Places.

Designing the built environment puts us at a unique intersection. We span technology, economics, local and global regulation, environmentalism, and the health and wellbeing of society. We craft the stage where lives – billions of them – play out every day.

The privilege, magnitude, complexity, and responsibility of this role can sometimes feel daunting. With every innovation, every development in how we work, and each impactful project, the need for more, better, newer seems to follow. The world feels fast, vast, and often out of control. Despite the pioneering developments they may feature, when projects take years to come to fruition, it can feel as though there’s always more that could be done.

So how do we combat that overwhelming feeling? How do we even begin to make changes that keep pace?

We explore.

There is an undeniable connection between exploration and feeling our best. Is it a chicken and egg relationship? Certainly, the diverse and invigorating experiences we get from exploration boost our mood, but do we also need to feel positive in order to embark on a journey of discovery? Taking that first step feels easier when the outlook is sunnier – in all senses of the word. But pushing through that barrier – that urge to hunker down when things get tricky, to wrap our ‘shells’ around us and accept the status quo – is everything. It’s where boldness and bravery lie…

Exploration is a powerful drug.

The more we do it, the happier we feel. The more we do it, the more we want to continue…

So it’s no surprise that it can be the antidote to today’s stressful world. Comfort, inspiration, sustenance, and connection are powerful human impulses; exploration engenders them all.

The act of embarking, of emerging once more with positivity after what has been one of the hardest years ever for many of us, might feel Herculean. It might feel impossible. But it’s how we’ll re-energise ourselves, how we’ll escape the ordinary, and how we ignite the flickers of future that, together, we’ll rewrite.

Cover photo courtesy of Joanna Lumley/Rankin Photo (above) by Anastasia Taioglou on Unsplash

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Exploare.

The future belongs to the curious.

Challenge accepted.

hoarelea.com