The Other Way

Winter and you want someone to lie around with. Not forever, just warm company on the couch while you both watch TV, no need to be interesting. It’s the thought everyone has in February.

A couple of designers in Berlin started a dating project that photographs singles at home and posts them online. No filters, no algorithm, no endless scroll. You see Sara from Prenzlauer Berg and know she likes pillow fights. You see Karl from Friedrichshain and learn he inexplicably loves alpacas. You see Luisa from Kreuzberg drinking vodka with olives and that’s the complete picture. Either you want it or you don’t. No swipes, no optimized matching, no promise that someone better is one click away.

Everything about dating apps is designed to keep you browsing and comparing. This project is the opposite—specific, limited, human. Just people in their actual apartments instead of curated profiles. That’s the whole appeal, really. You know what you’re getting into because you’re looking at how the person actually lives.

I don’t know if it matters much in the grand scheme of things, but there’s something right about it. Honesty over optimization. Specificity over infinite choice. Small feels like the better answer these days.