Blurred borders. Negotiating copresence in the family home through spatio-temporal strategies for increased adult well-being.

Sandra Costa Santos (Lead / Corresponding author), Rosie Parnell, Husam Abo Kanon, Emily Pattinson, Alkistis Pitsikali, Heba Sarhan

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Abstract

Borders between the domestic domains of work, family and restoration, are essential to adult well-being. This article interrogates the blurring of these borders by post-pandemic, reshaped relations between adults and children in domestic space. Adult spaces can alleviate the negative well-being effects of blurred borders, but inadequate consideration of intrafamilial separation in contemporary housing forces parents to negotiate adult-child copresence, or ‘presence to one another’. Drawing on time-geography, this article explores adult spaces of avoidance in the family home to negotiate negative copresence and maintain domestic borders. Qualitative analysis of 45 in-depth interviews shows adults in England and Scotland (UK) enacting spatio-temporal tactics -appropriation, exclusion, exile and containment- to negotiate negatively perceived copresence and alleviate its detrimental well-being impacts. Understood as a key component of togetherness, the article demonstrates the relationship between copresence and the physical space of the house, highlighting implications of negatively perceived copresence for housing design.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages25
JournalHome Cultures: The Journal of Architecture Design and Domestic Space
Early online date22 Jan 2025
DOIs
Publication statusE-pub ahead of print - 22 Jan 2025

Keywords

  • adult space; Covid-19 lockdown; family home; copresence; well-being; domestic borders.

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