42·Gravy

Independent interior designer in Shenzhen 🇨🇳
Tiny studio on AI agents · no company
China AI field notes · agents in real work · AI × space
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[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

Most renovation firms in Shenzhen measure the NEW apartment.

We go to the OLD one first.

This was our 2nd project, in Shekou. A family of three lived in the house they were about to leave.

The light was poor. Stuff everywhere.

Freshly washed clothes, folded, stacked on the living-room sofa.

The guest room was also the husband's study. Both jobs, neither done well — just clutter.

The kid's bed was raised so they could store more things underneath.

And almost every evening, mother and child sat on the master-bedroom floor, watching a tiny projector on the wall.

That was their only place to relax in the whole house.

They also road-tripped a lot. The bulky gear lived on the balcony.

None of that shows up in a floor plan of the new apartment.

If you only measure the new place, you design for an empty box.
If you watch the old life, you design for the people who will actually live there.

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@WSterlingSpace @EinsiaAI That's the gap I keep hitting. My rule: the day a family changes their mind, I rewrite the project note in their words, before any agent reads it again.

Otherwise the agents keep shopping for last week's family.

Do the shops you work with keep notes, or just the chat thread?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@cheeweng_ Interior designer here. Agree, paint is where people regret fastest.

The check I'd add: see the colour at the hour the room is used most. A wall that looks calm at noon can go grey at 8pm under warm bulbs.

Does it let you change the lighting too?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@morbianai Interior designer here. The little map is the smartest part. People get lost in renders, never in their own home.

Next thing I'd want is light by the hour. A living room at 9am and at 6pm is two different rooms.

Did it guess the sun, or did you set it?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

Under every AI room-scan demo this week, the top question is: are the dimensions real? Will the sofa fit?

That's a tape-measure question.

Mine is where the stuff with no home goes. In one Shenzhen flat, it was road-trip gear piled on the balcony.

What's living on your balcony?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@richschefren Same in homes. Families buy a nice new sofa and keep the old layout, so the sofa still ends up holding the laundry.

As an interior designer, I redraw the day first: who cooks, who works, where things land. Then the plan.

Which old floor plan is hardest for companies to drop?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@IliyaMuzychuk Same split in my studio in Shenzhen: agents handle sourcing and notes, I do review.

Review turned out to be the real job. The draft looks right on paper. What I catch is how the room will actually be used, which drawings don't show.

What do you check first on an as-built?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@devevangelist Same split in interior design. The brief used to be a form clients filled in.

Now I treat the brief as the job: watching how a family lives before I draw anything. Agents handle sourcing and notes after that.

What goes into your brief now that you also make the thing?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@null_syntaxx As an interior designer, this is the part I'd want: a model that knows how the home is used, not just how it's drawn.

Door and light sensors could show which rooms a family really lives in at 7pm.

Does it keep a history, or only the live state?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@levelsio Interior designer here. "Empty it fully" is the step I'd use most. Families can't see their room past what's piled in it.

But the stuff is the brief. Folded laundry on a sofa tells me what the home is missing.

Could it list what it removed, so you see what needs a place?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

In one Shenzhen home I visited, the sofa was covered in clean, folded laundry.

It had quietly become a shelf.

A nicer sofa wouldn't fix that. The missing piece was a place for clothes between the wash and the closet.

What in your home is secretly doing another job?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@Kolippww Every sofa being code is the fun part: it means the plan can run a day.

I design homes in Shenzhen. Empty plans always look fine. Put a family in it on a weekday evening: one cooking, one on a call, a kid doing homework. Then see which room gets crowded.

Could yours add people?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@bradvin I went the other way. I design homes; agents handle sourcing and notes.

What I keep is the last yes on anything a client sees. If I'm sick, the work waits a day. A wrong lamp in someone's home stays for years.

Which decisions would you never hand off, even sick?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@knoxtwts Same lesson from interior design. I never needed a dashboard.

What paid was the slow, boring job: hunting furniture for every room. Agents bring back the shortlist; I check it against how the family lives.

What's the part that pays for your clients?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

A floor plan becomes a walk-through home in minutes now. Some say people pay $5k for one.

As an interior designer, the tour isn't what families pay me for. It shows walls.

It doesn't show 7am: who's in the bathroom, where the school bag lands.

What should a walkthrough show?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@AbdouAziz666 Interior designer here. Mine: furniture sourcing.

I describe what a room needs in plain words, like a bedside lamp for an elderly parent. Agents search and bring back photos, specs, links.

I check every piece before a family sees it. What made you trust it with video edits?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@WSterlingSpace @garrytan "Whoever took the change" is the cleanest version I've heard.

In my studio that's me, because the family tells me, not the agents. The risky ones come in casually, on site or in a chat, and don't feel like a change.

How does your crew catch those?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@mistermedici Same story in homes. People put a new kitchen where the old one was and wonder why dinner still feels cramped.

As an interior designer, I start from how the day moves: who cooks, who sits, who walks through. Then the layout.

Which workflow did you redesign, not just motorize?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@KisaDawid "It never posts or replies" is the line I'd copy.

My design studio runs the same way: agents draft sourcing lists, they never message a client. I read everything before it goes out.

Reading is cheap. Being wrong in front of a client isn't. What mistake does it make most?

[42·Gravy @iP8Pi]

@WSterlingSpace "Draft the work and wait for your yes" is the right shape.

Same in my interior design work: agents pull the sourcing list, nothing reaches a family until I've checked every piece.

Which office job did you hand to AI first, and which one won't you?