Letter From the Editor: Issue 02
Issue 02: "No Thoughts, Just Vibes." On emotional interiors and incoherence as method.
Hi there, House mates,
I’m pleased to share with you that Wrong House’s second issue is now live. This month’s theme, “No Thoughts, Just Vibes,” is all about how emotion, intuition, and even confusion shape our inner and outer spaces. If Issue 01 celebrated clarity and self-determination, this one admits that sometimes, it’s not that simple. This is an issue about emotional interiors and incoherence as method—about feeling your way through the mess, letting the vibes lead, and embracing what isn’t always easy to articulate. The stories presented here also consider distorted thinking, and the different ways that we try to see clearly.
In one piece, Adrian Madlener profiles the Instagram accounts fixing bad floor plans, where creators like Matthew North—the architect behind Plan Attack—are calling out layouts warped by the logic of a top-heavy real estate market. These accounts tap into something visceral: we know when a space doesn’t work, even if we can’t draft the fix ourselves. (Thankfully, these designers have a few solutions up their sleeves.)
Madeleine Parsons, meanwhile, uses the mirror as a literal looking glass for examining skewed self-perception in her essay, “When the Whole Distorts the Parts.” Drawing on the philosopher Simone Weil, she explores how our imaginative projections—our fears, doubts, and obsessions—obscure what’s actually in front of us.
On a personal note, Matt Cosper’s moving essay, “The Fog in Pristina,” is a semifictional account of the author’s travels to the Kosovo capital in the early 2010s following the sudden loss of both of his parents. Moving through the city in a haze of liquor, mourning, jet lag, and creative exhaustion, Matt reminds us just how much grief shapes our perception of place.
Sydney Gore’s reporting on energy architects and spiritual workers introduces us to practitioners who are trying to heal what’s wrong with us—starting with our homes. She documents how people are turning to house blessings and energetic mapping in the aftermath of the pandemic. While some people might write their efforts off as mere woo-woo, Sydney and her subjects show us that these are serious attempts at clarity and alignment in a disorienting time.
Elsewhere, Monica Nelson reviews Emily Hunt Kivel’s novel Dwelling, which imagines New York City after a mass eviction and asks: How will we reimagine our world in our current crisis? Perhaps, she suggests, it’s fiction—not rational planning—that can show us how to live.
Femlord’s video takes a more playful approach, offering a tongue-in-cheek catalog of household guardians: a piece of dust (time and life made visible), an uncharged portable lamp (energy waiting to be activated), and other objects we all likely have sitting around somewhere. It’s a send-up of the self-help guru, but there’s something sincere here. These objects do hold meaning if we choose to see them that way.
Politically, environmentally, and personally, we’re living through a lot right now. While rigorous analysis has its place, sometimes what’s actually needed is permission to believe in what we feel. That’s rigor, too.
So thanks for trusting the vibe. Keep checking in, because in addition to this issue drop, we’ll have at least a piece or two of bonus content coming your way this month as well.
’Til next week,
Lila
PS: If you haven’t yet, please share Wrong House with a friend! One month in, and we are scary close to hitting 1,000 subscribers—and man, wouldn’t that be something for a little ol’ indie design mag?
