For architect Francisco Arredondo, principal of North Arrow Studio, there are two types of clients: those who think they know what they want, and those who know what they want. “We like working with the ones that know,” he says. One such was Aditi, who was living in an early-2000s spec house in South Austin. Just Arredondo’s type, she came to him for a renovation with a number of specific goals and decisive design inspiration.

Before: Exterior

After renting the home for a few years, Aditi fell in love with the neighborhood’s walkability and character, but the house itself left much to be desired. “It didn’t quite fit her lifestyle or the things she values in a home,” Arredondo says. So what did she value, exactly? A connection between interior and exterior spaces, a facade that makes a home relatable to its neighborhood, and plenty of natural light while maintaining privacy. 

Aesthetically, Aditi was drawn to the warmth, sophistication, and restrained minimalism of Belgian design—”particularly the work of Axel Vervoordt, Dieter Vander Velpen, and Marie Lecluyse,” she says—which she felt would give her home an overarching European sensibility.

After: Exterior

Getting the exteriors right was important to Arredondo, too. “We didn’t want to make a big statement,” he says. “It’s very important to us that our work, whether it be new construction or a remodel, fits within the neighborhood.” Whereas before the Austin home had vertical siding in a dull color, now it’s clad in yakisugi, a charred-wood finish that, in tandem with new large windows and doors, makes the exterior feel quiet, warm, and modern.

Before: Kitchen

• In 2021, designer and wheelchair user Haraldur “Halli” Thorleifsson launched Ramp Up Iceland—an accessibility project that builds free wheelchair ramps—after a single step blocked him from entering a store. Four years and 1,756 ramps later, the project is expanding to Paris and Ukraine with Thorleifsson’s message to cities everywhere: “There’s no excuse, just do it.” (Fast Company)
• Rocket Co. is dropping more than $9 billion to control every step of homebuying, from browsing on Redfin to getting a mortgage and servicing it through Mr. Cooper. Here’s how it could change how we buy homes, for better or worse. (Barron’s)

• The Tadao Ando beach house Kanye West bought for $57 million before bizarrely gutting it—he stripped windows, plumbing, and even a roof—recently went back on the market for $39 million. The Malibu property, which was mid-renovation when it listed, found another buyer earlier this week. They now face recovering it from the ashes of L.A.’s fires—and West’s dubious design choices. (Curbed)

• Los Angeles recently approved Adaptive Reuse Ordinance 2.0, an ambitious plan to tackle the housing crisis by turning vacant offices and underused buildings into residential spaces. (ArchDaily)  

• Dr. Lucy Jones warns that climate-fueled wildfires are now a greater threat to L.A. than earthquakes. With weak enforcement of building codes, the city is dangerously unprepared, she says. Here’s why she thinks residents shouldn’t rely on government action to prepare the next fire. (Dwell)

Top image courtesy of The Oppenheim Group/Roger Davies

A 1936 advertisement for the New York City Housing Authority depicts the clamor of city life: a jumble of line drawings depict a leaping alley cat, trash can, train, and fire escape. Bold text in a quintessential Art Deco font plastered diagonally across the image reads, “Must we always have this? Why not HOUSING?,” addressing both the energy and desperation of urban life in 1930s America. Funded by the Works Progress Administration, the ad was of a time when the federal government created massive public works projects across America to uplift the poor during the Great Depression.

Though that era is now long over, the ad still feels relevant. We’ve reached a record high of unhoused people across the country: new housing construction is slow, rent costs burden more than 50 percent of Americans, and building housing is only getting more expensive. We may have driverless taxis coasting through cities and technology that delivers anything you desire in a matter of hours…but why not housing, indeed?

The advertisement is one of many artifacts on display at the new National Public Housing Museum (NPHM) in Chicago, the country’s only museum devoted to U.S. public housing, which opens April 4. Unlike other types of history museums which seek to keep the past alive, the NPHM is in a unique position because public housing itself isn’t, technically, extinct. People still inhabit public housing developments constructed across the country after the U.S. Congress committed to building public housing in the National Housing Acts of 1935 and 1937. As such, the NPHM is doing something a bit different. They’re not preserving objects and artifacts to encase public housing in amber; instead, the space squarely seeks to reinvigorate our interest in collective well-being by tackling public housing’s dominant narrative—one of crime, poverty, and eventual destruction—head on.

Located in Chicago’s Little Italy neighborhood, the NPHM is housed in the remaining structure that was once part of the Jane Addams Homes—a 1937 low-rise public housing development that was mostly demolished beginning in 2002. According to NPHM executive director Lisa Lee, the building itself is the museum’s biggest artifact, saved by a group of former public housing residents when the City of Chicago embarked on its 1999 Plan for Transformation that got rid of 18,000 public housing units and displaced more than 16,000 people. At that point, it had been the largest net loss of affordable housing in the entire United States, says Lee.

As a part of our 25th-anniversary celebration, we’re republishing formative magazine stories from before our website launched. This story previously appeared in Dwell’s July/August 2006 issue.

“In science fiction we dig out prophetic information regarding geodesic nets, pneumatic tubes and plastic domes and bubbles….Our document is the space comic; its reality is in the gesture, design and natural styling of hardware new to our decade-the capsule, the rocket, the bathyscope, the Zidpark, the handy-pak.”

These words, excerpted from editorials in Archigram 3 and 4 (1963 and 1964) and penned by Peter Cook, cofounder of the new defunct London-based architecture collective Archigram, express the excitement of a period beginning is the early ’60s when renegade architects around the globe questioned the very fundamentals of architecture, from its relationship to society to the production of buildings.

Influenced by the roiling movements in art, media, politics, and technology, they had names and group identities that bring to mind rock bands rather than architecture firms: the Metabolics, Superstudio, Ant Farm, and Archizoom. Instead of designing buildings, they more often created fantasy utopias, entire cityscapes on paper that were never built but which excited an entire generation and encouraged a wholesale reevaluation of the built environment.

In different ways and through different media—from gonzo graphics to film to performance art—many of them explored the impact of new materials, production processes, and the mobile lifestyle promised by the auto and aeronautical industries and information technology. “All of them were dealing with different modes of communicating architecture,” says David Erdman, cofounder of the design collaborative Servo. “And they were developing new languages of architecture that dealt with the new things it contained.”

Analyzing and critiquing the pervasive corporate modernism and overly rationalist urban planning of that period, these architectural outcasts seized on irony and wit to make their point. “This was a breakthrough moment when the explosion of new materials and radical lifestyles were driving a vision of architecture that was vaguely nomadic and not oriented toward the acquisition of possessions,” explains Craig Hodgetts, architect, professor of architecture, and longtime friend of the Ant Farm group. “The ideal was not the luxury bath we see today but the airplane bathroom.”

These collectives “introduced whimsy and subjectivity and insolence and irony back into architecture,” says Stephen Nowlin, director of the Williamson Gallery at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. “At the time it was almost sacrilegious that they would do this. But that constructive insolence is one of the most important things you can teach in a design school.” In recent years there’s been a renewed interest in these counter movements with numerous traveling exhibits and academics doing weighty scholarship on their work.

The most influential and productive collective was Archigram, the eldest of the renegade groups. Its members (Peter Cook, Warren Chalk, Dennis Crompton, David Greene, Ron Herron, and Mike Webb) created an astonishing 900 drawings of pen-and-ink and collaged images between 1961 and 1974. The six met in the late ’5os while holding down day jobs at a large construction firm in London. Their nights, however, were spent feverishly drawing imaginary, mobile, temporary environments with electronic age names like the Capsule Home, the Plug-in City, and the Walking City, a megastructure that could plod across the land like a vast robotic animal.

They published their projects, along with essays and poems and the work of other designers they considered to be coconspirators against the establishment, in nine issues of an underground magazine they collaged together called Archigram, first published in May 1961.

Location: 53590 Jeffery Pine Road, Idyllwild, California

Price: $995,000

Year Built: 1980

Architect: Dennis McGuire

Footprint: 1,429 square feet (3 bedrooms, 2 baths)

Lot Size: 0.57 Acres

From the Agent: “Walk up a winding path of rock steps to experience this architectural gem, designed by Dennis McGuire. It organically rises out of the hillside in company with massive granite boulders, tall pines, cedars, colorful oaks, and Japanese maples. Many decks throughout the property offer sitting places to enjoy morning coffee with the birds, a good book, a conversation with a friend, or time alone breathing in the mountain air. The interior is an airy two-bedroom, one-bath  floor plan, with towering ceilings and wood beams throughout. An art studio and a workshop offer space for creative projects of all sorts. Outside, meandering trails and bridges lead to a guest suite designed by the owner with an architectural nod to Corbusier, Eames—and, of course, Thoreau too in its elegant simplicity. The home is nestled in the beautiful Cedar Glen neighborhood, and just outside the door are many forest hikes and the popular Deer Springs Trailhead where adventure awaits.”

Welcome to Prefab Profiles, an ongoing series of interviews with people transforming how we build houses. From prefab tiny houses and modular cabin kits to entire homes ready to ship, their projects represent some of the best ideas in the industry. Do you know a prefab brand that should be on our radar? Get in touch!

Founded in 2015 by CEO Duy Huynh, office furniture company Autonomous took its first foray into smart, tech-enabled designs with the launch of a standing desk on Kickstarter. From there, the company’s offerings expanded to include everything a remote or hybrid worker needs to run a well-equipped work-from-home operation, from ergonomic chairs, to 3D-printed slides, to AI supercomputers. More recently, Autonomous introduced an entire workspace, a plug-and-play backyard office called the WorkPod.

Here, company product manager Brody Slade explains more about the new prefab office and what sets it apart from other workspaces you could put in your backyard.

What does your base model cost and what does that pricing include?

The base model WorkPod is priced at $18,900, offering a gross floor area of 102 square feet. This includes a modular, eco-conscious design, delivered in three large crates with all components and tools for self-installation. We prioritize sustainable materials and efficient design to minimize environmental impact. The price covers the product itself, while shipping, tax, and professional installation are separate due to varying customer locations. We also offer smart-design options like integrated solar panel readiness and energy-efficient lighting.

What qualities make your prefab stand apart from the rest?

• Rapid, Eco-Friendly Installation: Modular design with adjustable foundations allows quick setup on various terrain, minimizing site disruption and using sustainable foundation solutions.
• Smart, Ready-to-Use Functionality: Built-in, energy-efficient electrical systems, optional smart ergonomic furniture, and advanced climate control ensure a plug-and-play workspace.
• Sustainable Durability: Seven-layer walls provide superior soundproofing and climate control, utilizing recycled and renewable materials for enhanced longevity and reduced environmental footprint.

Location: Rungestraße 610179 Berlin, Germany

Price: €2,363,000 (approximately $2,550,404 USD)

Year Built: 1933

Renovation Year: 2016

Footprint: 2,045 square feet (3 bedrooms, 3 baths)

From the Agent: “Originally built between 1930 and 1933 by architect Albert Gottheimer, this building embodies expressionist architecture, known for its sculptural forms. Rich with historical detail, the building’s facade is accented by intricate ornamentation and decorative clay figures that flank the entrance. Pilasters nod to the building’s history, while the varying heights, staircase, and entrance portal further emphasize its grand presence.

“Renovated in 2016, this fourth-floor apartment features a cohesive color palette and high-quality materials create a surreal aesthetic. Seamless light gray microcement flooring throughout the apartment is accented by vibrant plastered walls and custom furniture. The entrance features an anthracite wardrobe with a coral seating niche. The heart of the home is the L-shaped living area, awash with sunlight from floor-to-ceiling balcony doors facing south and a window to the west. Terra-cotta and pistachio-green walls bring warmth and a natural vibe, paired with an open Bulthaup kitchen in pale pink.

“An anthracite-colored dressing area leads to the bedroom with a freestanding bathtub and a view over Köllnischer Park. The en-suite bathroom is a mix of blue-green and gold, equipped with Villeroy & Boch ceramics and fittings. A pastel pink children’s room, also overlooking the park, can be divided into two separate bedrooms or studies with a separate shower room located nearby. The sunny balcony off the living room overlooks a quiet courtyard.”

Houses We Love: Every day we feature a remarkable space submitted by our community of architects, designers, builders, and homeowners. Have one to share? Post it here.

Project Details:

Location: Veddinge, Denmark

Architect: Förstberg Ling / @forstberg_ling

Footprint: 915 square feet

Structural Engineer: Ronny Malm

Cabinetry Design: Ali Atié

Photographer: Markus Linderoth / @markuslinderoth

From the Architect: “Arriving at Veddinge, at the northern tip of Zeeland near Copenhagen, the landscape undergoes a change from lowlands to grassy hills. A cabin from the 1950s sits on a slope overlooking the sea, offering extensive views along the coastline. Förstberg Ling designed a new, detached extension that provides additional bedrooms and a living room to accompany the kitchen and living spaces of the old cabin.

“The house consists of four volumes of different height, arranged to create a hidden enclosed space at their center. While moving around the house, you encircle the hidden space, connecting the rooms which range from narrow and taller, to wider and lower. The different levels at the front and back of the house contribute to the shifting scale throughout the volumes.

“The exterior is clad in blackened pine, while the interior features walls clad in plywood made from different veneers. Strategically placed windows highlight the verticality of the house and frame the surrounding tree tops, providing a different experience compared to the existing buildings’ horizontal panoramic views of the sea.”

After dreaming of having a home in the Hamptons for years, one woman finally decided to make it a reality. “I have a couple of close friends who have places out east, and I’ve always enjoyed visiting them there,” says the homeowner, who spent three decades living in Japan before returning to New York during the early years of the pandemic. After an extensive search, she finally found the perfect spot in Amagansett. “I wanted to be close to my friends, and also be in a place where I could avoid having to be in my car all the time,” she says.

Recently divorced, she wanted to create a place that expressed her personality. “I found myself living by myself for the first time in my life,” she explains. “I wanted to build a house that would be an escape from city life, as well as a place I could share with my friends and children.”

After reaching out to architect Robert Schultz, an old friend from college who now leads New York firm Khanna Schultz with Vrinda Khanna, the homeowner set out to design her ideal weekend home. “From the beginning, she had the desire to make the house as energy-efficient and sustainable as possible,” says Schultz. 

Welcome to How They Pulled It Off, where we take a close look at one particularly challenging aspect of a home design and get the nitty-gritty details about how it became a reality.

When tasked with a way to conjoin two neighboring properties, homeowners Tom Perrault and Sal Giambanco’s vision started as a hyphen—not an em dash or an en dash—and ultimately landed on something grander than the former alley that once stood there. Thanks to some creative thinking from design firm Mason Ros, a glass-lined hallway spans the distance between the two structures and is now the centerpiece of their home.