Meaning of a Home

The Significance of a Home

Lyn's statement about the meaning of a home relies on the fact of when the residents of an area are typically enmeshed in large, densely connected areas,1 they are likely to be provided with both affirmation of a common identity and strong support for the norms and values that members of the area share. It is this common identity that provides the basis for ready access to social and material support from friends and relatives, and for social stability and continuity at the local level. According to Gabrielle Gwyther the image of public housing estates as dangerous sites of dysfunctionality, delinquency, broken homes and riotous behaviour is now deeply etched in the local psyche, and strongly influences perceptions of life in Sydney's western suburbs. 2

In response to increased land values and decreased lot sizes, the new master planned estates on Sydney's fringe have come to offer a higher standard of development through estate design, amenity, restrictive covenants and social and physical infrastructure. Protected from the anti-social character of nearby public housing estates, and migrant incursions into their childhood suburbs, the new master-planned estates support the desire for residents to express their social power as a status group. Harrington Park is a contemporary master planned estate located within the federal electorate of Macarthur in the Camden local government area, south-west of Sydney's central business district. This swing was replicated in other booths in Camden which drew voters primarily from master-planned estates. Stacey and Glenn built their substantial, double-storey, brick and tile house on a 635 square metre block in Harrington Park in 1998. Before moving to Harrington Park, Stacey and Glenn spent seven years in Rosemeadow, in the Campbelltown local government area, close to a public housing estate. 'The final big picture outlook' of Harrington Park's master plan also attracted them. In mapping of the world Malouf 2 reveals his underlying belief that we have the ability to transform ourselves and change the way things are. He feels the power to dream out of one existence and into a higher one, underpins even the most mundane life events. His novels are driven by emotion rather than storyline and he is particularly interested in the way we relate to each other, friendship and the codes of behaviour between men. In Adaptation: Altering the House to Restore the Home Frances Heywood asserts that the stimulus to think about the meaning of home tends to arise at cutting edge points in housing careers such as the experience of compulsory purchase or the need to enter residential care. At such moments, although alternative (sometimes technically superior) shelter is offered, the difference between shelter and home becomes apparent and there is an opportunity to clarify what are the factors that make a dwelling 'home'. Major adaptations to dwellings are another cutting edge point. 3A housing adaptation for a disabled person should be like a transformation, in which the barriers that have turned someone's dwelling place into a place of ...