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The Spaces That Make Us: Why Design Is Broken and How We Can Create a Happier, Healthier World
Create a better life by creating better design. Did you know that. . .
. . . the arrangement of your living room could improve your relationship with your partner?
. . . the layout of your child’s classroom affects their grades and test scores?
. . . the design of your hospital room influences how quickly you recover?
We live in a symbiotic relationship with the spaces around us—first we make our spaces, and then our spaces make us. But we’re living in a suboptimal world, one that we designed. The good We can redesign it. For twenty years, architect and designer Danish Kurani has been transforming spaces to improve people’s health and happiness through the design of schools, homes, offices, and community centers across four continents.
The Spaces That Make Us offers
A clear, easy-to-follow philosophy you can apply to any space—your home, office, school, or neighborhood.Surprising research revealing how design impacts your physical health, emotional well-being, and the quality of your relationships.A journey through the past 2 million years, arriving at how current design practices make life worse.An inspiring vision for creating future designs and a compelling call to rethink design’s fundamentalsPractical strategies for using smarter design to improve your life, at any budget level.
Kurani unveils a lifechanging design philosophy, Baaham (pronounced BAH-hum), a word from Urdu meaning “in tandem”—describing two interconnected things working in harmony. Baaham draws from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology. Whether you’re designing for yourself or others, at any scale from a bedroom to a city block, Baaham is a roadmap for improving health, building deeper relationships, and finding greater fulfillment. It’s not just a philosophy—it’s a way of life.
Featuring seven core principles, Baaham helps everyone—from financially strapped college students to a manager looking to improve their team’s performance—create environments that are functional, beautiful, and life-changing. This book doesn’t tell you what to design. It teaches you how to design, so that you can build the life you want. Engaging illustrations are included throughout every chapter, to illuminate each principle and bring Baaham to life.
The Spaces That Make Us will change how you see the world—opening your eyes to what isn’t working, and helping you remake your spaces for a happier, healthier life.
. . . the arrangement of your living room could improve your relationship with your partner?
. . . the layout of your child’s classroom affects their grades and test scores?
. . . the design of your hospital room influences how quickly you recover?
We live in a symbiotic relationship with the spaces around us—first we make our spaces, and then our spaces make us. But we’re living in a suboptimal world, one that we designed. The good We can redesign it. For twenty years, architect and designer Danish Kurani has been transforming spaces to improve people’s health and happiness through the design of schools, homes, offices, and community centers across four continents.
The Spaces That Make Us offers
A clear, easy-to-follow philosophy you can apply to any space—your home, office, school, or neighborhood.Surprising research revealing how design impacts your physical health, emotional well-being, and the quality of your relationships.A journey through the past 2 million years, arriving at how current design practices make life worse.An inspiring vision for creating future designs and a compelling call to rethink design’s fundamentalsPractical strategies for using smarter design to improve your life, at any budget level.
Kurani unveils a lifechanging design philosophy, Baaham (pronounced BAH-hum), a word from Urdu meaning “in tandem”—describing two interconnected things working in harmony. Baaham draws from psychology, sociology, anthropology, and evolutionary biology. Whether you’re designing for yourself or others, at any scale from a bedroom to a city block, Baaham is a roadmap for improving health, building deeper relationships, and finding greater fulfillment. It’s not just a philosophy—it’s a way of life.
Featuring seven core principles, Baaham helps everyone—from financially strapped college students to a manager looking to improve their team’s performance—create environments that are functional, beautiful, and life-changing. This book doesn’t tell you what to design. It teaches you how to design, so that you can build the life you want. Engaging illustrations are included throughout every chapter, to illuminate each principle and bring Baaham to life.
The Spaces That Make Us will change how you see the world—opening your eyes to what isn’t working, and helping you remake your spaces for a happier, healthier life.
- GenresArchitecture
272 pages, Hardcover
Published February 10, 2026
3 people are currently reading
2054 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 10, 2026
I approached The Spaces That Make Us with curiosity, and as an architect, I found it thoroughly engaging. While the book discusses space and design, it is not limited to architects or designers; it is written for anyone interested in understanding how our surroundings shape daily life, wellbeing, and human connection.
The sketches are simple yet effective, clearly communicating ideas and making the reading experience both accessible and enjoyable. Overall, it is a thoughtful and insightful book that reminds us that good spaces don’t just look good, they support better ways of living.
The sketches are simple yet effective, clearly communicating ideas and making the reading experience both accessible and enjoyable. Overall, it is a thoughtful and insightful book that reminds us that good spaces don’t just look good, they support better ways of living.
February 10, 2026
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
As someone who doesn’t usually pick up non-fiction, I was surprised by how easy and enjoyable this book was to read. It’s clear, insightful, and full of thought-provoking ideas that really stick with you.
What I loved most is how it makes you pause and reconsider the spaces and experiences around you—it genuinely shifted how I see the world. The writing is educational without ever feeling heavy or slow, and every chapter leaves you thinking.
This truly feels like a book for everyone, no matter your background or industry. Highly recommend!
As someone who doesn’t usually pick up non-fiction, I was surprised by how easy and enjoyable this book was to read. It’s clear, insightful, and full of thought-provoking ideas that really stick with you.
What I loved most is how it makes you pause and reconsider the spaces and experiences around you—it genuinely shifted how I see the world. The writing is educational without ever feeling heavy or slow, and every chapter leaves you thinking.
This truly feels like a book for everyone, no matter your background or industry. Highly recommend!
Review of advance copy
Thoughtful and insightful!
February 11, 2026
By following a few simple principles of reciprocity, architect Danish Kurani shows us what is currently not working in the design of our cities in general and our homes in particular, and how we could improve everything.
From the website: The Baaham philosophy takes into account psychology, sociology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and behavioral economics, among other disciplines. It emphasizes personal reflection, problem-solving, biological principles, emotional responses, and local resources in creating spaces that improve our health, happiness, and overall lives. Baaham encourages people to examine their needs and the needs of their communities, to solve real problems and to design for change.
Baaham consists of core tenets that can guide anyone in creating a physical space that is functional, beautiful, and life-changing. These principles include:
Look within
Solve real problems
Design for change
Follow nature
Build locally
Embrace details
Zoom out
Baaham is a comprehensive design philosophy that aims to transform our built environment by putting people at the center. It is a framework that can be used by anyone, regardless of their background or budget, to create spaces that are both meaningful and functional.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
From the website: The Baaham philosophy takes into account psychology, sociology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, and behavioral economics, among other disciplines. It emphasizes personal reflection, problem-solving, biological principles, emotional responses, and local resources in creating spaces that improve our health, happiness, and overall lives. Baaham encourages people to examine their needs and the needs of their communities, to solve real problems and to design for change.
Baaham consists of core tenets that can guide anyone in creating a physical space that is functional, beautiful, and life-changing. These principles include:
Look within
Solve real problems
Design for change
Follow nature
Build locally
Embrace details
Zoom out
Baaham is a comprehensive design philosophy that aims to transform our built environment by putting people at the center. It is a framework that can be used by anyone, regardless of their background or budget, to create spaces that are both meaningful and functional.
I received from the Publisher a complimentary digital advanced review copy of the book in exchange for a honest review.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews