December 4, 2025
6 Insights from Sense of Space Season 2
In the latest season of Sense of Space, available on the Surround Podcast Network, Turf brand director Faraz Shah and designer Ella Hazard continue their journey to unpack the nuances of designing for the built environment. Through candid questions and thoughtful conversations, they explore the spaces, systems, and experiences we all interact with as designers, architects, and people. Here are six takeaways from Season 2.
1. Curiosity as a Compass
Episode: “How Have You Been?”
After years of career intensity, co-host Ella Hazzard took a “Stray Dog Year” to explore life outside architecture, from truck driving to ceramics. Her journey underscores the power of curiosity and discomfort in reigniting creativity. Sometimes, recharging your creative energy means abandoning the blueprint altogether and living in someone else’s world for a while.
2. Unlearning the Old School
Episode: “Are the Kids Alright?”
Faraz and Ella reflect on design education and the shifting motivations of young architects and designers. They explore how the next generation’s mix of idealism, digital fluency, and social consciousness is reshaping the profession, prioritizing meaning and purpose over prestige.
3. Where Space Holds Emotion
Episode: “Big Feelings?”
From grief rituals to the architecture of healing, Ella’s research into death care redefines design as a form of ceremony. Spaces like reimagined funeral homes and composting facilities aren’t just functional, they give shape to how we process emotion, connect with others, and find meaning through physical environments.
4. The Guest Is the Blueprint
Episode: “Be Our Guest?”
Uncover the deeper design lesson in hospitality: generosity through intentionality. Whether hosting guests at home or designing an experience, great hospitality balances guidance and freedom, crafting moments of comfort, curiosity, and belonging that people remember long after they leave.
5. The Art of Trying Again
Episode: “Try Again?”
Musician Jordan Lieb (Black Light Smoke) joins the hosts to explore creativity, reinvention, and resilience. Together they draw parallels between music and architecture. The conversation celebrates failure as an essential part of mastery and reminds us that creative longevity comes from learning to “shape-shift” rather than conform.
6. Mindsets Before Materials
Episode: “Better Not More?”
Faraz and guest Carolyn Noble tell Ella about the exploration of the Venice Biennale and how they learned that imagination isn’t just a creative act, it’s a form of design infrastructure. The projects they encounter turn speculative ideas into civic possibility, proving that tomorrow’s architecture begins not with materials, but with mindset.
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