The Concept of Describing Home

This photograph of a young polish girl was taken by David Seymour in 1948 at a home for emotionally disturbed children outside of Warsaw Poland. Little is know about the the girl besides her name Tereszka (pictured at the top) and the fact that she grew up in a concentration camp. The resulting image is from when she was asked to describe "home". 

I first came across this photo when I was reading a review on the War/Photography Exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 2015. Then again while reading "Resilience Pamphlet Architecture 32". 

Mark Dorian uses this image as a launching point for the beginning section of "Resilience". 

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The image drawn by Tereszka is open for interpretation because such little is actually known. Literal interpretations that have come to mind is that she is describing the barbwire around the perimeter of the concentration camp, which given her apparent age could be the only home she has ever known. Or do the lines posses means of circulation contained to the allotted rectangular space she was given on the black board just like she would have been contented inside a rectangle shaped concentration camp. Could this be a map tracking her knowledge of the camp. A more theoretical speculation could look at Tereszka as the chalk being worn down to almost nothing as the stress of her upbringing most likely had on her and the black board being the backdrop to the education gap that she is currently in because of the travesties of war.

The concept of home is something that I have always been interested in. It is a complex issue that is rooted in almost every facet of our lives making it not just an architectural issue. The social complexity that goes into describing "home" is even more fascinating. When asked to describe "What is home?" some will say 3 car garage and a finished basement, others will say their current apartment for as long as the lease entails, others may live in one city yet describe home as another city, state, or country, then others may describe family and people in their lives that make the dwelling home to them. The answers will go on forever. There answers will mostly be based on their upbringing or what they deem to be valuable to their over all lives. This question is not a judge of character it is an open question that will change over time as different factors such as college, work, love, children, etc. begin to play into ones life. For Tereszka growing up all she knew was destruction and chaos perhaps that is the driving reason behind the creation of the lines and shapes on the black board.

Tereszka will continue to return as I dig deeper in to my these Past/In/On Residence in the coming year.

​AW