecies entanglement, political agency, and spatial resistance, drawing from deep ecology and environmental humanities. The home is not proposed as an isolated retreat from crisis but as a site of entanglement. By engaging with critical literature from interdisciplinary fields such as architecture, philosophy, and cultural theory, the paper interrogates the conventional binaries of public/private, human/non-human, and temporary/permanent that have historically formed architectural discourse. Theoretical foundations are established through the examination of the works of Arendt, Vidler and recent critiques such as Fleming and Ghosn's (Un)Making Worlds, which the article positions as reframing domesticity as a dynamic and contested space intertwined with ecological vulnerability and socio-political precarity. Rather than presenting empirical data, the paper adopts a conceptual methodology to articulate a shift in architectural thought: from designing for the human subject alone to designing with an awareness of interspecies interdependence and environmental responsibility. This study lays the groundwork for subsequent research endeavors that involve site-specific inquiry and visual ethnographic methodologies. These methodologies will be employed to investigate further transitional homes, informal settlements, and adaptive reuses of domestic space.