Hi friends!

Lots of fun things to share today, and I’m excited to hear what you think! I’ll get right to it:

Japanese architecture is cool:

• Fascinating analysis of the Ise Jingu Grand Shrine, a Japanese Shinto complex that is periodically rebuilt in its entirety every 20 years, and what it can teach us about the importance of process knowledge.
• Seventeen public bathrooms in Tokyo designed by star architects. I fully support the use of public funds for such causes (I think this is my favorite; what do you think?) — why not invest a lot in facilities that will be used by everyone like this!?

Sounds and sights of nature:

• Check out this stunning collection of photos of starling murmurations, capturing their fluid motion and coordination as they rest, flee, and fly.
• Another map, this one populated by sounds of forests and woodlands around the world. A fun way to get a nature fix through a different sensory avenue.

New ways to think about common things:

• Loving the aesthetic of the weather app, Weather Strip— simple, sleek, and digestible. Highly recommend.
• A reflective linguistic dive into the etymologies of attention, tenderness, and care across different languages, that perhaps can help us be a little more articulate of what we are giving and needing from the world around us.
• Sara Hendren on how designing with time can transform our cities, challenging all citizens to imagine how even small shifts in time can reveal new possibilities, during and beyond the pandemic.

Surprising truths relevant to our lives:

• A thorough, nicely-diagrammed explanation of how we cannot focus on the color blue. This blew my mind (no pun intended, but… let’s pretend it was!)
• Different cultures define happiness in different ways, that can sorta be broken down along an inner/outer (or introspective/interactional) axis, and a task-based/relational axis. In the US, we generally think of happiness as "outer" and "relational," deriving mainly from family and friends, for instance; while in the Mediterranean, they see it as "inner" and "task"-focused, prioritizing experiences that make them feel good. It's interesting to consider which quadrant you personally think of the word "happiness" in, and how you "score" in the other three, as well.

Most importantly…

• Just trust me.

Be in touch!

Cheers,

Maya