This is my first proper video with me presenting, I've popped up in previous videos before but not at this scale, so please be kind! I also understand there may be some contradictions by releasing this video, as some homes featured might have you scratching your head and thinking 'but he said this, and it isn't that'. Keep in mind that the focus to more minimalist designs is only recent, and will be a slow transition to achieve the vision I have for this channel. I hope you like this video, stepping wildly outside of my comfort zone doing this but I want to produce more videos like this! If there is something about minimalism in design that you want me to explore and talk about, leave a comment!
I loved this video. It is really interesting your discussion on space reduction. We are building a 70sqm house for a house of three and many people find it perplexing in the New Zealand context. Sustainability and minimalism are quite related and large scale homes (out of proportion to the needs of the people living in the spaces) seem at odds to these two these ideas.
My parents have spent so many years telling us how living small and frugal is the best thing, finally my sister, brother & I have understood what they meant all along. Listening to you here makes me even more confident & comfortable in my journey towards truly becoming a minimalist! You are creating some amazing content.
When I started to get into the minimalist lifestyle (years after I came across the design aspect), I questioned so many long-standing beliefs I had grown up with. It was almost a huge weight lifted of my shoulders when I realised I don't need to impress anyone with things.
@@SimpleDwelling Oh yes, the weight lifted when I accepted that my home is not for display & judgment of others and that I must make peace with what we have not constantly fight it out change to make it pintrest perfect. It is liberating !!
Wow, I absolutely loved this video! I would love to see more of this type of content from you. I have always thought the objective of "minimalism" was missed when I see "minimalistic mansions".
I am truly grateful for your words, Gabriel, it means a lot to hear (or technically, read) them! That always felt like a oxymoron, a minimalist mansion makes no sense to me.
More to come, Evangeline! When I eventually make my way to Japan, I have a video idea regarding wabi sabi and ma! In the mean time, I'll make some other videos like this. Your comment has motivated me!
Thank you for such kind words about the video Laurie. I hope to make a few more videos relating to minimalism, so did you walk away from this video with a question or questions that went unanswered?
I believe that the design of the furniture and the selection you make of it has always had a capital value in the definition of style within a layout and a floor plan. In my case, my favorite style is Mid-Century Modern (of which vander Rohe was one of its main precursors), and I've always tried to keep my spaces with a mostly minimalist character, since this is one of the most notable features of that trend. In my living room I only have a Togo sofa from Manhattan Home Design, a coffee table, an area rug, and some additional accent chairs in front of the TV. Thanks for the review! Very enlightening.
ahhhhh the duality of my aesthetic preferances. on one hand i find minimalist design very cool, modern, simple, foward thinking... but on the other hand i find dark academia type design so warm, interesting, deep, awe inspiring... theres so many good design styles god what do i do!
Concise and beautifully presented, Anthony. I recently read a book on Eastern aesthetics. It described minimalism as the enlightenment of not needing more. Cheers. John. Inbetween Architecture.
Thank you so much for the invitation to learn. Incredibly well done and I so appreciate the visual with the informative. I'm drawn to the "Less is more" concept.
Great video that's saved so i can re-visit it. I would enjoy more of the minimalist content, for me longer in depth videos for instance on storage and how to furnish already built apartments/houses (as in this video you mentioned thinking before building on the needs, many people find however "odd" shaped housing). Many thanks!
Antonio the OBB with SANAA is one of my fave building they have addeda new feature in front of d building playing with transparent colors right on d lawn. Nice to see u! The keynote highlighte was on point and was clean n clear. Now show us the OUTTAKES sooner.
Thank you for a wonderful, inspiring video! I very much appreciate your warm, reflective, and humble presentation and voice. IMO this format was excellent, and I'm looking forward to see more videos like this! By the way, I sat waiting for the term "intentional", which I've heard and like a lot :-)
Glad you decided to make this video. Super interesting, very enlightening and very funny at times. I also liked the way you presented the content. 👍And you have a great voice by the way 🙂
Awesome video with relevant content, very inspiring to me as I live in a small 70s townhouse hence had no choice but to adopt the Less is More mindset! 😀 Also I just assumed you might be Italian as we love talking with our hands 🤗 Please make more videos, I think you have great knowledge to share and your honesty is inspiring too 👏🏼
Sometimes you need to be forced into less is more to see the benefits! While I'm not 100% sure of my heritage, maybe there is a tiny bit of Italian in me, if not, guess I'm a hand talker haha. And I'm really glad you enjoyed the video, Claudia, your comment has definitely lifted my spirits around these types of videos!
Oh no, you got me on a bad day when I've just thrown up my hands in frustration with the person designing our project home and oh the exquisite pain of watching this video and exclaiming a hearty YES at every point made, yet not being able to afford the architect to achieve it! Back to the drawing board. 😪
Awesome video! Thank you so much! I'd love it if you lowered the volume of the music or no music at all. You do such a great job and are so informative that I don't want the distraction of the music. 🙂🌈❤️❤️❤️
If “Less is more” is an absolute truth and the ultimate value, it would be enough to say it once. That you say it three times suggests that repetition, rhythm, and emphasis have validity.
Thanks for the video, really enjoyed it. Some of the design examples are excellent. I embrace minimalism especially now that I have moved into a much smaller house. However, sometimes I crave for space and my thoughts about your comment "3 metres of space doesn't do anything". I think the concept of space is quite relative and differs from person to person. If I have a bedroom of say 8 x 8m, having less 3 meters should not matter to me. However, if my room is only 3 x 3m, having another meter of space in front of my bed would be an absolute gold, without the feeling of being in a shoe box? Just my thought.
Hi James, I completely agree with your sentiments. Having space around your bed is important, our bedroom is roughly 3m x 4m long and it’s great size, with room either side of the bed and at the end. I’m more so referring to those overscale “master bedrooms” with just an excessive amount of space that doesn’t get used, nor does it add to the experience of the space.
Homes create moods & can create pleasure. I don’t like eliminating negative space just because there’s no “purpose.” I guess I prefer a minimal aesthetic, but not full minimalism. I also like a neutral palette but with wow factors in the home. It is a space to be lived in.
Maybe the ten principles of good design by Dieter Rams are interesting for you as well. Even if he wrote them for product design, they are fitting for architecture as well
I have yet to come across a book about minimalism aimed at professionals. There are some in regards to interior styling and what-not, but not so much minimalist architecture. Perhaps I should write the book on it! Haha.
Great slide show. 😍 Only let down by the repeated use of “Pacific” in place of _Specific_ … 🙄 Also, the expression “Less is More” predates Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe by several thousand years. It’s famous Ancient Greek proverb: "Το λακωνίζειν εστί φιλοσοφείν", in English "less is more": en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilon_of_Sparta And even in the context of modern/minimalist architecture it’s been around for a lot longer than the 1950’s. He may have popularised it, but he certainly didn’t _invent_ it.
My pronunciation aside, I never stated that Mies Van Der Rohe invented the phrase, I did in fact say that he popularised it. I said that in the first 6 seconds of the video, so I’m confused by your comment?
I always love minimalist design. Unfortunately, it's not cheap at all especially the aesthetic one. My home is look clutter everytime though I have no many stuffs but because we have no storages to keep away our stuffs then they look messy always :(
I think you touch on a good point, especially when it comes to actually building a minimalist interior, as more care and craftsmanship needs to go into it to get that simple look. And then there is also the practicality side of having enough storage.
@@SimpleDwelling … or maybe you had to get it "more or less" right ! Ha ha Ha ha ha! ( Great video by the way of the principles and their practical application. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻)
We've seen what happened when we removed the decorative elements from buildings. It made our cities more ugly. In Melbourne, these are the buildings that are being demolished now while the decorative buildings of the 19th century are being preserved. No one goes to Rome for the latest minimalist building. They go to see see the creativity of ancient artisans. It takes talent, skill and a connection with nature to create such works. It takes no effort to showcase nothing. Minimalism has no personality, is cold and dull. That something doesn't serve a "purpose" is not a distraction, but something in us that seeks beauty. If one thinks that the Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne was a distraction compared to to the abomination that followed it is aesthetically bereft.
Ten days as a total minimalist - just with an emergency backpack and a cat. Russian army has attacked my city and destroyed homes of peaceful citizens. I had to flee to save my life. No one ever attacked Russia or Russian-speaking people in Ukraine. I speak both languages, my parents speak only Russian. There are no Ukrainian neonazis or whatever Russian propaganda is trying to sell to its people. A couple of days ago they bombed two obstetrician departments in Kyiv. In one of them my goddaughter was born, the other one I passed by multiple times. What is the danger of pregnant women? Russian army bombs kindergartens, schools and today they took hostage the psychiatric hospital. But the most dangerous act is trying to destabilize and destroy an atomic power station. That would be worth than Chornobyl everyone watched on HBO. Please, Matt, support Ukraine. I know that you have a lot of followers from Russia. Their government blocks facebook, twitter and other sources of information, so that they had only TV to get information from. I wish no one learns minimalism this way.
K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid! Would be a not so polite way of saying the same thing. I love minimal, clean lines with lots of natural light and preferably a view. 8 years ago we built our dream home 🏘️😍, but it was too big for us, 350 square metres for 2 adults and a baby. I would do it again, but I have learnt to be honest with myself about how much space we really need, my values have shifted since designing and building that house.
So I ended up cutting it out of this video, but during architecture school as part of an assignment, my personal manifesto was called, Keep It Simple, Stupid! That's really interesting to hear about your home, Ana. If you don't mind me asking, why did you initially build a 350sqm house? Was it just something that others expected you to do, or did you legitimately feel like at the time you needed that much space? It's great to hear your shift in values and questioning what you actually need though. Part of my KISS manifesto was reducing a 263m2 volume-built house down to 173m2, by resizing rooms and eliminating entire rooms that I deemed excessive and wasteful.
@@SimpleDwelling 😂 I like the title of your manifesto! We built our dream house, we had a small 100 square metres semi detached house and we needed more space. We found an empty plot of land with a beautiful view of Table Mountain, Cape Town. We wanted to maximize the views and we had the financial means to build a beautiful house. We didn't really consider the size of it, but I know now that our egos definitely played a part in it. We designed and started to build before I feel pregnant and we moved in a month before our daughter was born. When she around 2 and a half years old we spent 4 months visiting family and travelling a bit in Europe. We spent 4 weeks traveling in a tiny campervan and we were fine, we realized that we definitely didn't need nearly as much space or stuff as we thought we did. And 2 years later we moved to Portugal. We now live in a 165 square metres apartment, still more space than we need, but we wanted a guest bedroom for family and friends to visit us. Unfortunately we only had 2 guests visit before the pandemic put a stop in all of our plans. I think that in South Africa there is an expectation that if you are an adult and planning on having a family you need a big house with a garden and pool, if you choose something else people don't understand that. www.three14.co.za/firth-114802-rondebosch-cape-town.html this is the house.
That was your house, Ana? I remember wowing at that when I saw it on Archdaily during architecture school! It definitely exudes a lot of 'minimalist vibes', and while on the larger-side for you at the time, there could be a larger family that can take full advantage of the space. I'm definitely not against 'bigger' houses, and I'm going to do a video on this in the near future, but it's about excess.
@@SimpleDwelling it was our dream house,we actually sold it last year. A bigger family bought it as far as I know. We moved to Portugal and we don't think that we will be returning to South Africa any time soon, it was hard to let our dream home go 😢, but I am sure that it's being loved by someone else.
@@SimpleDwelling my husband's younger cousin was also studying architecture at the time that we were featured in magazines and online publications. He would cat sit for us and even had a dinner party for colleagues and teachers at the house 😁 while we were away, with our consent ☺️
They are not. The homes that both channel have covered overlap quite a bit also with the local project. If you don't believe me check out the design emotive's videos.