It was, I believe, the French psycho-analyst Jacques Lacan who stated that the reality in which man lives mainly consist of images, desires, etc. , not the average social daily life. Our build environment is only for a small – but important – part a precondition for this; where it concerns our experiences we have an increasing amount of possibilities available to determine, realise and influence our environment, be it build or virtual.
So far our experiences in the virtual world take place within the build environment; we need some kind of ‘sphere’, to use the word of Peter Sloterdijk, to ensure our protection from the elements, to provide some kind of safety and, so far, a certain level of privacy.
This difference between environments is still quite explicit: we build first and after that we inhabit, we do not dwell and settle. We build first, then we determine how and where we decide to go ‘out’: physically, virtually, spiritually. Given the possibilities of the IOT this could change: if we can create an environment which does not mainly consist of ‘something concrete’ , but of something with more or less the same pre-conditions, we might be able to focus much more on Lacan’ s view’s.
After all; our ‘homes’ are only for a small part a physical environment; especially the home in which we were born is no tabula rasa, our home consist of memories, images, experiences, smells, sounds, etc.
We have increasing possibilities to create and influence those elements; with the IOT even more, in addition with contacts, information: we realise ‘homes’ which contain huge amounts of data.
Maybe we end up with a situation where the build home-environment is no different from the public environment: the only difference will be the kind and level of privacy, as well as the profile that accompanies us.
Living together is at that stage not determined by the current hard boundaries between the public and private sphere; we will be able to provide ourselves with the sphere needed: the images available, the sounds and smells wished, the information necessary. Not only because it is possible, but because it is what our memory, reality and environment already contains.

Martin Pot
28-12-2010