My book ‘The Secret of Home’ came out in April 2008, and shortly afterwards Rachel’s house called ’Penhwllwr’, won the Grand Designs title of Britain’s Best Eco Home.

If life is a house - What is our role in the Grand Design?

“Our vision is our home”, the Irish poet John O’Donohue said. If life is a house then we are its builders; we are the architects and the authors of our own life story.

I met Rachel at a time when I was I journeying deeply through my inner landscape, discovering how to become a better architect, not so much designing houses, but helping others to see their homes as a mirror of themselves. I learned to guide people deeper into their stories and to see the home as a vehicle to a more fulfilling life.

I worked with Rachel on the original designs for her home back in 1996. Rachel’s vision is her home – quite literally. I tell myself Rachel’s story whenever I lack the courage and conviction to follow a dream. She built her straw bale house against all odds, with only enough money to pay my design fee and with a piece of land on an historic site that could not be reached by any public services or vehicles. Her house is now an inspiration - a lighthouse for Eco Design, and a precedent for local authority planners to take an alternative view. Standing prominently above the Teifi estuary on the site of a ruin that was formerly the ‘look out’ for monks at St. Dogmaels Abbey. It is the only two-storey load bearing straw bale house in Britain - It reaches out, and Rachel is there to share the story. Her story is in my book.

Through doing my work I have moved beyond the role of Architect, closer to the role of Psychologist, or Life Coach, but I have no right to call myself ‘Psychologist’, nor would I wish to, for I have no formal training in that field - There are no schools for the psychology of the home. I have learned through experience, exploring places, working with therapists and visiting hundreds of houses over the past fourteen years. I am in an exciting place now, at the forefront of a new field of enquiry, and I place myself here as a storyteller helping others to see they are the architects of their own life stories. I call it “homesouls” perhaps because homesouls could be translated as psychology of home – the meaning of the word ‘Psyche’ you see was originally ‘Soul’.

So back to my title question: If life is a house - What is our role in the Grand Design?

As a student architect I was taught that “God is in the details”, this was a calling to make even the smallest detail not just functional but also beautiful. This statement means even more to me now, it means to me that there is a Psyche-ology of the home, and that home is a mirror of self – we live within our vision, and if we change our view our experience will change too.

I look at the home as if I am looking at a blueprint of ones life. I can see ones life hidden in the details of their home. Perhaps there is a grand design, if so then destiny and fate are the architects in this story, and what we are looking for in life is sacred and hidden, sheltered in the house of our belonging, hidden somewhere in life’s story. Life then becomes a journey, and we are seekers, looking for what is missing or separated, longing to be more at home in our lives. Home is a theatre of the soul; it holds the memory and the story of our lives. Perhaps our role is to Re-member, to shape our vision into our home, to make ourselves at home in the details and in the story. I wrote the Secret of Home as a guide to take the reader on a journey through their home, helping them to see their lives more clearly, and to uncover this deep and sacred relationship.