The first winter in our house, we had one thermostat. It sat in the hallway, which nobody actually spent time in, and controlled every room equally. The bedroom was freezing. The kitchen directly above the boiler was unbearable by mid-January. We turned the dial up. The kitchen became worse. The bedroom stayed cold. We turned … Read more
Most people think an architect draws buildings. That’s the image someone bent over a drafting table, pencil moving across a large sheet of paper, conjuring rooms and rooftops out of nothing. And while that image isn’t entirely wrong, it’s a fraction of the full picture. What is architecting, really? It’s the full act of conceiving, … Read more
My grandfather owned a chair he never let anyone sit in. Not because it was fragile it wasn’t. Because it was the Barcelona Chair, and he’d bought it in 1971 from a dealer in Milan who’d told him, with some ceremony, that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe had designed it for royalty. Specifically for King … Read more
There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes from hiring an architect who listens politely, nods at everything you say, and then hands you back something that looks like a slightly modified version of the last project they did. I’ve heard this story more times than I can count clients who came in with a … Read more
There’s a house two streets from where I grew up that always looked wrong. Nothing you could put your finger on exactly. Nice enough from outside, decent furniture inside, but walking into it felt like walking into a showroom that someone had accidentally started living in. The owner repainted twice in three years. New sofa. … Read more
Most people walk past a Victorian terrace or a mid-century modern bungalow every single day without registering what they’re actually looking at. That’s not ignorance it’s just that nobody taught them the visual language. Architectural style is that language and once it clicks, you stop walking past buildings and start reading them. What they’re made … Read more
Nobody talks about doors the way they talk about kitchens or bathrooms. And yet a door is the first physical thing a visitor touches. When they arrive at your home, and the last thing they interact with when they leave. It sets the tone before anyone steps inside. It determines how sound travels through your … Read more
Honestly? The front porch gets ignored. People worry for months about kitchen counter tops or bathroom tile, and then the porch the place that everyone looks at before they ever step inside gets a sad chair and a dying plant and that is that. This has happened time and time again. And every time it … Read more
There is a moment, usually early in a project, when a client walks into a space and goes quiet. Not because there is nothing to say but because something in the room is already saying it. The proportions feel right. The light arrives at the right angle. The materials speak in a register they recognise … Read more
However, all landscaping discussions begin with the wrong topic, namely, choosing which plants to use and why. This is the type of discussion which Morph Design Co tries to steer away from in the name of landscape morphing. While the concept of morphic gardening involves working with plants in particular ways, the overall morphic garden … Read more