What is beauty?

Can it be defined? Or merely experienced?

Is beauty, as we know it, natural or man-made? Can it be one, or the other, or a combination of both?

Is it experienced consciously? Unconsciously? Or both?

Is it physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, or something else?

Or, is it a combination of many aspects?

Is beauty in our DNA from the evolution of life, or is it culturally obtained?

How often do we intellectually aware think of beauty?

Is it necessary for our overall health, or does it merely enhance our well-being?

Can we experience beauty alone, or is the presence of others necessary? Or is it a combination thereof?

Does the expenditure of resources for beauty validate the results?

What role and how much, if any, does aesthetics play in the production that is our lives on this planet?

Is the philosophical study of beauty of merit?

Beauty in your personal living environment is…?

Food for thought?

Much of what we experience in our daily lives is ordinary, standard, and works well.

We usually go with what is commercially produced for our mass consumption.

Some people knowingly go above and beyond this level to higher quality experiences in their lives.

Occasionally, physical activities excel, new knowledge is acquired, entrepreneurs become rich, people take new directions, intelligence advances, et cetera, but the majority population continues their routine existence.

“To go where no man has gone before” Star Trek

What makes the difference?

Creativity, imagination, intelligence, and persistence, using the laws of physics and the principles of aesthetics are the factors that manifest such results.

Increasing awareness of existence, advancement of knowledge, utilizing the physical, et cetera, are the results of those people who choose such and thusly continuously advance civilizations.

The tangible requirements and intangible needs of our homes involve numerable factors which determine what we literally experience therein.

Do you have an urge, desire, or want to raise your personal living environment to a higher, more fulfilling, and complete aesthetic experience unknown by the masses?

Change or stay?

Ordinary, or extraordinary?

Food for thought.

Shelter for survival from the elements for mammals evolved into manifestations of the civilizations we have become.

The level and type of housing for the general population is a factor in the advancement and level of development for civilization.

The quality, materials, design, location, aesthetics, creativity, adaptability, and intelligence of a society are reflected in its housing.

Among other factors, housing also evolved into the hierarchy of status and positions within a culture.

The necessities for survival, activities of everyday living, and climate patterns primarily determine the design and construction of houses.

A recent collaboration between two well-known magazines reflects some of the changes of houses for current times.

More people want usability and adaptability for all spaces and are eliminating those previously set aside just “for company“, status, and special occasions.

Smart house features, affecting more activities, are going into the infrastructure and are playing a larger role in work and social activities.

Buildings and materials that age well, are adaptable to climate changes, and enhance ambiance are becoming more necessary and practical.

The use of, and control of, natural and man-made, light, view, and living spaces connecting with the outside are becoming more meritorious.

The availability and affordability of houses for the general population are now, and always have been, major factors reflecting the status of a country.

In what living spaces were you, where are you, and where are you going in relation to these housing changes?

Food for thought.

“Unto thine own self be true” Shakespeare

How honestly true to yourself are you when designing, consciously or not, deliberately or not, your residential interior living environment?

Is design even a considered factor in the overall project?

Is it to be a business decision with efficiency, costs, and schedule most important?

Are comfort and function the ultimate goals with appearance irrelevant?

Do you choose to go with the crowd, choosing what is popular and what “they” are doing?

Is it important to be “with it” by following the current trends?

Are designs for current living overruled in favor of those aspects that will make it more saleable in the future?

How important is tradition, the way it’s always done, in making decisions?

Do you not express your personal quirks, or what you really like, because other people may not like or understand such?

Is it your goal to make a statement that will impress the world?

Do you go with what fits you, or what will fit everyone?

The whole is the sum of all the pieces.

The highest quality level of complete residential interior design is achieved when the functions, aesthetics, and personalities of residences are equally balanced.

Food for thought.

We, the people on this planet, have evolved to where we are from billions of years of advancement, growth, change, et cetera, and are now living in this physical space realm.

There is a desire, need, and want for physical beauty experienced through our senses and affected by our level of intellectual development.

This aspect of our behavior has manifested in the fine arts, architecture, clothing, furnishings, objects, and other expressions through many different cultures throughout the history of civilizations.

A major expression of this aesthetic desire has been, and still is, personal living spaces.

Discoveries, inventions, events, weather environments, experiences, and intellectual developments are ever-present continuing factors that play roles in the resulting structures of where, and how, people live.

Contemporary culture is increasingly advancing toward more computers, electronics, artificial intelligence, and faster, less human, and more efficient methods affecting our day-to-day and long-term living experiences.

These changes are apparent in the behavior of people with themselves and with other people.

What is your reality?

Are you fully living as a complete human being, with all of your human traits, physical senses, and active communication with the human race, on this planet, or more as a participant in non-human and artificial intelligent designed lifestyle activities?

What does the interior design of your personal living environment express about you and your reality?

Food for thought.

Interior design encompasses all interior spaces.

All interior spaces will have what we call a floor, ceiling, and walls.

The space in a room is a whole space.

Yet, in most residential interior design situations, the largest design expenditures are on furnishings and especially on the furniture.

The furniture, in and of itself, is only about six per-cent of the total area of the total space.

Does making this choice manifest into the highest level of aesthetics for a space?

To achieve the best results, is it not of merit to equally design all parts of the whole rather than concentrating on the smallest part?

In reality, we have to accept the roles that finances, time, schedules, availability, practicality, et cetera play in our lives.

How much, and what part, does seeking to manifest the ideal residential interior design approach take place in the personal spaces where you more fully express your being?

Food for thought.

Other than to be protected from the elements, why do we build housing?

Before construction begins, every interior space should have a purpose and that purpose determined by the designing process.

What activities are to take place in the space?

Who, and how many, will participate in these activities?

What are the physical requirements, including size and needed spaces, for these activities?

What is the best placement of this space in relation to other interior spaces and to the outside for light, view, weather conditions, et cetera?

What will be the traffic patterns for entering, using, and leaving this space?

What are the heating, cooling, air flow, humidity, and air quality needs for this space?

What needs to be considered for the maintenance, upkeep, and repair/replacement of this space?

What is to be the flavor, mood, feeling, ambiance, et cetera of this space?

What are the financial considerations for this space as a unit and as a part of the whole building?

What is to be the quality level of this space?

What is to be the lifetime of this space and the activities therein?

Being aware of, and fulfilling, these reasons results in the best use and most practical, comfortable, and cost-effective investment for this space and for avoiding future problems.

When these purposes have been finalized, then the process of fulfilling them begins, by using the principles of aesthetics, to manifest the most beautiful space.

How many of these aspects were considered, and fulfilled, for the interior design of your personal environment?

Food for thought.

Entertainers, athletes, chiefs, authors, politicians, and anyone with influence having large numbers of followers is a trait of our current culture.

It has been said that in this country we have such because we have no royalty.

The contributions of computers, the internet, cell phones, et cetera has resulted in such a massive consequence.

Because of this phenomenon, such persons having the capability to affect a large portion of the population result in what they do being copied or imitated.

This process often manifests into a phase where these celebrities will come out with a personal line of clothing, furnishings, other items, or lifestyle options available in the market.

They become a brand.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Popularity, status, and newness, in and of themselves, are not determining factors of quality.

Current cultural influences are not always long-lasting values.

Trends come and go.

The laws of physics and the principles of aesthetics, and not who did them, determine the quality of results.

Life continues and evolves, and many different influences affect the results.

What role have celebrity designs, or other such factors, played in the aesthetic choices of your personal lifestyle?

Food for thought.

A long-time international residential interior design publication recently published, as acknowledgement of such existence, an article about the interior home design style of certain persons in a municipality well-known as “sin city”.

My immediate quick reaction was, as gently as can be expressed in professional polite conversation, was strong repulsion.

The mission of said publication is to highlight the best of residential interior design internationally and not as a cultural history of what exist.

Design characteristics of said “sin city” are brash, gaudy, overtly sexual, money-oriented, addictive, attention-seeking, and low ebb ambiance.

Interior design, as well as all other professions, should seek was is best as quality and not just as status.

Over the past few decades, what does our personal knowledge and appreciation of what is beautiful say, and in what direction has such gone?

The goal, while preserving what is the best of the past, of civilizations should be to grow and advance the level of quality in all aspects of our lives.

During your lifetime, what have you experienced, noticed, and expressed about aesthetics in your personal living environment?

Food for thought.

Billions of years of growth, expansion, and evolution have resulted in the current people population on this planet.

We are all the end result of this process.

Almost all animals, during this procedure, have expressed physical beauty in some way, shape, or form as a part of their being.

Why?

What is there about aesthetics that attracts and fulfills us as human beings?

Physical objects, in and of themselves, cannot affect non-tangible experiences in humans.

It is our reaction to these things which determine how and what we feel.

Is this feeling intellectual, emotional, spiritual, scientific, a combination of all these, or something else?

Including what we find beautiful, all that has gone into our individual make-up can be a factor in how we respond to life.

Have you ever become aware, appreciative, and expressive of what you, as individual you and not as a part of the majority, find attractive, beautiful, and fulfilling, and how knowing such could make your life more complete and fulfilling?

Food for thought.