How lighting design can guide space and experience. An often overlooked element of the built environment is one that is difficult to understand until we experience a space in person: light. Lighting quietly shapes the way we perceive and experience an environment. Yet it is frequently treated as the final layer added once the architecture, furniture, and finishes have been accounted for.   An interesting thought experiment is to reverse this process: to design a space beginning with lighting...

Early in Frank Gehry’s career as an architect he worked for two men who exemplified seemingly opposing philosophies. One architect was pragmatic in providing a service to clients and, Gehry felt, lacked conviction and belief in his work. The other architect was dogmatic in his creation of forms and the only barrier was in convincing a client to accept his proposal.   Gehry thought there was room for both: solving client problems pragmatically and creating new and interesting forms which...

At its heart, design is the expression of purpose. Purpose implies a need and a need implies a problem that someone would like to solve.    The modern idea of the act of designing sprung from this scenario. Though I accept this, I think there is another less rational element that one should consider. It relies on intuition more than pragmatism. A well designed chair, for example, will give you the feeling you’ve known it before but you’ve since forgotten it. It feels right and you’re not sure...