Quality can be a rather object measure, once you've achieved certain standards. What is great for one person, might be terrible for another. Especially when it comes to judging design, it is hard to determine what's a "good" or a "bad" design.

What is more interesting is looking at what constitutes a successful design at solving a specific problem. A common mistake is confusing the esthetics of an object as its design, rather than its function. If we make a chair that has 27 legs but unfortunately you can't sit on it properly, then whether the chair looks good or not is irrelevant to the design question, then design is flawed. Good design should limit its usage of resources to solve all aspects of a problem the most efficiently. When comparing designs, the only true objective measures can be how well each part of the problem is solved. Looking at our chair, that means asking a series how question:

Is the chair stable on the ground?
Can I sit in it for extended periods of time without getting back pain?
Can my legs reach the floor comfortably when I sit in it?
Does the material feel good to touch? Does it smell good?
Is it comfortable to dine in? Or to work in? What kind of chair is it anyway?
Did I use additional resources that are maybe not needed?
Can I simplify the shape while preserving the above qualities?

"Finding practical forms that can make everyday items more useful and beautiful than in revolutionizing society with utopian ideas and art history manifestos"
Danish design museum

The beauty of functional design, is that even when you know all the requirements exactly, you still have 1000 ways to solve the problem. And a good design finds a unique shape that solves the requirements without adding overhead.

This is the design approach that we are preaching at Oasa. But where does that leave us with quality? Because as we have seen before, the first thing to define is not how something will look - that should be the result of testing out various solutions for a given problem - it is precisely to define a set of problems that you are looking to solve, and for which audience etc.

The problem Oasa is trying to solve is to make functional living spaces in nature, to connect with peers and be able to focus and work. Concretely, this means designing spaces that allow you to do those things, by finding the right balance between privacy and community, between quiet work space and spaces to meet peers, between urban integration and secluded living.

You can read more about what specific amenities and features we intend to provide in our coliving spaces.

design

Related content

See all articles