Suspense is the art of the unseen, the almost-there, the what’s-behind-that-door. It’s not blood and gore, but a hallway just a beat too long, a light that hums with tension, or a room that doesn’t show all its corners. For designers, suspense is a blueprint for creating interiors that pulse with emotion. In this issue, we explore how the tools of suspense – light, shadow, spatial compression, and negative space – can be wielded to shape experiences within the built environment. Welcome to a world where space makes your heart race.

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A perforated façade filters and shapes light. Architects have used screens, lattices, and laser-cut metal skins to create dynamic interior atmospheres where light and shadow shift across the day. These designs are deliberate, atmospheric, and full of motion.

One standout is the UK Pavilion at the Osaka Expo in 2025. Its metal veil appears solid by day and ghostlike by night, revealing what lies behind only under certain conditions.

PLAY OF LIGHT

In the Sheats–Goldstein Residence  originally by John Lautner, light becomes a wayfinder. Long glass walls, skylights, and service lines cut into ceilings guide your gaze outward and upward. As daylight shifts, so do planes of brightness. Walls glow, terraces disappear into shadow, and corners become hidden. The home’s polished concrete, glass, and steel reflect or absorb, amplifying contrast.

Here, the light doesn’t simply show you space. It choreographs movement, edging you from room to room with suspense. Every threshold is a reveal. Every ceiling height or glass panel becomes part of the performance.

WHAT THEY DO IN THE SHADOWS

Take Komazawa no jūtaku by Gō Hasegawa & Associates. In this home, lattice floors doubling as ceilings above landings, windows set deep into walls, and layered screens let light in selectively. Negative space is framed. You move through zones. One is bright with overhead shafts, the next is muted and dim, another has a glowing screen casting leaf patterns.

What’s revealed is only part of the story. What’s held in shadow are the floor beneath and the corner behind you. The house feels alive with its light and contrast.

DESIGN DEPARTURES

After nearly six years and countless issues of What Matters, it’s time for me to turn the page.

Co-founding Interior Matter with Sarita Simpson in 2019 was a dream built on shared vision, trust, and the belief that great design changes how we feel, not just how we live. I’m endlessly proud of what we created together, and of the voices and visions we’ve championed through this newsletter.

But beginnings come with endings. And so, with this issue, I’ll be signing off. What Matters will evolve, as all good things do, and Sarita will continue steering Interior Matter with the brilliance she’s always brought to her work.

As for me? My next chapter is Upon Return where my love for design and connection now meets my passion for travel. What started as a curated list for friends has grown into a global platform celebrating the world’s most beautiful and thoughtful places to stay, eat, visit, and celebrate. I’ll be pouring my energy into it fully.

To everyone who’s read, responded, and reached out over the years, thank you. It’s been a joy.

Wonder less. Wander more. 

Jason Claire 

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