Why do two apartments in the same building feel completely different?

The question is whether the human is at the centre

Same building, same era, same construction — and one apartment feels right the moment you walk in while the other never does. Matthew's explanation is not about finishes or furniture. It is a single question: "Is the human placed at the center of that property?"

What that actually asks

Unpacked, it is three tests of the design:

• The physiological — are the body's needs catered for? Light, air, temperature, the things you feel before you notice them.
• The psychological — are they catered for too? How the space makes you feel in it, not just how it performs.
• The experience — is the place "designed for the experience or not?" Was living in it the thing being designed, or a by-product of the plan?

Lighting, flow and functionality

Those tests come down to concrete things: "Is there the right lighting, flow and functionality?" Where the light falls and when. How you move between rooms and whether the route makes sense. Whether the space does the job the room is named after.

Why one feels off from the first second

The consequence is immediate and pre-verbal. An apartment "that does not have these considerations is going to obviously feel off at the outset" — you register it before you can articulate it. Whereas the ones "putting you at the center of the process, putting your experience at the center — that is going to make all the difference to how you feel." It is also why a property can photograph well and still not live well.

Sources

• Perit Matthew James Mercieca — Yitaku Asks video (Architect Series, Cluster 1) — the human at the centre; physiological and psychological aspects; designed for the experience; lighting, flow, functionality