The House: An Architectural Search for Levinasian Hospitality

Abstract

In terms of architectural hospitality, the house is one of the most difficult places to discuss. This study attempts to apply Emmanuel Lévinas’s thinking regarding “hospitality” to the contemporary concept of the house: a place of shelter or privacy. For Levinasian hospitality to occur in a house, the “self” must shift its position by offering the house to the “other”—that is, by leaving the house and renouncing one’s right to residence. In reality, however, such a positional change is virtually nearly impossible. As such, this study examines the positional shift required for hospitality by focusing on converting the boundaries between the architectural interior and exterior, rather than by considering the movement of people. This study thus suggests that when the interiority of a house is exposed, the face of the house becomes welcoming—thereby making the virtually impossible architectural hospitality of a house achievable.