Dwell Apr-15

In the late 1920s, a wealthy family commissioned Le Corbusier to design a country house just outside Paris. In a letter to the architect, the homeowner detailed exactly what the family wanted, room by room, down to the square meter. The list is striking for the glimpse it offers of the priorities of an affluent family in the first half of the last century. Most fascinating is the stark wish list for the kitchen: “3 sockets supplying high-power current and 2 lights.” The house became the Villa Savoye, known now as Corbusier’s reinforced-concrete marvel. It’s hard to imagine such a basic list existing today, because our relationship to the kitchen has changed so completely. Le Corbusier’s wealthy clients weren’t going to use their kitchen; it was for their staff .…

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Posted to Facebook I like what was done with Bruce Norelius’s renovation of an A. Quincy Jones house in Crestwood Hills (“Beyond and Back,” February 2015). It brings up the question of renovation versus preservation, and I would suggest both have been honored. Steve Cox Posted to Facebook The Stack prefab building (Modern World, Dec/Jan 2015) is a perfect example of the future of construction. Prefab is efficient and saves time, plus there’s much less impact on the city and neighbors due to construction. Benjamin Lee Posted to Facebook Your recent issue on prefab (Dec/Jan 2015) left out Deltec Homes of Asheville, North Carolina. We built a 13-sided Deltec home in 1976 and lived in it for 25 years outside of Chapel Hill. It arrived on a single flat bed.…

@hufftprojects on Instagram For a behind-the-scenes look at how a modern design-build studio works, follow the Instagram of Hufft Projects, the Kansas City, Missouri, architecture firm that designed the house in our feature story “History Lesson” on p. 104. Follow our team around the modern world on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram! @dwellmagazine #MODERNMONDAY See a snapshot of our weekly modern design discussion on Twitter. @dwell asked: What are some easy ways to add personality into a space and make it your own? @dblhaims: Live in the space for a while. Pay attention to how you use it and what you leave in it. Then cultivate those things. @abernaujr: Find items that represent who you are and what you love. Bright personality? Use bright colors. @Remodelista: Assemble a collection: vintage midcentury…

April 2014 Tim Van de Velde A frequent Dwell contributor, Brussels-based photographer Tim Van de Velde trekked to Helsinki to capture the M-M House (Focus, p. 78). “Shooting the home was a treat,” he says. “The family was very warm and accommodating. Although it was Father’s Day in Finland, and they had a party to attend, they welcomed me fully. We had a great time photographing this open and creative home.” Sam Eichblatt Formerly a magazine editor in New Zealand and London, Sam Eichblatt moved to New York in 2012 to write about architecture, travel, and food for international publications, and work as contributing editor to HOME magazine of New Zealand. For “A Matter of Truss” (Modern World, p. 35), she revisited an old friend: Eichblatt and resident Nicole Stock…

PROJECT West Village Town House ARCHITECT Lubrano Ciavarra Architects, lcnyc.com LOCATION New York, New York Architects Anne Marie Lubrano and Lea Ciavarra are known for taking a restrained and thoughtful approach to the spaces they design. “Our attitude is that materials should be honest, resulting in a space that presents itself as simple, comprehensible, and ultimately soothing,” Lubrano says. And that was precisely what guided their transformation of a three story, 19th-century town house in Manhattan. The client, an investment banker and art collector, was first introduced to the firm’s work through the Howard Greenberg Gallery, a place she frequented and that Lubrano and Ciavarra revamped in 2002. “She loved the renovation, specifically the warmth of the materials and the lighting system,” Lubrano says. The client wanted an austere space…