After people, spaces affect us the most.
The Idea
We spend most of our time indoors. Home, office, car. These spaces shape our mood, our energy, how we think. Yet most of us inherit them. We move into apartments designed for someone else. Buy furniture because it was on sale. Arrange things once and never touch them again.
This is backwards. A space should be designed around how you actually live, not how others imagined you might.
Notice where you naturally gravitate. Where do you sit when you read? Where do you end up when you think? That's information. Use it. Move the chair there. Put the lamp where you actually need light.
Remove what doesn't serve you. That cabinet you never open. The decoration someone gave you that you feel obligated to display. Every object in a room is either adding or subtracting. Neutral is rare.
The goal isn't minimalism for its own sake. It's creating a space that pulls you in rather than pushes you out. A place where you want to spend time. This is harder than it sounds because it requires knowing yourself—your actual habits, not the ones you wish you had.
Interior designers optimize for aesthetics or trends. You should optimize for your own wellbeing. These are different goals.
Worth Reading
These pieces shaped my thinking:
"A Pattern Language" by Christopher Alexander — Architecture as a human problem, not an aesthetic one.
ThickDense but rewarding."The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo — Ignore the hype. The core idea is sound: keep only what genuinely serves you.