Good style makes our lives better

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

Art,’’ wrote William Morris in the socialist newspaper Commonweal, in April 1885, ‘‘is man’s embodied expression of interest in the life of man; it springs from man’s pleasure in his life . . . It is the lack of this pleasure in daily work which has made our towns and habitations sordid and hideous . . . and all the accessories of life mean, trivial, ugly.’’

This had, Morris argued, a direct, deleterious effect on how people felt about themselves and how they behaved; it exacerbated the divisions between classes and encouraged a dire inauthenticity. In his revolution, pleasure in dailiness would be available to all, in all aspects of life – from town planning down to, say, a porridge bowl and spoon.

Both Morris and designer Terence Conran, who died last week, understood that objects are not separate from ourselves – they affect us, and we them, in myriad ways: by being, however humble, ‘‘worthy of the word wonder’’ (as Daniel Libeskind once put it, in relation to Bauhaus); through the efficiency and ingenuity with which they fulfil their purpose; through the value we attach to them (think of a ring, before and after a marriage); through touch, sight, sound, or colour. Nearly everything we’re surrounded by is designed in some way. We only gain by paying attention, making it available, and doing it well.