An interview about”This Is Your Brain on Architecture”, a book by Sarah Williams Goldhagen, came across my desk recently and is a very intelligent, researched, psychological, and emotional look at how what we see, consciously and subliminally, affects what we see and how we react to it.

There has been much information learned in recent years on the brain and how multisensory we react to our environment and how such is more important than thought before.

“Embodied cognition”, which is a paradigm for how we live and think in the world, is starting to emerge “dipping into psychology, linguistics, anthropology, and neuroscience”.

Most buildings start with size to fit in building space starting with the outside and filling the interior to fill that space.

Finances most often determines what happens thereafter with the design, materials, aesthetics, scheduling, et cetera.

What often gets lost in this construction process is the subjective responses of people to and with said construction results.

Environment is a strong and causing factor in individual experience and behavior and is validated by scientific evidence.

Most of humanity does not live in an ideal world but those who have options of what can be done in building our environments, commercially and residentially, inside and outside, are a factor in determining the world in which we live and move and have our being.

So, after reading the above what do you see and think of your residential, interior and exterior, environment and how do you react to such?

Food for thought.

Have you ever noticed how quickly and unsolicitly some people are compelled to express themselves on a new exposure, of which many times they are not a factor in the situation, as to what are their personal preferences.

Frequently, these expressed opinions are of aesthetic or changes situations.

Some one once said that such is the biggest commodity in the history of human civilization.

Most of us live in a country where we are free to express such opinions but why is it done and is it of desired behavior?

What are we to make of it? What does it say about the sayer? How are we to react to it intelligently and knowledgeably?

Some people say it as a way, consciously or unconsciously, to validate their existence, needs, knowledge, et cetera which may or may not be merited.

While we have the freedom to make such a statement, does doing such enhance, or deter, our personality as experienced by others?

It is wise and of merit to know and understand well of what we speak before speaking it and evaluating whether such speaking is a contribution to the situation or just a personal tick of which no one else really cares?

Food for thought.

During a recent conversation with a decades in the profession antique dealer the subject got around to big houses, high quality furnishings, and how people live.

It appears that for many people, as we both have experienced in our different professions, a facade is more important that living.

We both have encountered clients who live in impressive facade houses in expensive neighborhoods of high status but inside the house is basically empty with bed sheets at the windows and patio furniture for use.

The big facade is their residential life.

Other people live in more modest less pretentious houses with high quality interior furnishings which they use, enjoy, and appreciate.

They live full valid life styles.

Perhaps you have come in contact with people who manifest these two methods of living in other areas such as cars, vacations, clothes, activities, organizations, intellectual interests, careers, religions, educations, et etera.

The purpose of life is to live and not to pretend behind a facade.

Life is too short and time is too precious not to experience at it’s fullest.

So, how do you live?

So, which of these two approaches in more manifest in the buildings in which you express your life?

Food for thought.

A recently read article in The Telegraph relates some of the intelligence and thought that goes into the passenger seating spaces in air planes.

Extensive research is done on colors of fabrics and lighting for different times and functions.

The effort is made to “try to have a home like relaxing feeling”.

Enormous thought is given to “the color, materials, and finish of fabrics”.

Great thought is given to: “Psychological power of color and control of lighting can influence the mood of people.”

The effect of noise on health is considered.

Could not all of these approaches be applied to the design of our residential interior spaces?

How much time and research to get the best and most durable results for your home furnishings and backgrounds did you spend where you chose to live?

Interior spaces occupied by people need to be designed for the functions, ambiance, and persons for which they will be used.

The intelligence and wise expenditure of resources are a major factor in the level and quality of results for any interior spaces used by people whether it be residential, educational, travel, religious, entertainment, business, commerce, et cetera.

What is the level of satisfaction you experience for the research you did for the interior environment where you live?

Food for thought.

We start acquiring possessions, through our parents, before we are born and continue through many different stages and ages of doing such until we die.

Our possessions determine much of our life styles and the level of quality of much of our living.

The quantity and quality and descriptions of our possessions are as varied as the personalities who have them.

The habits of possession are also often expressed in many lower animal behaviors.

Some people take the ownership of possessions to extremes such as those people who manifest living with the most possessions and those who manifest living with the fewest possessions.

What happens when all of your possessions are destroyed by fire, or earthquake, or stolen, or removed via some other reason?

Or, what happens when you find your self with more possessions than you want or need because of inheritance, marriage, or some other reason?

The essence of quality in ownership of possessions is to have those things which fulfill your needs, wants, desires, et cetera whether for sentiment, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, personality, function or other reasons.

As in all physical manifestations, the level of beauty, comfort, and satisfaction is determined by the intelligent use of the laws of physics and principles of aesthetics.

Where are you in the possessions with which you choose to surround yourself?

Food for thought.

Thales, a Greek philosopher, around 585 BCE stated that water is: ubiquitous, essential, productive, and metamorphic and can occupy all three material states.

Water manifest certain physical characteristics or laws of which one is that it always finds it’s own level.

This same principle can be applied to the choices many people make in the materialization of their residential interior environment.

Finances, education, family background and environment, personality development, location, geography, status, culture, et cetera are all determining factors affecting our preferences for our personal living spaces.

On top of and beside the influences of all of those factors, there is often another element in our inner being, of which we may or may be conscious, that insists upon being expressed.

It matters not the affect, positive or negative, such choices make on the overall composition of the living space whether in function, aesthetics, comfort, logic, or finances some people will insist upon going in that direction.

When all is said and done we are all human beings living on this sphere in space with all of our imperfections and idiosyncratic behaviors so that our insistence on doing such on these occasions perhaps merely manifest such.

Food for thought.

What is the status of residential housing in this country today?

The demands of the market, changes of life styles cause by the pandemic, interest rates, labor, materials, availability, job market, inflation, global warming, et cetera have all caused major changes, and still do, in the residential housing market of the life we experience today.

Shelter from the elements is the foremost and most basic function of residential existence and is not one which is optional.

Above and beyond being basic shelter from the elements, our homes also fill necessary emotional, psychological, physical, legal, health, some time spiritual and religious, business, social, et cetera needs and requirements.

For our daily lives to be livable there has to be a balance of finances between housing costs and income in relation to the other aspects of one’s life.

This balance will vary in different locations, times, circumstances et cetera during our present time and future ones.

So, how do we put all this stuff together in a desirable manifesting way?

The history of the human race through the ages has manifest endless varying results of how these elements have come together.

For a housing process to be successful there has to be responsibility, action, cooperation, fairness, et cetera from all members of society including business, finance, government, environmentalists, designers of many professions, labor, health, and others working together as a team to have all of a population well housed.

What do you see today as the major challenges facing housing the population of this country? What do you see as the solutions? How and what do we have to do to put it altogether and have it work?

How does all of such affect you personally and the people who are important in your life?

What, if anything, are you going to do about the current situation?

Food for thought.

Status: ” position or rank in relation to others” Webster

Status has been a behavior pattern though out much of history manifesting from animals to humans.

Achievements, finances, family history, intelligence, education, positions, location, et cetera are all traits that can be manifest as status.

Much of the strength of status is it’s characteristic supposedly superiority in that aspect of their lives.

While such may be true it does not necessarily in and of itself present itself in other parts of their lives.

The personal choices of residential surroundings of those with the highest status, what ever that status may be, is not necessarily the highest level of aesthetics therein.

Being a superior plumber does not make one an excellent electrician.

Have you ever noticed the residential interior designs of movie stars, politicians, the wealthy, old and new, sports champions, and others, who have the resources and freedom, choose to manifest their personal surroundings?

It matters not what is your status or your available options, a high level of beauty will not result without the intelligent use of the laws of physics and the principles of aesthetics,

In these situations, as well as many others in life, emotions trump intelligence.

Food for thought.

While waiting at my local library for books of Marcus Aurelis, and of course you know who he is, a book on manners for the contemporary male came to my attention.

Much of it’s content was what has been taught and practiced for generations.

What caught my attention was the quantity of what behavior patterns he is “always” to or not to manifest.

It reminded me of the strong, and often ignorant, positions that some people take when it comes to residential interior design.

One of my favorite, and often heard, is that “you always put the couch on the longest wall”.

Residential interior design is not a combination of “always does and always don’t does” nor is it a “one size fits all” nor is it a book of etiquette for conformity and rules.

To achieve a successfully designed residential interior space the function, personality of it’s users, and the principles of aesthetics must be freely applied with creativity and imagination and intelligence.

As you have seen residential spaces everywhere over the course of you life, how many had the “always” conformity applied and did you notice and what was your reaction, if any, to such?

Most of housing is, and has been, determined by economics and resources and geared toward a mass market consumption.

Where do you fit in with your personal interior residential spaces?

Do you “always” follow the rules, trends, conformity?

Or do you seek to manifest a higher level of aesthetics and individuality by determining your own direction.

The choices are yours to make for the manifestation you experience.

Food for thought.

It is a basic law of human behavior that people are affected and react to their surroundings.

This law is used and manifest in many areas of life including businesses, professions, education, health, religion, social, sexual, et cetera of which we may or not be aware.

” Surroundings move you toward them. “

If such is true, which it is, is it not of merit to make our surroundings reflect where you want to go?

What type of behavior patterns do you wish to experience where you live

for the portions of your life that you spend there?

Have you really thought about how such affects you or has such fallen into where it is being determined by other factors?

How important are your personal home life experiences to you?

How important is it to you to go where you want to go?

What are you going, or not going, to do about the situation?

Your choices determine what results are manifest in your life.

Food for thought.