Making home: a place to be - University of Birmingham

Home can be a joyful space where we hold celebrations and express ourselves, somewhere we associate with happy memories of food, family and comfort. But it can also be an unhappy or uncertain place, or somewhere we have had to leave behind. Home may not be a place at all, but a feeling that goes beyond any physical location.

Running between 22 October and 30 November 2022, Making Home was a free drop-in exhibition in the Vaults at The Exchange. The aim was to collect people’s thoughts about home and to ask what home means to them. Visitors could write an answer, make a recording, and vote using a sticker, then see their answers come alive in our later exhibition, A Place To Call Home.

What is the Making Home exhibition about?

Transcript

What does what does what does home home home home mean to you? To you? To you? To you? To you? To see you?

As part of our current exhibition, Making Home, we’re exploring what home means. Maybe it's a feeling or a place, or perhaps it's about the people that you're with. Come and have your say at The Exchange. Visit our exhibition, And join us for one of our events happening in November. We'll also be using your feedback to help shape our future exhibition, which launches in February 2023.

So get involved and help answer this important question, what does home mean to you?

What research was included from the University of Birmingham?

The Making Home exhibition was linked with wider research projects at the university focused on adult social care, migration, and homelessness. Below, you can explore more information on the different research projects included.

What does home mean to you?

We asked the people involved in the different projects highlighted as part of this exhibition what home means to them. Do any of these answers resonate with you?

What does home mean to you? explore the answers

Transcript

It is a very good way of starting a conversation, asking about home.

Place where I go after a long day at work.

Its not bricks and mortar, it's more a feeling.

Home is a place where I feel most secure, belong and loved.

Its where I can be myself

Its where my loved ones are

Where I'm greeted by my dog

Its where my memories are

and the cat

A psychological attachment to a geographical place.

Many places, all at the same time.

Home is two places in particular

I'm originally from Ireland, that's where I grew up

it's the United Kingdom, it's Oxford, where I live

And I've been living in the UK for a really long time

and it's Napoli, it's casa

So this feels like home too

And I'm surrounded by the people I love

But also the place to feel safe in experiencing the challenges that life throws

Laughter, and sorrow

And it's about more than just the bricks and mortar that make up the physical house

its home

what does

What does home

home

home mean

to you