MEN'S DREAMS. THE CASTLE-HOUSE AT THE END OF LIFE A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE PROJECTS FOR BUILDING A SECONDARY RESIDENCE AMONG INDIVIDUALS FROM THE LARGE URBAN SPACES OF ROMANIAN SOCIETY
MEN'S DREAMS. THE CASTLE-HOUSE AT THE END OF LIFE A QUALITATIVE STUDY OF THE PROJECTS FOR BUILDING A SECONDARY RESIDENCE AMONG INDIVIDUALS FROM THE LARGE URBAN SPACES OF ROMANIAN SOCIETY

Summary/Abstract: The following research investigated the desire of urban Romanians to build a secondary residence in rural areas. The aim of the study was to gain a deeper understanding of the motivations and significance behind such a project, which does not seem to align with the dominant economic rationale. Drawing from the framework used to discuss secondary homes in the global West, the research highlighted a distinct Romanian pattern in these types of projects, where economic efficiency is, at best, secondary. In this context, "vacation homes" serve as secure retreats for the time when individuals exit active economic life. This type of project appears to be almost exclusively associated with the male gender and presents a specific ideal form that is remarkably similar among all interviewees: a relatively small, self-sufficient residence surrounded by a generous yard, located in a pre-mountainous area near a village, with a forest and water nearby. Simultaneously, women also seem to have a shared image of ideal living, but it is markedly different from that of men. The source of these ideas about ideal living is difficult to pinpoint, with the ideal home emerging as an asocial space, adjacent to society, yet not necessarily incorporating its current values or norms—the most likely candidate here being the grand narratives of Indo-European culture, present as a deep-set framework of values and beliefs for the Euro-Atlantic region.

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