Living With Intelligence: A New Model for the Domestic World
Home matters more than ever. Home is where we raise our families, celebrate life’s milestones, rest after long days, and find a sense of identity and belonging. It’s also where many of us spend the majority of our time—and money. Yet despite its central role in our lives, managing a home is often harder than it should be. Whether you’re planning a move, decorating a nursery, fixing a leaky pipe, or caring for aging parents, it can feel like you’re navigating a maze without a map. We believe it’s time for something better: a way to bring more intelligence, ease, and meaning into the way we live. That’s why we’re building the Large World Model for Domestic Life.
As someone who has spent a career in architecture and design, I’ve seen how difficult it is for existing systems to truly support our habits and habitat. Most people don’t struggle because they lack taste, effort, or care—they struggle because the systems around the home are broken. You might spend hours researching furniture that doesn’t fit your space, coordinating schedules with contractors who don’t show up, or searching for trusted help when something breaks. The tools we use—apps, websites, showrooms, spreadsheets—don’t talk to each other. Every decision requires starting from scratch. And no one really knows what’s going on in your home, your life, or your mind. That means more stress, more waste, and more lost time.
Although many barriers exist to developing a new platform, I honestly believe that a better way exists. I would like you to imagine a world where your home could help take care of you. While smart thermostats and the latest gadgets will certainly play their part, we imagine a system that is more grounded in one’s actual lived experience and thus able to provide real support. Such a system would understand your taste, remember your space, and help you make better decisions about what to buy, who to hire, and how to plan for what’s next. Instead of managing your home alone, we envision a lifelong partner guiding you from your first rental to passing on your legacy to the next generation. This is the future we are building.
In order to bring about this future, we have to do more than build an app grounded in the current logic of user experience, data storage, social networking, and advertising driven commerce. We have to invest in the underlying technology that will power the intelligence necessary to provide guidance while also capitalizing on the evolution of user experience grounded in natural language interface. It is for this reason that we believe our first take is to go beyond the current generation of large language models and invest in a Large World Model. Such a model would be a digital system designed to understand the physical world. It would be a smart, adaptive assistant for your home. It helps you dream, plan, design, furnish, renovate, maintain, and pass down your space—whether you’re starting fresh or years into your journey. It sees what your space looks like through photos and scans. It listens to what you want and why. It remembers your style and your life transitions. It offers suggestions, connects you to the right people, and helps you track what matters. And it gets better the more you use it.
Ultimately, the goal is to make real life easier. It should not become another distraction tied to what we believe is an outdated version of the attention economy. Instead, it should support situations such as the following:
You just bought a house. The system helps you plan layouts, pick furniture that fits your style and budget, and coordinate deliveries—all in one place.
You’re caring for aging parents. It helps plan a renovation to make their home safer and easier to manage.
You’re moving across the country. It connects you with movers, real estate agents, utility providers, and even helps set up your new space.
You want to throw a big family gathering. It reminds you of what’s needed, helps schedule service providers, and tracks everything from seating to lighting.
Whatever the situation, the model helps break big tasks into manageable steps, connects you with trusted goods and service providers, keeps track as your project unfolds, and then documents the results. Most importantly, it is ready to support you with the next task and remembers everything each time you return.
Beyond being a tool that helps you plan, execute, and maintain your habitat, it is a means of providing connection. It does so by taking the home as a focal point for family, friends, neighbors, designers and service providers, and even those who might one day be interested in buying things you no longer wish to own. In this sense, we see OurThings as ultimately being about connection. Beyond connecting you to the right thing based on your style and a trusted service provider, we hope to connect you with people who share your values, have been through similar transitions, or can offer helpful insight. It’s a place where your home’s story is honored, where your style is recognized, and where your future is supported. Moreover, it's a place where you can begin a journey that might take you beyond your current interests as you discover new designers, historic homes, extraordinary artworks, and inspiring destinations. In the process, we hope that you will meet others engaged in this journey of discovery who also hope to cultivate a more thoughtful, beautiful, and lasting domestic life.
In planning and designing this platform, it was essential to us that it be so easy to use, it almost feels like it is running in the background. With this in mind, the natural language interface lies at the core of the platform. You interact with the platform like you would with a trusted advisor. You can upload photos, describe your goals, ask questions in plain language, and explore recommendations. The natural language interface is complimented by a visual timeline where you can see your plans unfold, test ideas in simulations, and track progress as things get done. It’s a mix of personal planner, interior stylist, and project manager—all rolled into one, and tailored to your space and your life. Finally, these two features are completed by the digital twin of your home that serves as an archive, catalogue, and home management tool. You can navigate your space, see its past and present state, move between rooms, and zoom across scales. You can even enter the digital versions of your friends homes, historic homes, and cultural spaces.
Ultimately, these functions combine to form a seamless experience that allows you to move back and forth between as you set goals and meet milestones. As this occurs, the platform evolves with you. It learns who you are and remembers what matters to you. It adapts as your life changes, helping you stay ahead of transitions. It saves you time and stress by integrating what used to be scattered. And it guides you, not just with suggestions, but through action. As a result, it becomes a growing system of intelligence, designed to serve your home across time.
For this platform to be truly impactful, we felt that it must be free to use. Moveover, we felt that it could not rely on what we believe is an outdated advertising revenue model that thrives on diverting our attention from the real world in which we live. As a result, our revenue model is inspired by the world of interior design and high end furniture. We take a small percent commission on the goods and services purchased via the platform. This commission does not impact the price a member pays and instead is taken from the gap between wholesale and retail price that can sometimes be as much as 50%. This model allows us to deliver all the features we have discussed to our members free forever–albeit with some data and computational limitations.
For those who want a premium experience–of just those who make extensive use of the platform–we will offer a membership for $14/month. This allows for unlimited data storage and large world model computations. It also includes exclusive access to brands, designers, events, and historic spaces as well as access to an exclusive retail experience we plan on building that includes staging for furniture projects, immersive shopping across brands, and social spaces. Both the free and premium versions will provide significant utility on projects ranging from finding a new chair to downsizing parents and passing on a legacy. Members will save time, reduce costs, and make better decisions while nurturing their evolving personal style and building value as they achieve goals. Most importantly, they will have a tool that reduces uncertainty and enhances trust so that owning, operating, and maintaining one’s most valuable asset is less stressful and more joyful.
We would love for you to join us on this journey. And we believe now is the ideal time. The way we live is changing. Families are spread out. Time is short. Resources are tight. And yet, we all still want a beautiful, safe, and meaningful home. We hope to build the tools to help make that dream easier to reach—for you, and for the people you love. Whether you’re just beginning your journey or already deep into it, we invite you to be part of this transformation. Because home is not just a place. It’s a lifelong project—and it’s time it came with help that’s built to last.
