The Staying Power of Design

Why some rooms speak volumes

Think about the last place you didn't want to leave.

Maybe it was a restaurant where the lighting made everyone look a little kinder, a friend's living room with just the right chairs, or a library with ceilings high enough to make your thoughts feel bigger.

But chances are you probably didn’t think too hard about why — you just stayed.

Last month, CIVIC explored food and its connection to community, from the people building gathering places to the people gathering around a table.

October turns to the room around it.

Design tends to get treated as backdrop, yet the smallest details shape mood and creativity tends to travel better in rooms that feel built for the people in them.

Every room also carries larger questions about belonging.

Who funded it? Who owns it? Who was it built for, who feels welcome the moment they walk in, and who keeps walking past?

A third space only works when people want to be there, and design is a large part of why they do. It also shapes who gets to stay, who gets to build, and where a neighborhood's economic vitality.

That is why this month's coverage centers on the design happening this fall.

CIVIC is speaking with the founders and teams behind the design weeks in Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., and spotlighting the designers and spaces at the center of each.

Every city has its own sensibility, and each design week sits where craft and community meet.

We want to know what makes each one distinct, what the three share, and what the people who built them hope visitors take away.

Those conversations will be published in the weeks ahead.

For now, pay attention to the rooms you keep returning to — the ones that make you want to linger, make something, or call someone over.

READ MORE ON ‘CIVIC’