There is a role and function for beauty in our time. — Tadao Ando

There is a role and function for beauty in our time.

Author: Tadao Ando

Insight: We live in an age obsessed with efficiency and optimization. Every app promises to save us time, every interface is designed to get us from point A to point B with minimum friction. But somewhere in that relentless forward march, we've started treating beauty like a luxury—something nice to have if we can afford it, but ultimately decorative, non-essential. Ando's point cuts against that thinking. Beauty isn't decoration. It has actual work to do. Consider how you feel in a room flooded with natural light versus a fluorescent basement, or how differently you move through a thoughtfully designed space versus a purely functional one. Beauty changes us. It slows us down, makes us notice, creates moments where we're actually present instead of checking off tasks. In a world that's increasingly fractured and anxious, those moments matter more than ever—they're not indulgent, they're restorative. The function Ando sees in beauty might be subtle but it's radical: it reminds us that life isn't just about getting things done. It's also about how it feels to be alive. In our particular moment, when everything moves at digital speed and we're swimming in information, spaces and objects and experiences designed with real beauty might be one of the few things still capable of pulling us back into our own skin.