Yasmeen Lari | Dwell
With nearly half a century of in-the-field experience, Pakistan’s first female architect leads an ambitious nonprofit, the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan.
Hotel Lautner | Dwell
Two Los Angeles designers resuscitate a down-at-the-heel midcentury by the legendary architect—and give fans a chance to spend the night.
Hecho en Oaxaca | Dwell
An experimental shop in Oaxaca, Mexico, is resuscitating the region’s ancient crafts traditions and bringing indigenous artisans’ designs into the 21st century.
Consumer Retorts | Dwell
“I’ve told customers, ‘Maybe you don’t need another chair,’” Chris Houston says. “Even though I sell things, I do like to remind people that you don’t need to own it to appreciate it.”
Old Ways, New Path | Afar
In rural China, a treasured heritage makes peace with the future. “We’re trying to find opportunities for the Dong to improve their livelihood without completely altering their way of life,” says Wai Kit Lee, a professor of ethnic-minority culture. “I want to show that a village can be rich in other ways—in community, in self-reliance, in lack of anxiety.”
In The Modern World: Protect and Conserve | Dwell
In construction-mad Beijing, “development happens at a crazy speed, like a tsunami,” says Matthew Xinyu Hu. The 2008 Summer Olympics bore the brunt of the bad rap, but in truth, Beijing’s historic city center had been at risk for far longer.
El Cosmico: Trailer Made | ReadyMade
The brainchild of Austin-based hotelier Liz Lambert, El Cosmico is a new kind of lodging: part trailer park, part creative commune, “a Trans-Pecos kibbutz
for the 21st century.”
Mint Plaza in San Francisco | Topos
Just three years ago, this stretch of Jessie Street in downtown San Francisco was a gritty back alley, populated by parked cars, pigeons, and the down-and-out. Today, the neighborhood has a new beacon: Mint Plaza, an L-shaped pedestrian plaza filling the footprint of the once-neglected alley.
The Skill Set | T: The New York Times Style Magazine
If you close your eyes and block out the visual cues—the red ocher 18th-century buildings, the brightly colored bazaars, the monkeys scrambling maniacally over the dusty rooflines—you would still know you were in Jaipur, India.
Oaxaca Gets Real | Town & Country
My best-laid plans were scrapped the moment I arrived in Oaxaca City. “You want to see the real, authentic Mexico, right?” asked Alejandro Ruiz, one of the city’s most renowned chefs, as he giddily steered his SUV through narrow cobblestoned streets.