Why The Loft Is The Most Psychologically Interesting Room In Any House

In the typical suburban house, every room has a job. The kitchen feeds people. The bathroom cleans them. The bedroom rests them. And even the living room, which might seem like a zone of pure social activity, has a functional purpose, namely to give people a place where they can sit together in comfort. Rooms are designed to serve specific purposes, and serving those purposes in turn gives rooms certain qualities and certain emotional connotations. The loft is not designed to serve any purpose. That’s why it’s interesting.

The loft is outside the usual flow of rooms that people in the house visit on a daily basis. The kitchen has to be cleaned, and the dinner has to be eaten. The bathroom has to be used, and the bedroom has to be slept in. The living room has to be the site of some social activity. But the loft does not need to be used, and the flow of the house is just as good if the loft is not visited. The loft is like a superfluous part of the house. In the course of a day, there is nothing a person has to do up in the loft, so it becomes a kind of liminal space. For Loft Conversions Bristol, visit www.caineslofts.co.uk

Lofts are also where the things go that don’t fit into the house. That can be literal things – for example, things that are stored there for safekeeping or because no one can decide what to do with them. But it’s also true in a more metaphorical sense. Lofts are also where the bad memories go. Loft spaces are like memory boxes.

The loft also tends to be high up. It might be hard to make the loft feel as open and airy as a space on the main floor. But there are definite psychological benefits to being high up. It’s harder to feel crowded up there, and it’s harder to be disturbed.