#ambience-and-design

#ambience-and-design

Lachlan Turczan's practice sits in the space between physics, optics, and environmental art, as he works with lasers, water, mist, and custom-built lenses to produce sculptures made entirely from light.

The convenience of sourcing online is fraught with more pitfalls than most of us want to admit. Try finding adequate photos of a vintage piece's condition-close-ups of the fabric, video of damaged areas, any images of a piece's rear or underside!

When you design your home with intentionality, you are essentially 'hard-coding' healthy behaviors into your daily rhythm. Health outcomes are the result of thousands of micro-decisions—so in his own home, he prioritized spaces like the kitchen, whose open layout makes cooking a pleasure, and the gym, centrally located.

The ballroom design features impractical elements like a stairway to nowhere and fake windows, emphasizing a focus on flashiness over functionality.

The original intent of pilotis was to create a sense of lightness that would allow circulation and light to flow beneath a structure, but contemporary requirements render thin columns insufficient for large-scale civic projects.

Decades of research in environmental psychology and building science reveal that indoor conditions can profoundly affect human health and behavior. Lighting influences circadian rhythms and sleep patterns. Air quality impacts cognitive performance and respiratory health. Temperature and acoustics shape comfort and concentration.

When clutter piles up, closets burst at the seams, and cords snake all over your desk, your home can quickly look - and feel - messy. Or maybe it's your tired furniture or flooring that needs some TLC. The good news is that you don't have to spend a ton on a renovation to fix these problem; in fact, sometimes the solution is surprisingly easy and affordable. And that's where this list comes in, with simple upgrades that help you take control of the things that are making your home look cheap.

My open concept kitchen and family room. I do love the design and am thrilled with all the new appliances, but every time I sit down to watch something, someone will go into the kitchen for a snack. The rattling of bags, running water, and scooping ice echoes through the space and provides a distraction. First world problems, I know.

Pigments Instead of Paints Experimental Art Spaces Return to Analog Above: You've probably seen the recent surge of "analog bags": tote bags filled with knitting, small sewing projects, crossword puzzles (the kind on paper), and other things to fill in-between moments. Call it analog, call it DIY, but making things-and antidotes to doomscrolling-is a move we can get behind in 2026. Photograph via artist Kate Kilmurray from Natural, Hand-Woven DIY Potholders Will Have You Revisiting a Childhood Craft.

But as everyone is chasing micro-trends, choosing a neutral kitchen and following your personal style comes across as more wise and timeless than ever. As seen in the 10 neutral kitchens below, hues like whites and off-whites, blacks, grays, beiges, and earth tones can be combined in infinite ways and applied to different textures and materials, to create kitchens that are dynamic, clean, and classy all at once.