A sink chosen after plumbing rough-in can turn a calm kitchen redesign into a chain of cabinet cuts, drainage changes, delayed stone templating, and tense site calls. The homeowner still wants better storage, better light, and a cleaner modern kitchen, but the real win comes from approving decisions in the order that trades need them.…

When neuroscientists use functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine how people respond to interior spaces, the results challenge several assumptions embedded in a century of modernist design doctrine. Curvilinear rooms activate the brain's reward circuitry in ways that rectilinear rooms do not. Natural materials reduce measurable markers of acute stress. Visual complexity with detectable hierarchical…