Ambient Introduction

This blog is about making creative spaces - the kind of interior and urban spaces that foster creativity and well-being in people. These spaces can be rooms in houses or apartments, artists' spaces, recording studios, almost anywhere and with any purpose. I'll talk about and show the use of architecture, urban planning and interior design in everything from a room to a neighborhood to a city to a natural ecosystem as a study of values and economy – economy as in how to get the most out of a space, but going beyond efficiency and utility into getting the most quality of a space; how that quality of space affects people and how they live their lives. How we inhabit space and the choices we make determines much about how we live – how much we spend, consume, energy usage. Getting the most out of a space the most efficiently means making a place as good and humane and interesting as possible, getting the best “feeling” and “energy” out of a place with available resources. How this affects people’s moods, psychologies, drives and shapes values and enhances the imagination.

I think too often architecture, and especially interior design, is thought of as fluffy or insignificant, that caring bout such things is only for the rich and shallow. From what I've noticed, the smartest people I know put a lot of energy and thought into designing the spaces they live in, and it shows. The idea of living in a stylish manner is not mutually exclusive with the idea of being an intelligent, socially engaged individual. More frequently than not, those with intelligence and grace care a lot about their living situations.

I'm a graduate student in architecture, and what I'll be doing at first is collecting pictures of my own and others' apartments. Being a grad student, as are most of my friends, we're more likely to have style and taste than money. No matter what field the the dwellers of the places I'll focus on are in, there's a common thread of creativity in the design of their living quarters. One thing I find interesting is that even though there is a great deal of individuality in the design of their spaces, certain similarities come through, reflecting an absorption of ideas through a cultural osmosis.