Dwell July/August 2020

There is a protest happening on the street where I live, in Brooklyn, as I write this. Just as there have been protests daily for weeks here and in cities around the country and around the world. We’ve seen this before. Somewhere in the United States, the police murder a black person or another person of color with impunity. We demand justice and an end to the systemic racism that underlies the event and so many before it. Then, the tragedy repeats itself. But this time feels different. The outrage has led to calls, seemingly much more widespread than before, for municipalities to redistribute resources away from adversarial and violent policing and into efforts that benefit our communities. The rising tide of people demanding a fundamental reimagining of what it…

“I normally don’t like lots of concrete, but it just works here. The sculptural quality reminds me of early brutalism.” —P. Cornichon via Dwell.com Feedback The most recent Editor’s Letter [“New Normals,” May/June] was beautifully written, and you obviously covered all the bases of the people fighting the coronavirus—the doctors, nurses, and essential workers—but there are also many people who have lost their businesses, jobs, and restaurants. Small-business owners like myself are so vulnerable, and it would be helpful to see some sort of “thoughts” about our situation in the media that we love so much. This economic fallout will have a huge impact on architecture and design for years to come. JENNIFER MACFARLANE, NEW YORK CITY I loved the article about Emmanuel Pratt and the concept behind his urban…

A DIY Extraordinaire’s Svelte Home on Wheels Even as a child, Mariah Hoffman knew that someday she’d build her own dream home. That someday arrived when the self-taught designer/builder turned 23 and began crafting her 156-square-foot tiny house in San Diego. The process would span five years, as she funded its $12,384 budget from paycheck to paycheck. Visit Dwell.com to see how she pulled it off. 1. Shou Sugi Ban Mariah treated the plywood exterior with a Japanese charring technique that made the wood weatherproof and gave it a dramatic charcoal black finish. 2. Self-Starter “I have a full-time job, so I mostly built on weekends, at night, and in any spare moment,” says Mariah. “Occasionally I recruited friends.” 3. Everything in Place Tucking storage above and below the bed—and…

The Marimekko comforter I got when I was 10. @lisasloanie My parents’ salmon pink accent wall in the living room. @soto_ch Age six, in the passenger seat of my dad’s car, watching a green Austin Healey pull up beside us. @janicehillinger Visiting Fallingwater as a child. @krseff Seeing Dad work at his drawing board when commercial artists were a thing, circa 1993. @eddcoomber My dollhouse! I didn’t care for dolls. It was all about the interior and exterior. @ondreyek Kapla building blocks. @eliashorat Rushing to the mailbox as a little girl to get my mother’s decorating magazines before her. @sharonfeldersm My dad got me my own hammer on my fifth birthday. I made a very wobbly table and chair. @indiagiudici Being struck by photos of Luis Barragán’s Mexico City house…

“The apartment put me on the path to what I’m doing for a living now, which is so cool.”Nolan Beck-Rivera, designer and resident Nolan Beck-Rivera was ready to move on. The Cleveland loft he had rented since finishing art school had tons of space, but he was tired of its chilly drafts and persistent leaks. After a friend shared plans for a two-story, renovated factory-turned-apartment building in Asiatown, Nolan was quick to put down a deposit on a 570-square-foot studio. The suggested layout, however, needed adjusting. “The architects had shown a tiny, two-top table in a corner,” says Nolan. “That wasn’t going to work for me, because I love cooking and throwing big dinner parties.” His solution was to forgo a living room altogether and use the open space as…

PORTLAND, OREGON The first thing I do for a kitchen remodel is give clients my remodel form. It’s a document of about five pages that asks them questions like, “Are you right- or left-handed?” “What’s your food shopping pattern like?” “How many people are in the kitchen at a certain time?” “When during the day is the space used the most?” Their answers help me organize at the onset their priorities and criteria. I think there’s a lot of opportunity to do things that are unique in the kitchen, even for a simple refresh. Paint is always going to be the least expensive way to make a big impact, but I’d also suggest wallpapering the ceiling. Think about the fixtures on your ceiling and add a paper that complements them…