Despite editing this issue from different cities, and often while on the move, the two of us kept returning to the same ideas and were consistently drawn to stories and spaces imbued with a sense of weight and permanence. We found ourselves gravitating towards concrete, cement or steel, materials typically associated with safety and security, sometimes even fortification or isolation. And yet it was the materials’ honesty and tactility that appealed: grounded homes, furniture with heft and buildings that anchor their surroundings.
You’ll see it in homes in Singapore, Tokyo, Perth and Hong Kong, and in Tadao Ando’s new Naoshima museum, its vast volumes chiselled into the hillside. In Seoul, Niceworkshop’s industrial forms carry a lightness despite their construction site origins. Perhaps, though, it’s not just the materials, but how…
