A bedroom is more often than not, more than a just a place to sleep. As is the case in the bedroom which I will examine, this space allows numerous everyday practices to take place. The bedroom under scrutiny is just one of the 108 identical rooms within my college to which I call my own. Geographically speaking, the bedroom is located in a college in Parkville, overlooking a neighbouring college, a busy walkway, a hectic 4-lane road, Princes Park and the Melbourne General Cemetery and Mausoleum. By relating some of the theories of Michel de Certeau and Pierre Bourdieu to my space, I will argue that the bedroom enables everyday practices and values and more than just a place to sleep. The design and architectural elements of the bedroom and its use will be explored within this essay. I will also focus on the everyday practices performed in this space, including practices which subvert and resist the room’s normative uses. Furthermore, I will concentrate on the ideologies created in my space, particularly involving ideas of gender, the workings of taste, class, ethnicity and age.
Applying de Certeau’s definition of a place as a practiced space (as cited in Fran Martin Interpreting everyday culture 2003 p52), I define the place as a generic student’s bedroom, which becomes a defined space when it is lived in, worked in, slept in and used by a student. The architectural design of the room is at most, basic, having been built in the mid 1960’s with a built-in cupboard, fixed desk and bookshelf. A student’s basic necessities are all present in my space ' a long desk, a desk chair, bookshelf, pin board, cupboard, storage space, a single bed, power points, internet and telephone ports, lights, window and door locks, a basin, mirrors, curtains and a heater which can be seen in Figure 1.
Design is fundamental in any utilised space as it can either permit the practices of everyday life to occur or forbid them from occurring. For example, I cannot modify...