This case explores how an L-shaped home with missing building volumes was approached through atmospheric design and symbolic anchoring. The aim was to create a more coherent experience of the home, even though the physical architecture remained unchanged.
Background: When the Floor Plan Does Not Feel Whole
The home’s L-shaped floor plan lacked two significant volumes.
Within Blissbode’s atmospheric analysis, the absent areas were interpreted as possible disruptions in the home’s overall spatial and symbolic coherence.
This did not mean that the home objectively lacked particular qualities of life. Instead, the analysis explored whether the shape of the floor plan might contribute to the resident’s experience of:
- spatial wholeness
- atmospheric support
- connection between the home’s functions
- access to particular symbolic themes of life
Within Blissbode’s interpretative framework, one of the missing areas was associated with relationships and connection.
Analysis: An Absent Atmospheric Volume
Within Blissbode’s method, a missing volume is not regarded solely as a physical form. It can also be explored as an absence within the home’s symbolic and atmospheric organisation.
The analysis therefore indicated a need for an orientation point that could create an experiential connection between the existing home and the missing area.
The solution was not an extension.
Instead, a symbolic and atmospheric surrogate was developed to represent the part of the home’s wholeness that did not physically exist.
Intervention: An Activated Orientation Point
A polished rose quartz crystal was selected as a physical and symbolic anchoring point.
The crystal was first assessed in relation to the missing area and then placed in the soil of a plant receiving light from the same zone.
The placement was developed with the aim of:
- making the connection to the missing volume visible
- creating an atmospheric orientation point
- supporting the experience of spatial coherence
- connecting symbol, light, plant and architecture
- strengthening the home’s perceived centre
The rose quartz was not used as medicine or as a therapeutic object. It functioned as a symbolic design intervention within Blissbode’s practice of immaterial architecture.
From Material Absence to Symbolic Presence
Following the intervention, the missing area was incorporated into the home’s overall narrative.
The physical volume was not restored. However, through its conscious placement, a visible and meaningful point of connection emerged, towards which the resident could orient themselves.
The case therefore illustrates the difference between:
- changing the building’s physical geometry
- developing the resident’s experience of its coherence
Within Blissbode’s method, this is described as immaterial architecture: the design of meaning, relationship, atmosphere and perceived connection where physical alteration is neither possible nor desired.
The Centre of the Home
The activated object was also connected with the home’s omphalos.
Omphalos is used here to describe a symbolic centre that can support the experience of grounding and wholeness.
This centre does not determine the resident’s life or relationships. It functions as an atmospheric orientation point that recalls the direction in life and the qualities to which the resident wishes to give space.
Observed Development
Following the intervention, the resident described the home as more coherent and atmospherically balanced.
The activated area was experienced as:
- more clearly connected with the rest of the home
- less absent
- more meaningful
- better integrated into the home’s overall narrative
- supportive of the resident’s desired direction
These experiences document the individual process. They do not establish a general effect or demonstrate that crystals or atmospheric surrogates can influence relationships, health or specific life events.
Missing Volumes as a Design Possibility
An irregular floor plan does not need to be regarded solely as a limitation.
It can open up new questions:
- How is the wholeness of the home experienced?
- Where is the centre of the home?
- Which areas lack connection or meaning?
- Can existing light, plants and objects create greater coherence?
- How can immaterial design complement the physical architecture?
Wholeness does not always require the architecture to be rebuilt. Sometimes, it begins by giving the existing home a clearer connection to what is experienced as missing.
Could Your Home Feel More Coherent?
Recesses, staggered floor plans and missing volumes can shape the way a home is experienced and used.
A Resonance Report can offer an initial insight into the home’s:
- spatial and atmospheric coherence
- symbolic orientation points
- perceived absences and disruptions
- existing resources
- regenerative design potential
Order a free Resonance Report and gain a new perspective on the wholeness your home already holds the potential to create.
12 December 2023 | Bio-Charged Regenerative Interior Design© | HV10_3
Blissbode develops practice-based methods that are undergoing active research development and validation, including through the Resonant Living Project™. The work complements, but does not replace, relevant medical, psychological, geological, electromagnetic or building-related professional advice.
© Bonna Ravn Thomsen / Blissbode. Mechanical, photographic or electronic reproduction of this text, or any part of it, requires written permission from Blissbode.