The Poetics of Space

The architect has much to glean from Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space. The first chapter introduces important concepts for interpreting architecture. Bachelard requires the individual to consider the home in many ways: the stairwell as an ascension or descension into different realms of consciousness, the intimacy of space, the window as an eye. In this way, Bachelard pulls away from looking at space as a site of clinical order and, instead, embraces its connection to individual being. He cautions against building a structure that is more than three stories, as this detracts from the intimacy of the home and decreases the opportunity for reverie. Bachelard reiterates this need for intimacy in Chapter 2 as he sets aside the dream home, something that he says only has value so long as it remains a dream and never becomes a reality. Homes are places for daydreams, and intimacy is the vehicle by which daydreams can travel into the unconscious realm.

Bachelard asserts that architecture should not be considered through the lens of metaphor, which he perceives as falsities. Architecture is all about image, namely, the poetic image or the expression of the imagination. When he considers a drawer or a lock, he thinks about it as a product of the imagination and as a vehicle for the imagination. Like the door that leads from the exterior of a house to the interior, a chest forces the consideration of the relationship between the outside and the inside.

Similarly, Bachelard states that a nest demands phenomenological attention. It sparks the imagination. An empty nest forces the observer to think about what was there before, just as the living nest forces the observer into a state of delight and wonder. A simple house or a simple image electrifies the phenomenology of imagination, which Bachelard considers to be a paramount function of the home. For example, an empty shell can spur the phenomenologist to consider what it is to exist within it. Miniatures, which can include fine detail in a home, heighten the phenomenological experience.

Throughout the work, Bachelard considers the dualities of interior and exterior, miniature and immensity. He emphasizes the importance of these dualities in bringing out the best characteristics in one another to engage the imagination. Each needs the other to clarify itself. Dualities in architecture ask the imagination to consider different universes and to inhabit different consciousnesses.

From the beginning of The Poetics of Space, Bachelard asks readers to visualize the childhood home. This place, seen in a child’s drawings as either a force of discord and discontent or a happy and bright place of refuge, reveals the deep emotional connection to the physical space of a home. He claims the house has a psychic state that closely mirrors that of its inhabitants. The connection between the imagination and the configuring of the physical space is so strong that the house becomes a manifestation of the mind.

When Bachelard considers the humble nest of a bird, he describes his own trembling, an action that he also found in literature when other writers described similar encounters. He attributes this excitement to the design elements of the nest—its offering of protection, its shape formed by the body of a bird, its invitation for daydreaming. In Chapter 5, Bachelard utilizes the image and idea of the shell to offer a few connections to the home. For example, he considers the chamber—the small, dark spaces in the home—to be like the shell, a space for solitude and the exploration of the unknown. Corners offer space for dark brooding and joyful exploration of multiple universes. Bachelard poses that good design, even simple design, can evoke strong emotion.

Design that utilizes some of the concepts that Bachelard explores, such as immensity and miniature, elicits great feeling. Bachelard speaks about the emotions one feels when one confronts vastness. Experiencing immensity can cause individuals to feel part of a larger whole and to confront certain aspects of their own existence that were not immediately made known to them before. Good design evokes feeling. It involves consciousness in the narrative of its space.

The Poetics of Space connects design elements in a home to the experience of being. Certain elements—a door, roundness in shape—remind observers of their own lives and draw them deeper into their own consciousnesses. These elements evoke emotion and a sense of being.