Paradox

August 28, 2019 Carl Barnett

Simplicity in an era of challenge, and a future of paradox. This is our dual reality, to simplify today and counter the paradoxical tomorrow. How we live, both in private and public are ripples to the concerning future.

“How we live today has more of an affect on the future than it has ever, and simplicity has a place within.”

Our decisions have always had the ability to affect the future, this has never been more true than now. How we live today has more of an affect on the future than it has ever, and simplicity has a place within.

Our homes should embrace sustainability, both in materials and how the affects last. They should nourish us, emotionally and physically: inspiring and simplifying our everyday.

Immersive

August 25, 2019 Carl Barnett

How we live today can inspire the future, and counter this troubling era. What we design, designs us, informing the path forward. Immersing oneself within inspiration is a catalyst for better living: a cause and affect approach to life.

“How we live today has more of an affect on the future than it has ever, and simplicity has a place within.”

To live a better life is not to find balance, but to embrace difference and find the simplicity that eases it. Balance is a teeter-totter motion, a wave of ebb and flow and the nature of order and chaos. Simplicity dwells within this, its the rock within stormy seas, and the knife that cuts deep: dissecting wants from needs. Living within simplicity brings in clarity, and invites calm: offering solace to our complex day to day.

To live an inspired life is to be immersed within: dissecting and editing as we move forward.

To go beyond the Instagramable image into emotion, touch and memory, is the immersive, and environmental approach to interior design. How we react to our private spaces affects our minds and bodies, inspiring a bigger picture of life, living and the future.

The creative mind can induce experience that enhances, soothes and counters our everyday. To be immersed within art and architecture, is to understand what design can do, and reaping its benefits towards a life well lived, well nourished.

Basic Psychology

August 22, 2019 Carl Barnett

A meaningful minimal is my design mantra. Focusing on the emotion of a space and how it flows, exudes a longevity that surpasses trend.

Through this I create a calm and inspiring living space, focused on its inhabitants, their needs and desires. By being inspired, we too then inspire: a design as catalyst intention.

Our living spaces should work for us, not only through utility but psychology: facilitating relaxation for mind and body, and uplifting in this era of growing challenge.

“This is not as heady as it sounds, it is merely a matter of surrounding oneself with what and whom we love.”

How we treat ourselves is basic psychology and surrounding ourselves with beauty is the bedrock to mindful living. This is not as heady as it sounds, it is merely a matter of surrounding oneself with what and whom we love.

I rely heavily on the hand created for this reason. Supporting a maker’s endeavors gives a sense of purpose, and living with their work, brings in beauty and meaning.

The creative mind is a spring board for change in all expressive avenues, inspiring better living, finding resolve and asking questions that need to be asked.

This is how life works: from emotion, to mind, to action. And how we can move forward with less trepidation, to the future unknown.

Simplify

August 18, 2019 Carl Barnett

If we are to be better, we are to live better: simpler I think. Life has gotten away from us, so quick are we to judge, scroll and lose ourselves in our black screens. Escaping from the very thing we are here for: life and its wondrous complexities.

I am certainly guilty of this, but now I’ve stepped back and reorganized my thinking. It’s not the meaning of life, but the meaning in life I tell myself. Slowly it’s coming back to the surface, back to the light it needs.

How we live is paramount in this era, and too how we think. The present requests a great deal from us, and the future will be demanding more.

”I am not suggesting a monastic existence, though sometimes that seems appealing in contrast to todays worries.”

To live simpler and with clarity is part and parcel to resolve or at least a means to soothe. I am not suggesting a monastic existence, though sometimes that seems appealing in contrast to todays worries. I do however believe that simplification is the best route forward: less consumption, less phrenetic need to fill the void.

Our living spaces are where we start and end our days, and live all the moments between. They nourish and inspire us, give us shelter from more than rain.

It is clear then, why our living spaces should go beyond mere space and four walls, into emotion and memory, this is their built utility: a machine for life and living, buffering and vacillating life forward.

Forward Step

August 17, 2019 Carl Barnett

MVRDV architects — **MVRDV** **architects**

Hope in an era of challenge.

This is my manifesto, my philosophy of doing, and my why. In all that I create, my intention is to contrast our current times of trouble and worry, to pull back the curtains and let light to come in.

Within the crumblings of government and our concern towards the future, there is beauty to be seen and resolution to be had by the creative and active endeavors of many.

The inspiration is there, always growing and building despite its counter parts, which have always been and will to some degree, always be. This is human nature, life as we know it, and to resolve or soften this pendulum of behavior is to acknowledge our imperfections, siding with our better half.

Carl Barnett Design/Studio - Untitled (Thrive) — **Carl Barnett Design/Studio** **- Untitled (Thrive)**

This perhaps is not an easy task, one mountain begets another, but again this is life: certainly my lesson to be learned. But this does not mean change cannot happen, or that our endeavors are all for not, it all adds up, step by uncertain step, forward.

”To build a positive future, is to be the stronger foundation: to know our human nature and to be our better selves.”

The creative mind is a powerful tool as is the mindset of empathy and hope. There is no grand gesture needed, only the desire and will to do better. To build a positive future, is to be the stronger foundation: to know our human nature and to be our better selves.