By Hasti Mirkia, PhD
Founder, The SoulSpace Design

May 2026

There is a question I have learned to ask early in every project, and the answer almost never comes quickly. How do you want to feel in this room?

It sounds like a soft question. It is not. Most clients have spent years thinking about what they want a space to look like, but very few have been invited to think about what they want it to feel like. The pause that follows the question is often the most useful moment of a first conversation. It is the sound of someone realizing they have never been asked this before.

This is the part of my process I think about most. Before mood boards, before measurements, before any decision about cabinetry or stone, there is the slower work of understanding how a family actually lives, what their mornings sound like, where the light falls when it matters, and what they have been quietly tolerating in a home that no longer fits the life they are living. I have come to think of this as the real beginning of the design. Everything visible comes later.

By Hasti Mirkia, PhD
Founder, The SoulSpace Design

April 2026

Some spaces stay with us long after we leave them. Others, no matter how polished, fade from memory almost immediately. For years, I wondered what made the difference. During my PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I set out to find the answer.

My research compared two approaches to interior architecture: biomorphic design, which draws on organic, nature-inspired forms, and rectilinear minimalist design, defined by straight lines, boxes, and the absence of ornament. I wanted to know whether the geometry of a space could measurably affect how well we remember it, how pleasant we find it, and where our eyes are drawn.

By Hasti Mirkia, PhD
Founder, The SoulSpace Design

March 2026

The kitchen has always been more than a place to prepare food. It is where families gather without being invited, where conversations happen naturally, and where the rhythm of daily life finds its center. From a design perspective, this is not accidental.

Research in environmental psychology suggests that kitchens function as emotional anchors within a home. Their central placement, the sensory richness of cooking, the warmth of gathered light, and the physical act of nourishing others all contribute to a feeling of safety and connection. When a kitchen is designed well, it does not just work efficiently. It draws people in.

By Hasti Mirkia, PhD
Founder, The SoulSpace Design

February 2026

There is a quality certain rooms have that is difficult to name but immediately felt. You walk in and something registers as true. The materials feel like themselves. Nothing is pretending to be something it is not.

I call this material honesty, and it is one of the most overlooked principles in residential design. In a market filled with convincing imitations, porcelain that mimics marble, vinyl that imitates wood, laminate that photographs like stone, it has become easy to build a room that looks beautiful in pictures but feels hollow in person.

The difference is not always visible. It is tactile, sensory, even subconscious.

By Hasti Mirkia, PhD
Founder, The SoulSpace Design

January 2026

One of the most common questions I hear from parents is some version of: " How do I design a beautiful room for my child that won’t need to be completely redone in three years?

It is a fair question, and the standard industry answer: choose “timeless” furniture and neutral palettes, misses the point entirely. Children’s rooms are not miniature adult rooms. They are active, evolving environments that need to support imagination, emotional regulation, rest, and play, sometimes within the same hour.

The answer is not to fight that reality. It is to design for it.