I’ve made a short film. Look at the things around you: doors, bins, staircases, furniture, railings, doorhandles, windows. Do you like how they look, or not? Modern design has become boring, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The word “beautiful” is overused. We don’t need

Should Art Deco and Neo-Gothic skyscrapers make a comeback? This isn't modernism VERSUS traditionalism — it's about finding the best of both. The most common counterargument is not that we shouldn't, but that we can't afford to. The truth about this goes deep. First, it's not

Drainpipes don't have to be boring. I guess that's what the film is really about...

Everybody has strong opinions about modern architecture, but here are 6 things people get wrong: 1) The problem isn't that modern architecture as a whole is bad. Much of it is wonderful. The problem is that we don't build anything at all in historical and traditional styles —

And here's the site:

Here's the link to watch in on YouTube:

And you can buy the book here: https://t.co/BrsG5nzsYE

Three years later. Never stop dreaming.

🔥 Now on Chainstack: Yellowstone gRPC streaming just for $49/month! With pricing up to 10× lower than the usual offers on the market, you get: → 1 concurrent stream → Up to 50 Solana accounts tracked → Unlimited events (no throttling) → Sub-50ms latency → Production-grade

From my new book. And it comes out TOMORROW. So there's still time to get the 25% discount from Waterstones, using code 'CULTURAL25'. Pre-order at the link in my bio from everywhere you usually buy your books. It's about art, love, war, history, rhetoric, architecture, and

If you liked this, you'll enjoy my new book. It's an introduction to culture — art, architecture, history, poetry — framed as an alternative to the 24 hour content cycle. You can pre-order at the link in my bio. (And get 25% off with Waterstones using the code 'CULTURAL25'!)

But people deserve better. No wonder we're living in an Anxious Age when we've designed our interiors without regard to the aesthetics of human need. It costs more, short term, to make them less boring; the long term cost, economically and of human happiness, is far greater.

Not everybody likes wallpaper, colourful carpets, or ornamentation, but that isn't a wholesale argument against them. Gaudiness and tacky decoration are bad; minimalism can be, and often is, beautiful. And it's more important to have boring schools, say, than no schools at all.

Over 55% of global VC funding this year has gone to AI, led by OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI, according to @PitchBook. In public markets, Nvidia, Microsoft and the rest of the Magnificent 7 have powered the S&P 500 to record highs, while the equal-weighted index lags far behind.

But we have chosen a sterile, standardised world of harsh LEDS, greyscale tiles, and white walls instead. And yet decoration — by which I mean any element of a thing that goes beyond mere physical function — isn't just a bonus; it is human nature to create and expect decoration.

And history gives us countless examples of how to make interiors interesting, from all around the world. Wallpaper, hangings, mouldings, ornament, mosaics, patterns, or (quite simply) natural rather than synthetic materials. Consider metro stations:

And interior lighting only makes this worse: harsh white light is ugly, unnatural, and genuinely harmful to our physical and psychological health. We evolved according to very specific temperatures and intensities of light, but totally ignore these facts with our cold interiors.

Humans are biologically wired to prefer environments that possess variation, detail, and colour. And this isn't "preference" in the consumerist sense, but on a fundamental level. When interior design doesn't account for this need, it makes us feel strange in a primordial way.

Better patient care starts here! Join the leading minds in rheumatology at our annual meeting, October 24-29, in Chicago, Illinois. Become an ACR member to SAVE even more on registration!

Some natural environments are less varied or colourful than others... and those are the ones we're least drawn to! Think of a salt pan, barren hillside, or arid plain. There is grandeur to such environments; but we never feel at home there, never quite safe or relaxed.

No two environments are the same: even the humblest woodland stream represents thousands of details combining to create a rich tapestry of colour, texture, and variation. Too much going on distracts us, but nothing going on also distracts (and actively harms) us.

The sky seems like it doesn't change much. But, pay attention, and you realise the sky is ceaselessly evolving: its blueness deepening or brightening, clouds moving and changing shape, sunlight refracting through haze. Good design embodies, even abstractly, natural principles.

Just look at the natural world: colour, detail, and variation are its laws. No two leaves in the history of the world have ever been identical. Although you don't always notice it consciously, natural varation of shape, form, and colour makes a huge psychological difference.

Oink alert! 🚨 Porkbun’s officially hit 3 million domains — and we couldn’t have done it without you. Celebrate with $1 off your next domain at Porkbun now. You’re the real MVP (Most Valuable Piglet)!