#lightness

#lightness

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 brain processes aesthetic experience like other rewards, such as food or money, indicating that the appreciation of beauty is deeply rooted in our neurological responses.

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.

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.

Work or social media can become addictive, and the bonds between people can suffer in the process. Designating certain spaces as screen-free zones helps provide a clear delineation between work or school and family time. Social media, office or school gossip, and work demands all erode time that could be better spent on personal growth through hobbies or the formation of social bonds.

This project involved the reconstruction of a dilapidated building located in Guangzhou's old town along Tongfu Xi Road, a historic street established in 1926. Once vibrant, this area has suffered from significant neglect over the years, with many buildings falling into disrepair, creating safety hazards that forced both residents and businesses to leave.

Beauty, it turns out, is capable of launching not just an armada of ships, but a cascade of the same feel-good chemicals you get from being in love, eating chocolate, exercising, and having orgasms- dopamine, endorphins, serotonin, oxytocin. It also lowers stress, blood pressure, and heart rate.

Considering how this experience could be expressed artistically, he conceived "Domestic Light," which for two years used windowsill sensors in nearly 100 sites globally to record what he describes as "multispectral traces of home."

I'm looking at the stage but I don't know what I saw, even though the message is somehow clear. I was invited into the self-reflection of a lost person, projected inward through an attempt to escape from the simulation of post-apocalyptic reality, which through our human stupidity has turned our world into a capitalist grey wasteland, where you can survive if you accept that you don't exist, and there is only us.

Bright lights keep us buzzing late into the night because of our circadian rhythm, which is the body's internal clock. It's instrumental in the normal functioning of body and mind. It's also intrinsically tied to light. Before the widespread availability of electricity, human activity was tightly synced with these natural light cycles, as it was for every other living being on the planet.

You might be amazed at how easy it can be to spice up your look, especially with the clever pieces included in this list. Scroll on to shop beauty products that'll get you glowing, accessories and undies that'll accentuate your favorite features, and more. These smartly designed products dial up the heat - and require so little work, they're practically magic. For an instantly sexier vibe, scroll on.

Close your eyes and picture an apple. Most people see something-a faint, slightly blurry image, less vivid than a real apple. A few, however, will see it as clearly as if it were sitting right in front of them. This ability is called hyperphantasia. Hyperphantasia, literally meaning "beyond imagination," refers to exceptionally vivid mental imagery. It is often described as the opposite of aphantasia, a condition in which people report little or no ability to form mental images.

Looking more put-together doesn't always come down to big purchases or dramatic changes. More often, it's the small upgrades that quietly do the heavy lifting - a better beauty tool, an impactful accessory, or one product that makes everything else work harder. This list is full of affordable finds that look and feel a little bougie, even though they're surprisingly cheap. Each one earns its spot by making you look more polished, more pulled together, or just slightly more expensive than you actually are.

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.

Above: In praise of the sunny coverlet. Photograph by Hanna Grankvist, styling by Malena Burman, courtesy of Also Office, from Big Ambitions: A Clever Makeover for a 680-Square-Foot West Village Apartment. Speaking of sunny yellow, click see the cover reveal of Life Inside a Cottage, the new book by our sometime contributor Nell Card (and featuring this favorite!). Obsession of the week: Isabella Rossellini and a collaborator are making blankets and rugs from the wool of her Mama Farm sheep-and they're for sale.

If there was only one interior design style setting the tone in 2026, it would be Japandi. Apartment Therapy's State of Home Design survey identified Japandi style as one of the year's top design aesthetics, according to insights from 140 designers - and it's easy to see why. As more people strive to create spaces that feel calming, intentional, and grounded in nature, Japandi's blend of Japanese restraint and Scandinavian warmth feels especially timely.

Making your home look expensive doesn't require a renovation budget or a personality transplant. Sometimes it's as simple as swapping out the obvious stuff - the cords, the clutter, the tired textiles - for pieces that look considered and grown-up. Ahead are dozens of cheap, highly rated finds that punch way above their price point and instantly make your space feel more intentional, polished, and expensive as hell.