Welcome to Foundations & Facades
Thoughtful design. Critical observation. Sharp humour.
Foundations & Facades is a blog and platform about how design shapes our lives - and how we, in turn, shape our spaces, sometimes beautifully, sometimes disastrously.
You’ll find essays here about architecture, interiors, property, heritage protection and public space, but always with a twist. Some are poetic. Some are provoking. Some are about the territorial madness of parking spaces and 15cm fences. All of them ask you to look closer.
I write about stucco, zoning laws and terrazzo floors, old buildings and new absurdities. I write about the peculiarities of Luxembourg where I currently live and which I, after a decade of owning properties, renovating and observing cultural tendencies, call home.
When not writing here, I help organisations navigate uncertainty through strategic foresight and scenario planning. That professional lens, always questioning assumptions, always searching for the patterns beneath the surface, shapes how I approach design critique as well.
And underneath it all: a quiet rebellion against mediocrity in the built world.
This isn’t a lifestyle blog. It’s not about trends or Instagram interiors.
It’s about design as a language, one that reveals our fears, our values, and sometimes, our failures.
If you’re someone who slows down at a beautifully proportioned window, who’s ever sighed at a poorly placed mailbox, or who’s quietly furious about beige tiles in a historic house - then welcome.
You’re very much in the right place.
Let’s explore what design can do, what it’s trying to say, and what it still gets terribly wrong.
Let’s look behind the facades, beneath the foundations, and into the deeper layers that shape our world - and discover how thoughtful design reflects who we truly are.
Or dive deeper into Design Matters