well this thread sort of petered out in a not-so-good way, but i'll attempt to resurrect it with a compliment to the editors of dwell. there has been an awful lot of criticism of its more 'consumer' and 'high-end' direction, but i've consistently felt that is sort of a natural thing driven by economic needs (gotta have ads, from whoever's buyin' 'em!).
so i'll skirt that subject and just say that i have just been reading the may issue ('smaller is smarter') and have been struck by how solid it really is. yes, i'm way behind; but catching up.
-the new products/designs section - often a review of what was seen at the design shows that many of us will never get to visit - is a lot more exciting than those in the magazines made for architects. i always find myself marking something for further looking-into. for me this time it was the softseating by molo (molodesign.com) on pg62 and the pick chair by studio dror on pg72.
-short piece on story corps.
-'my house' feature on a fully-accessible apt in nyc, with materials sourcing info.
-karim rashid's candid reviews of plastic chair designs.
-'nice modernist' feature on the creative growth gallery in oakland.
-the best introduction to klein dytham that i've seen in print so far.
-great history lesson on ken isaacs' living structures.
-another great history lesson on the design of playgrounds - the thought, observation, and understanding that went into so many modern playgrounds that we now won't do for liability reasons.
-of the cover story pieces the schafer apt in san diego is a fun and interesting solution and the engawa house in tokyo is simply exquisite. while i was less excited about the hill residence there is still something about it that can challenge you to think creatively about possibilities of cost savings and finishes.
sure, there are a lot of ads in between all of this. but many of those are fun to look at too. and those that aren't - flip!
so, i'm two thirds of the way through the may issue and already there has been a lot that has challenged me to think in new ways about things i might encounter in my job. that's as much as i can ask for from any magazine.
i think dwell fills a void. it's the only architecturally-oriented magazine in which i read things that i haven't already seen on the web about a month or so before. a lot of what i see in arch record, for example, hits the news page here much earlier. but dwell is finding things that don't hit this site or the variety of archi-blogs i frequent.
it also covers architects who might otherwise go unknown. we've all been learning more about klein-dytham, though that's in large part i think to the p.r. juggernaut otherwise known as their pecha kucha night sponsorship (< brilliant and almost invisible marketing!) but they're not talked about much. i had NOT heard of tezuka architects and now i'll search out more info about their work. where else are these good architects that aren't big self-promoters going to get covered? where else might we have seen the house that mdler did?
i like slowhome quite a bit and visit that site often. probably because of the interviews with the architects, which i find informative and sometimes entertaining. i know dwell needs to sell ads that is why magazines exist, but i have always(naively) associated modern with affordable/budgeted/cost conscious. i realize, of course, that these hi end luxurious contemporary pieces are often recockulously expensive and therefore excluded from my way of thinking about it. i would like to see two things (one i just thought of)
1. similar to what they did with the dwell house, i would like to see them track a house from initial kick off meeting to the house warming party. this could be a continuous feature and one that i think people would be interested in.
2. affordable modernism. although dwell often talks about houses being affordable, they are often filled with furniture that costs more than my car. i realize some of this is for the photo op and the furniture may be rented, but i wouldn't mind seeing a feature highlighting the affordable end of furnishing that is not just particle board shelving and bean bag chairs.
i think you may be overlooking some of these things because they're not the only thing dwell covers. the schafer apt, for instance, is furnished with well-used but still nice mid-century shell chairs similar to those my boss just bought 9-for-$50 at an estate sale. their coffee table is a great-looking home-made cardboard block modeled after the things gehry used to do.
the accessible carmel apt is filled with fairly conventional stuff, highlighted by some special things that make all the difference. one of them being cymat - 'stabilized aluminum foam' sheet material that took the place of wall construction and hangs from standard barn door hardware. a beautiful and affordable solution.
dwell IS "often filled with furniture that costs more than my car", but it's not only covering that furniture. i'm not arguing that sometimes the expensive stuff isn't off-putting, but it'd be a shame if people discounted this magazine and the niche it fills because of these small issues and missed learning about ken isaacs, noguchi's playground designs, or aleksandra kasuba's rounded living spaces.
that could be steven. maybe i should revisit dwell. i did check out the mdler issue, but havent really looked at it much. for some reason we don't have a subscription here at the office.
As a newcomer this year to both Dwell and Archinect, I have found both very informative and educational.
I can imagine that many of you who have already completed school and who have already devoted a large part of your life to Architecture do not need a three page article about Elliot Noyes or Richard Neutra or Eero Aarnio. But those types of articles can be an introduction to someone like me and open up a line for further exploration and education.
Dwell has exposed me (in central NC) to what Skylab does out in Portland, I was able to visit the recent open house of the prefab/Empyrean/NextHouse/DwellHome near Chapel Hill. It has exposed me to what Jonathan Segal is doing out in San Diego (or coming to a convention center near you!), as well as to other projects from Canada to China to Colombia.
For me, at this point in the trajectory of the rest of my life/career, both Dwell AND Archinect have been two of my main touchstones--almost daily.
Since I can almost always count on your postings, Steven, to be well-informed, well thought-out, and insightful, regardless of the topic of discussion, I was quite happy to see your post on this thread.
Like vado, I too would like to see more emphasis on things that I can afford.
good call Maestro - i was reading a couple back issues and noticed that each one had at least 3 (that's alot) people bare footed (feeted) in the pictures - weird, yet cool
No weird yet staged. Its all part of the false promise of modernity for the masses, who in fact are the elites. I agree with the commentaries above about how Dwell, its advertisers and press have survived as a magazine only because they have been able to position their readership and subscriptions in an upscale market. If not, then they would have never survived.
I doubt that I will EVER be upscale, but many things in Dwell do appeal to me.
I am not wearing any shoes right now! My bare feet are on sisal! My flip flops got wet earlier when we were washing one of the cars out front--my wife kept spraying both myself and our daughter.
i am surprised there are barefeet, given the nature of the magazine, you'd think there is a lost opportunity for more marketing revenue....maybe things are CHANGEING......
vado-
several projects in dwell (especially in houses w/ young children) the issue of inexpensive furniture is not skirted.
lots of ikea: cabinets, shelving, fixtures and beds - but yeah, the couches are generally of a nicer quality.
i can tell you the ikea couch i bought for college was great, but i'm loving the eames chaise i splurged on (granted, it was used and needed new upholstery)
it seems to be what dwell is shooting for - people that can't afford expensive furniture for every room and shop sensibly but have one or two nicer items - which i think a lot of architects and clients can identify with, especially those of us not making oodles of cash, as jafidler already attested to.
Enough with the Ikea fantasy!. Dwell constantly tries to pass off accessorizing for Design. Personal shopping will never replace having a concept. I hate it when I see architects try to pass off an Eileen Grey table and a Barcelona chair as interior design. Its effortless in a bad way. Dwell is only giving validity that you can shop your way to design.
particle board and bean bag chairs is what i call ikea. i doubt that too many of these houses are filled with designer furniture. its most likely rented for the photo shoot. then the milk crates get moved in.
I doubt it's milk-crates, but it is probably stuff gotten at Target or hipster stuff gotten at a local thrift market or antique store. A more lived-in look would be nice. We know the myth of clean-and-modern, but the reality is here-and-there. Rarely are the homeowners in Dwell 1st-timers, so there's stuff involved, and I'd like to see how they really live in it. They've showed this a couple times, but really it's photo shoots for the architect's portfolios.
i was trying (above) to make the point that, while dwell certainly has a lot of these lifestyle/consumer elements, that there is more to it. talking about furniture and rug choices and whether being barefoot at home is somehow a signal of upscale elitism is not all there is.
yesterday i was reading the july issue about eero aarnio, designer of the bubble chair - just about his career and his life now.
and then a very good memoir piece on neutra by his son. nothing at all in that article that i could buy. no slick photographs, some drawings serving as a background illustration. just contemplation by a son about an astounding creative personality and his life.
Dwell - suggestions/future directions
well this thread sort of petered out in a not-so-good way, but i'll attempt to resurrect it with a compliment to the editors of dwell. there has been an awful lot of criticism of its more 'consumer' and 'high-end' direction, but i've consistently felt that is sort of a natural thing driven by economic needs (gotta have ads, from whoever's buyin' 'em!).
so i'll skirt that subject and just say that i have just been reading the may issue ('smaller is smarter') and have been struck by how solid it really is. yes, i'm way behind; but catching up.
-the new products/designs section - often a review of what was seen at the design shows that many of us will never get to visit - is a lot more exciting than those in the magazines made for architects. i always find myself marking something for further looking-into. for me this time it was the softseating by molo (molodesign.com) on pg62 and the pick chair by studio dror on pg72.
-short piece on story corps.
-'my house' feature on a fully-accessible apt in nyc, with materials sourcing info.
-karim rashid's candid reviews of plastic chair designs.
-'nice modernist' feature on the creative growth gallery in oakland.
-the best introduction to klein dytham that i've seen in print so far.
-great history lesson on ken isaacs' living structures.
-another great history lesson on the design of playgrounds - the thought, observation, and understanding that went into so many modern playgrounds that we now won't do for liability reasons.
-of the cover story pieces the schafer apt in san diego is a fun and interesting solution and the engawa house in tokyo is simply exquisite. while i was less excited about the hill residence there is still something about it that can challenge you to think creatively about possibilities of cost savings and finishes.
sure, there are a lot of ads in between all of this. but many of those are fun to look at too. and those that aren't - flip!
so, i'm two thirds of the way through the may issue and already there has been a lot that has challenged me to think in new ways about things i might encounter in my job. that's as much as i can ask for from any magazine.
i think dwell fills a void. it's the only architecturally-oriented magazine in which i read things that i haven't already seen on the web about a month or so before. a lot of what i see in arch record, for example, hits the news page here much earlier. but dwell is finding things that don't hit this site or the variety of archi-blogs i frequent.
it also covers architects who might otherwise go unknown. we've all been learning more about klein-dytham, though that's in large part i think to the p.r. juggernaut otherwise known as their pecha kucha night sponsorship (< brilliant and almost invisible marketing!) but they're not talked about much. i had NOT heard of tezuka architects and now i'll search out more info about their work. where else are these good architects that aren't big self-promoters going to get covered? where else might we have seen the house that mdler did?
i like slowhome quite a bit and visit that site often. probably because of the interviews with the architects, which i find informative and sometimes entertaining. i know dwell needs to sell ads that is why magazines exist, but i have always(naively) associated modern with affordable/budgeted/cost conscious. i realize, of course, that these hi end luxurious contemporary pieces are often recockulously expensive and therefore excluded from my way of thinking about it. i would like to see two things (one i just thought of)
1. similar to what they did with the dwell house, i would like to see them track a house from initial kick off meeting to the house warming party. this could be a continuous feature and one that i think people would be interested in.
2. affordable modernism. although dwell often talks about houses being affordable, they are often filled with furniture that costs more than my car. i realize some of this is for the photo op and the furniture may be rented, but i wouldn't mind seeing a feature highlighting the affordable end of furnishing that is not just particle board shelving and bean bag chairs.
i think you may be overlooking some of these things because they're not the only thing dwell covers. the schafer apt, for instance, is furnished with well-used but still nice mid-century shell chairs similar to those my boss just bought 9-for-$50 at an estate sale. their coffee table is a great-looking home-made cardboard block modeled after the things gehry used to do.
the accessible carmel apt is filled with fairly conventional stuff, highlighted by some special things that make all the difference. one of them being cymat - 'stabilized aluminum foam' sheet material that took the place of wall construction and hangs from standard barn door hardware. a beautiful and affordable solution.
dwell IS "often filled with furniture that costs more than my car", but it's not only covering that furniture. i'm not arguing that sometimes the expensive stuff isn't off-putting, but it'd be a shame if people discounted this magazine and the niche it fills because of these small issues and missed learning about ken isaacs, noguchi's playground designs, or aleksandra kasuba's rounded living spaces.
that could be steven. maybe i should revisit dwell. i did check out the mdler issue, but havent really looked at it much. for some reason we don't have a subscription here at the office.
Thanks for resurrecting this thread, Steven.
As a newcomer this year to both Dwell and Archinect, I have found both very informative and educational.
I can imagine that many of you who have already completed school and who have already devoted a large part of your life to Architecture do not need a three page article about Elliot Noyes or Richard Neutra or Eero Aarnio. But those types of articles can be an introduction to someone like me and open up a line for further exploration and education.
Dwell has exposed me (in central NC) to what Skylab does out in Portland, I was able to visit the recent open house of the prefab/Empyrean/NextHouse/DwellHome near Chapel Hill. It has exposed me to what Jonathan Segal is doing out in San Diego (or coming to a convention center near you!), as well as to other projects from Canada to China to Colombia.
For me, at this point in the trajectory of the rest of my life/career, both Dwell AND Archinect have been two of my main touchstones--almost daily.
Since I can almost always count on your postings, Steven, to be well-informed, well thought-out, and insightful, regardless of the topic of discussion, I was quite happy to see your post on this thread.
Like vado, I too would like to see more emphasis on things that I can afford.
Thanks Archinect! (and Dwell! and Geoff!)
Anyone notice how all the human models in Dwell are barefoot?
good call Maestro - i was reading a couple back issues and noticed that each one had at least 3 (that's alot) people bare footed (feeted) in the pictures - weird, yet cool
No weird yet staged. Its all part of the false promise of modernity for the masses, who in fact are the elites. I agree with the commentaries above about how Dwell, its advertisers and press have survived as a magazine only because they have been able to position their readership and subscriptions in an upscale market. If not, then they would have never survived.
if you wear shoes all the time, the world will feel like leather.
lucky for us non-elite fans that they were so smart!
I doubt that I will EVER be upscale, but many things in Dwell do appeal to me.
I am not wearing any shoes right now! My bare feet are on sisal! My flip flops got wet earlier when we were washing one of the cars out front--my wife kept spraying both myself and our daughter.
Maybe my wearing barefeet is trashy.
hm. also barefoot.
"My bare feet are on sisal!"
if you are not upscale already, you are at least aspiring to upscale.
instead of upscale, i would say the target audience of dwell are those aspiring to upscale.
i am surprised there are barefeet, given the nature of the magazine, you'd think there is a lost opportunity for more marketing revenue....maybe things are CHANGEING......
vado-
several projects in dwell (especially in houses w/ young children) the issue of inexpensive furniture is not skirted.
lots of ikea: cabinets, shelving, fixtures and beds - but yeah, the couches are generally of a nicer quality.
i can tell you the ikea couch i bought for college was great, but i'm loving the eames chaise i splurged on (granted, it was used and needed new upholstery)
it seems to be what dwell is shooting for - people that can't afford expensive furniture for every room and shop sensibly but have one or two nicer items - which i think a lot of architects and clients can identify with, especially those of us not making oodles of cash, as jafidler already attested to.
Enough with the Ikea fantasy!. Dwell constantly tries to pass off accessorizing for Design. Personal shopping will never replace having a concept. I hate it when I see architects try to pass off an Eileen Grey table and a Barcelona chair as interior design. Its effortless in a bad way. Dwell is only giving validity that you can shop your way to design.
particle board and bean bag chairs is what i call ikea. i doubt that too many of these houses are filled with designer furniture. its most likely rented for the photo shoot. then the milk crates get moved in.
I doubt it's milk-crates, but it is probably stuff gotten at Target or hipster stuff gotten at a local thrift market or antique store. A more lived-in look would be nice. We know the myth of clean-and-modern, but the reality is here-and-there. Rarely are the homeowners in Dwell 1st-timers, so there's stuff involved, and I'd like to see how they really live in it. They've showed this a couple times, but really it's photo shoots for the architect's portfolios.
i was trying (above) to make the point that, while dwell certainly has a lot of these lifestyle/consumer elements, that there is more to it. talking about furniture and rug choices and whether being barefoot at home is somehow a signal of upscale elitism is not all there is.
yesterday i was reading the july issue about eero aarnio, designer of the bubble chair - just about his career and his life now.
and then a very good memoir piece on neutra by his son. nothing at all in that article that i could buy. no slick photographs, some drawings serving as a background illustration. just contemplation by a son about an astounding creative personality and his life.
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