All posts from Articles Feed - Dwell

by Miyoko OhtakeIn celebration of our tenth anniversary, we tracked down the residents of 15 of the 19 homes we featured in Dwell’s first year to find out who’s stayed put, who’s moved on, and how their modern houses have fared.

by Tiffany ChuAs promised, here is the second part of our grand tour through the national pavilions at the 2010 Venice Biennale. Sejima forecasted well - the strongest crowd-pleasers were not the ones that displayed a rote show-and-tell gallery of their country's own pride-and-joy architects, but of single, strong concepts manifested in forms that interacted with the visitor. For those who might not have made it to Venice, we invite you to peruse and meet the architecture for yourself.

by Mason RiddleIn a South Minneapolis neighborhood of century-old housing stock, Julie Snow’s bold but elegant residential design fulfilled Andrew Blauvelt and Scott Winter’s desire for a loft on the ground.

by Jordan Kushins“Form follows function” has been the go-to paradigm for evaluating good design since American architect Louis Sullivan articulated the idea more than a century ago. For Murray Moss, a former actor and fashion executive who opened his eponymous design shop in New York’s SoHo district in 1994, industrial objects are far more than merely the sum of those parts. “My job is to illuminate someone else’s ideas,” Moss says. Visitors to his carefully curated store-cum-gallery can view one-of-a-kind conceptual commissions alongside traditional crafts and a selection of mass produced pieces. By incorporating the narrative of theater and the drama of couture, he has assumed the role of arbiter, shining a spotlight on modern design’s growing imperative to both show and tell.

by Amanda DameronToo much time has passed since we last checked in with mid-century furniture aficianado Sam Kaufman, whose diminutive gallery on Beverly Boulevard is always stocked with the most wonderful things. Here he shares hia considerable knowledge to give us a bit of back story to a few of his most recent acquisitions.

by Jaime GrossLast weekend I spent a night at the new H2Hotel, the sister property of Hotel Healdsburg, which is one of my favorite places to stay in Sonoma County. Conceived as a younger, hipper, more affordable property—a sparse but much-needed category in wine country—the hotel is bright, airy, and eco-minded: woods are salvaged or sustainably harvested, the roof is 'living,' and an underground cistern collects and processes rainwater and runoff. Designed by David Baker + Partners, with interior design by Marie Fisher, the hotel is aiming for a LEED gold certification. All photographs by Zubin Shroff.

by Amanda DameronThis is a good one, people. Today we present a ridiculous amount of eye candy by way of Flickr, journal scribblings, and of course, general Internet meanderings.

by Miyoko OhtakeSuzanne Shelton’s life work is making sustainable lifestyles attractive and accessible. She’s the CEO of the Shelton Group, a marketing company she founded in 1991 that works exclusively with environmentally focused clients. But in 2009, when she built an off-the-grid lakefront pavilion in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, she found taking her own advice wasn’t so simple.

by Jaime GrossI finally got my hands on a copy of contributing editor Marc Kristal's lush new book, Re:Crafted: Interpretations of Craft in Contemporary Architecture and Interiors, which was published by the Monacelli Press this past spring. The twenty-five projects he profiles are eclectic—an over-the-top villa for a Chinese industrialist; a graphic 'outdoor room' in a San Francisco backyard; a glacier-inspired arts complex in Oslo—but they all share a modern, expanded (and sometimes exploded) sense of 'craft,' and they've all been built in the past decade.

Kristal acknowledges that the notion of 'craft' is rather hard to pin down: "It may seem easily discernible. But the more you see—the more you realize how many forms it takes, and how imaginatively it can be interpreted—the more resistant craft becomes to easy explanation," he says. This book is his attempt to "encourage a more flexible understanding of the craft influence and how it can be used to enrich the whole of the built environment."

by Tiffany ChuThe concept of each country showing their best colors at the Venice Biennale began from 1895, in the same spirit of nationalism (or chauvinism) of the World's Fair. This year, proceeding straight ahead from the Giardini entrance, we take you on part one of a tour through the best of the national pavilions.

by Amanda DameronIt requires a long and dusty trek across the Chihuahuan desert in order to reach Marfa,Texas. Situated 200 miles from El Paso, Marfa is a little burg in west Texas with a population of 2,200 and a thriving community culture steeped in modern art and architecture. I traveled there to meet with the inimitable designer Barbara Hill, whose Marfa residence, a renovated turn-of-the-century dance hall, will be featured in an upcoming issue of Dwell. She squired me around, showed me the sights and introduced me to one of the most unique and vibrant arts communities I have ever seen. While I only had two days, admittedly not nearly enough time, I managed to capture a few shots.

by Amanda DameronThis was a tough one! After much deliberation, our judges are excited to announce grand-prize winner of the Coolcapitals Cool Case competition.