Índex per January/February 2026 a Dwell

Design defines the phases of our lives. What your home looks like and what you need it to do have likely varied—or they will—in your 20s, 50s, 80s, and (with any luck) beyond. For our first issue of the year, we decided to focus on how different homes accommodate and reinforce the priorities (and particularities) of their residents at any given moment in their lives. We start with childhood and new design-focused toys, games, art supplies, and more (p. 19). They might represent things that architecture-oriented parents would gravitate toward, but we also wanted to know what kids really thought of some of our favorites, so we paired children ages 1 to 10 with age-appropriate products and asked them for their reviews. Their comments were candid. (Though, in another piece,…

In June of last year, as my daughter was starting to dabble with the concept of walking, I spotted a plastic activity walker sitting on the street a block from our house. I took it home, wiped it down with disinfectant, and placed it in front of her; immediately taken with the beeps and boops the object makes, she delighted in being propped up to stand with it, eventually graduating to getting herself up and moving with it on her own. That is until, at the prompting of our pediatrician, who mentioned that sometimes children get reliant on them, my partner and I took it away, and she swiftly started walking entirely unassisted, a moment as simply joyous as we get in this life. Until I saw the walker, it…

On a quiet Friday last October, British singer Lily Allen released West End Girl, a surprise album that documents the breakdown of her marriage in petty and exacting detail. Allen is married to David Harbour, the actor known to some as the sheriff from Stranger Things and, maybe, more well known to others as the subject of two Architectural Digest home tours. The first, shot in 2019, features Harbour as the consummate bachelor. His New York apartment, located in Nolita, is a light-filled space that’s both cozy and expansive. The hallway is lined with bookshelves, the kitchen is airy and inviting, and the space is furnished with plants and tasteful Danish-inspired furniture—the platonic ideal of a bachelor pad for a man about town with few if any obligations and little specific…

Photographer Will Pippin grew up in the United States, where, in response to an increasingly unaffordable housing market, intergenerational households and co-ownership by family members or friends have recently become hot topics. But for Pippin, a childhood spent visiting his mother’s cousins and their children in Trapani, Sicily, gave him a window into a shared living setup that’s more rooted in cultural and familial traditions than financial solutions. Living with two generations—three sisters; in total 11 adults and children—in three units in one apartment building and another sister and her two children just down the street near their family-run bakery, Pippin’s cousins were raised in an arrangement that resembled a multigenerational household more than a nuclear one. “They’re comfortable in each place,” Pippin says. “It’s like one big house, but still…

When I was in fourth grade, my family moved to a remote town in Oregon called Joseph, where my dad spent summers growing up. He wanted to go back to rural living and get away from his desk job. My siblings and I always joked that we were like the Swiss Family Robinson, but in the mountains. When winter came it was cold as hell, and we only had a woodstove for heat. Every year, we would go out in my dad’s beat-up 1950s truck to cut wood for the season. That first year, I distinctly remember the day my dad brought home this chainsaw. It was bright red and shiny, and I realized how proud he was. He used it to cut wood, but over time, the chainsaw became…

Suzanne LaGasa Curator “Child’s Play,” p. 19 As a graphic designer and Dwell’s former creative director, Suzanne LaGasa now brings “design-thinking” to elementary age children via ProtoToto, her design lab in the Gowanus area of Brooklyn. “It’s basically a design studio for kids,” says LaGasa, who came up with the idea after seeing the dearth of such programs for her daughter. “Kids, in general, get introduced to design in middle school,” she says. “But I really think that they can handle the concepts much sooner.” For this issue’s Modern World section, LaGasa curated a selection of design-forward products for children, including classics and new items, all of which focus on creativity, making, and engaging the imagination. Jinyoung Lim Writer “Urban Oasis,” p. 66 As a journalist, Jinyoung Lim has covered…

If you’re a parent who cares about beautiful design, you likely want your child to grow up surrounded by thoughtfully made items. So we’re exploring a group of new attractive (and educational) toys—all handpicked by our editors—that are respectively age appropriate for the baby, toddler, and gradeschooler sets. We also handed selected products to actual kids to see how they took to the playthings. Children, as ever, have strong opinions on just about everything.…

“Small and looks cooler [than my other camera] and is modern.” Lana is the daughter of Dwell’s former creative director and guest editor of this section, Suzanne LaGasa, so “toys that evoke creativity or some sort of interactive play or make” take priority, explains Suzanne. Children’s products also make the cut if there’s “a novelty aspect that is kind of compelling,” she adds. Suzanne had heard about Copic, a Japanese marker brand, from another parent and was intrigued by its opaqueness. For Lana, the review was mixed: “I like them, but for certain projects. They’re not my favorite markers,” she says, citing the ink’s tendency to run out quickly, and she wishes they blended better. “You have to shake them a lot. It doesn’t have a variety of colors. That’s…

The Kasabalis family has deep roots on Zakynthos, one of the largest Greek islands in the Ionian Sea. They’ve lived there for generations, and many of them still live near the land that’s been in the family’s hands for over a century. Katie Kasabalis left Greece in 2005 to study architecture in the United States, but she found her way back after she moved to London in 2019 with her husband, Darius Woo, with whom she founded the design studio Kasawoo. Now just a short flight from Zakynthos, the couple realized having their own place on the family property might help make the most of their summer visits to the island. They planned to update a 1950s house that Katie’s grandmother had lived in before she moved out in the…

On a crisp winter morning, the sun rises in the vibrant blue sky, casting its warmth across Jaime Romano and Roberta Jurado’s home in a secluded valley of almond trees in northern Ibiza. Set near the village of Santa Inés, far removed from the island’s party scene, the residence has a rough stone and plaster facade, punctuated by a brise-soleil, that blends seamlessly with the lush greenery bursting from pergolas and terraces. Roberta and Jaime—an interior designer and an architect, respectively—met in Ibiza in 2001 after living nomadic lifestyles spanning Switzerland, mainland Spain, Ecuador, Paris, Rome, and Miami. They have collaborated professionally since 2005—both through Jaime’s firm, Romano Arquitectos, and the studio they cofounded, Box 3 Interiors. “Roberta and I have almost opposite personalities, and from that friction arises a…

“The before pictures are quite dreary,” Eddie Krumins says of the apartment he shares with his mother, Solveiga. That might be hard to believe, given how notdreary their home is today, covered in color and patterns: bright orange furniture popping against a matte-black floor; floral pink wallpaper wrapping two walls. But as the Kruminses’ former neighbor, I know how long they’ve been working to make their place into what it is today and how hard-won is the sense of joy pervading their home. About a year ago, Eddie and Solveiga moved into Penn South, a massive affordable housing complex of high-rise brick buildings in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood that opened in 1962. The two have had peripatetic lives, thanks partially to Eddie’s late father, who worked for the U.S.…

“There is something satisfying about toys that can be put back in an organized way.”—Kate Dries “I generally let other people get toys for Frankie because it’s easy to purchase,” says Dwell executive editor Kate Dries, mother of 19-month-old Frankie. But Kate always appreciates when the gifted toys are well designed since “you end up being the one who has to clean up at this stage,” she says. “There is something satisfying about toys that can be put back in an organized way.” One such item is the Grimm’s Romanesque building block set, which arrives neatly arranged in a rainbowish gradient in its own wooden square tray. (“I have this itch to put it back every night the way that it was set up,” says Kate.) When the blocks are…

Not far from Gwanghwamun Square in central Seoul, a winding road climbs a forested hillside until it ends in a cul-desac at the top. The hum of traffic vanishes on the 10-minute drive, replaced by the songs of birds as we enter the neighborhood of Buam-dong. From here, high on Mount Inwang, you can see the ridges of Mounts Bugak and Bukhan unfold, their slopes dotted with modest houses. “My friends can’t believe it when I say I live in the mountains, right in the middle of the city,” says artist Jinnie Seo with a laugh. “When it snows heavily, we’re completely cut off.” What others might see as an inconvenient, isolated site feels like the perfect retreat for Jinnie and her husband, architect Wook Choi. The first thing that caught…

42 Two If by Sea Kasawoo kasawoo.com Eco Tiny House ecotiny.house Tiny Homes Greece tinyhomes.gr 42 Chairs, side tables, and lounge chairs from Kave Home kavehome.com 43 Mattress from Cocomat coco-mat.com; candle from Waks wakscandles.com; lamp and clay pots from Kave Home; curtain from London Fabric Company londonfabriccompany.com; curtain pegs from Kvadrat kvadrat.dk; prints by Heath Robinson 44 Cushions from The Conran Shop theconranshop.com; pot from Our Place fromourplace.co.uk; salt and pepper grinder, water glasses, jug, and tea pot from Kave Home; plates, bowls, mugs, espresso cups, and lemon juicer from Trabala Studio instagram.com/trabalastudio; bathroom tap ware from ABI Interiors abiinteriors.co.uk; rinse cup and toothbrushes from Muji uk.muji.eu 46 Parent Approved Vinci Hamp Architects vinci-hamp.com 47 Nelson Saucer Bubble pendant, Nelson X-Leg table for Herman Miller, and Eames Molded Plastic…