Table of contents for January/February 2017 in Dwell

We are not afraid of change. To be challenged is the clearest opportunity for progress, for discovering design solutions that prevail over restrictions of budget, time, and material. Through the projects we feature, we present our vision for tomorrow— one that is, in the words of our founder, Lara Deam, distinctly optimistic. With this issue, we present a refreshed look and new narratives that seek a closer embrace of our community— the architects, designers, and enthusiasts who have been with us since day one. No longer do magazines present a one-way broadcast by controlling information and ideas. Today there is a conversation that is constantly unfolding, through online channels and face-to-face communication. It is this give-and-take that makes Dwell strong and relevant, because we are listening and we are conscious…

According to surf culture blog Indoek, a “shack” can take many forms, from a lean-to on the beach to an apartment in the city, but it’s essentially any place where wave-riders reside on terra firma. Surf Shacks, an upcoming book from Indoek, shows how pro and amateur surfers live when they’re not searching for swells. The book will be released by Gestalten in March.…

Shojis, employed as room dividers, window coverings, and doors, have long been popular for the way they filter light while still providing privacy. Their use in Japan dates back to the 12th century, but they weren’t widely introduced in the Western world until the mid-1850s. The quintessential shoji—it means “screen” in Japanese—is made of translucent paper and a single wood frame, bonded together with a rice-based glue. Miya Shoji, a store located in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood, started to produce handcrafted shojis in 1951, and today excels at making a contemporary double-sided version. When Hisao Hanafusa, the store’s current owner, arrived in America in 1963, it seemed to be his destiny to work there, since he had been taught woodworking in Kyoto. While he came to New York intending to…

Moving Mountains Jack and Ellen Corrigan had one cat, a load of oversize vintage synthesizers, and a music library of more than 10,000 records to consider when they decided to build a new home in Mill Valley, California. It was a long haul, but not a long distance, to the finished result: a two-story structure with a standing-seam metal roof, nestled along a cascading hillside where their previous house once stood, with views of Mount Tamalpais to the northwest. A member of the British electronic group Meat Beat Manifesto, Jack (also known by his stage name, Jack Dangers) had moved to Marin County in the early 1990s after meeting Ellen, who works in digital marketing, at a music festival in San Francisco. “I met Ellen there—and that was it, really,”…

Cover Christopher C. Deam Architecture cdeam.com Lounge chairs, planters, and pillows, all by Modern by Dwell Magazine home collection for Target target.com 23 Mean Mug Shapes mugs by Ian Anderson for AANDERSSON aandersson.net 36 Undivided Attention Miya Shoji miyashoji.com 42 Geological Formation Alan Nicolson Design Studio andesignstudio.com Hawkes Construction hawkesconstruction.com Rammed earth by Rammed Earth Builders rammedearthbuilders.com Structural engineering by Endrestudio endrestudio.com Civil engineering by PJC Associates pjcassociatesinc.com Landscaping by Lutsko Associates lutskoassociates.com Smith Concrete 707-391-4026 Standing-seam metal roof by Metal Sales metalsales.us.com Fixed glazing by Fort Bragg Glass and Mirror fbglassinc.com Operable glazing by Fleetwood fleetwoodusa.net Operable glazing by Solar Innovations solarinnovations.com Bed frame, residents’ own design 46 Smaller in Texas Barbara Hill Design barbarahilldesign.com Marginot Builders Marfa 432-386-2590 EasyCare paint in Ultra Premium White by TrueValue Paint truevaluepaint.com…

“ My designs are intended to have a universal appeal. The Shapes collection is a perfect example of this—they’re just forms, but they make the everyday experience of drinking a little more interesting.” Ian Anderson, designer Big news may call for a toast, but usually it demands caffeine first. Perhaps that’s why ceramicist Ian Anderson chose to do a line of mugs to celebrate his expansion into the European market and the launch of his online platform to solicit usergenerated design inspiration. “There are a lot of logistics in scaling up. It’s the ugly but necessary side of being a design brand,” says Anderson, who has personally overseen the creative and financial halves of his Philadelphia studio since 2013. Now he’s partnering with Moxon London to distribute Shapes, a new…

It’s been said that contemporary American design isn’t highly regarded in international circles. You are the first American to be tapped to create the annual conceptual installation “Das Haus” in Cologne, Germany. Why do you think they wanted an American? When they approached me, they said they were interested in seeing whether an American would have a different spin or different point of view than Europeans might have on the house. I thought, “Well maybe, maybe not. I don’t know.” I struggled, personally, with being American—I’m not sure what that really means, and I don’t know if any American really does. Maybe that’s being American, the struggle with that. I think being a New Yorker is very different from being from Kansas or being from Arizona. Everyone is so different.…

On a quiet, tree-lined street in Brookline, Massachusetts, a rectangular pale gray structure sits amid a row of wood-frame houses, many of them dating to the late 19th century. The boxy two-story dwelling is set back from the suburban block, its facade almost entirely opaque, save for a 40-foot-long expanse of glass that faces the street. Despite its stark modernity, the structure does not shock; its scale and colors are subdued. But the journey of the home’s conception and design—prefabricated in Madrid, Spain, sent overseas via shipping containers, and assembled on-site in just nine days—is wholly radical. Called the Cyclopean House, it’s at once a home and a portfolio piece for Anton Garcia-Abril, a professor at the School of Architecture and Planning at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, and…

Photographer Joe Fletcher Moving Mountains page 52 Oakland photographer Joe Fletcher has had his work featured in Wallpaper*, The New York Times, and System Magazine, as well as in the books Ranch Houses and Cape May, both published by Rizzoli. While photographing a Mill Valley residence designed by architect Chris Deam, he got to enjoy a sample of the homeowners’ vast record library. “They played some of their amazing, eclectic vinyl collection as we worked,” says Fletcher, who describes one album’s genre as something like “sounds of science fiction from the ’50s.” Photographer Brooke Shanesy Please Cincinnati page 70 Brooke Shanesy is an Ohio-based editorial and commercial photographer who specializes in documenting travel and people. For this issue, she captured upstart Cincinnati restaurateur Ryan Santos as he foraged and harvested…

Advances in technology are meant to make us more productive and efficient. But for some users, technology doesn’t just make life more convenient; it changes the game entirely. By focusing on the individual’s abilities, specially devised devices as well as familiar apps are helping break down the physical, social, and attitudinal barriers that have traditionally made access to state-of-the-art tools an insurmountable challenge. Here are some innovative solutions designed to leave no one behind. THINK OUT LOUD WHO: People with autism, cerebral palsy, ALS, and other verbal communication challenges WHAT: The Smartstones team is developing a groundbreaking way to give a voice to those unable to speak by connecting the company’s :prose mobile app to EMOTIV’s wireless EEG headset or a handheld sensory device to translate movements and brain waves…

Lucienne Day, born in Surrey in 1917, was one of the leading lights of modern design in postwar England. Though she could easily have been mistaken for a 1950s homemaker, Lucienne was anything but. A groundbreaking textile designer, she created sunny yet sophisticated prints for the masses, becoming a household name in the process. Her breakthrough pattern was Calyx, a plant-inspired design shown at the Festival of Britain in 1951. A huge success, it led to a decades-long partnership with Heal Fabrics. But Day was prolific in other areas as well, including wallpaper, carpets, ceramics, and silk mosaics. Though sometimes referred to as the Eameses of the UK, Lucienne and her husband, furniture designer Robin Day, pursued separate careers and collaborated only a handful of times, notably on aircraft interiors…

Building a house often leads down unexpected roads, but the challenges architect Louis Cherry and Marsha Gordon faced were more unpredictable than most. Both say the design and construction phases paled in comparison to a different challenge: the legal battle to prevent the teardown of their new home. The couple started collaborating on the house in 2012, when they began scouring the historic Oakwood district of Raleigh, North Carolina, for a buildable site. “We were very lucky to find a very tiny lot that was empty, in the perfect neighborhood in proximity to downtown,” says Marsha, an associate film professor at North Carolina State University. “Our goal was to build a just-right house—no bigger than it needed to be—and walk or ride bikes to downtown Raleigh in ten minutes.” The…

Robotic furniture sounds less far-fetched when Yves Béhar and the MIT Media Lab are involved. These high-profile ties are what make Ori, a series of selfrearranging units for living, working, and sleeping, possible. Using architectural robotic technology born at MIT, each motorized Ori unit, designed by Béhar and his firm Fuseproject, can unpack furniture or glide on tracks across a room with the touch of a button. Test units are already installed in microhousing developments in Boston, and Ori’s founder, research scientist Hasier Larrea, says a wider launch is slated for mid-2017.…