Innholdsfortegnelse for November/December 2020 i Dwell

When we started planning our annual Made in America issue, we decided that the most important thing being made here right now is affordable homes. Even before the pandemic, 38 million households in the United States—nearly one in three—spent more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs (a common benchmark for affordability), and the number of people without housing of any kind had been growing in cities across the country. Now, the economic fallout from Covid-19 could leave millions facing eviction in just a few months. Add to that the people displaced by storms, wildfires, and other climate change–related disasters, and you have an unprecedented housing crisis. This year, we’re telling the stories of architects, developers, policymakers, and activists fighting to provide people with houses. In “How to…

“We wanted the cat element to be subtle, something you’d never know was there until you saw the cats moving through the space.”Nathan Cuttle, designer Brooklyn’s Prospect Heights may not be the first neighborhood that comes to mind when you hear the words “concrete jungle,” but the metaphor fits in a new way if you consider the penthouse home of Abigail and Max Frumes. High above the neighborhood’s tree-lined streets and handsome brownstones, two exotic felines prowl the couple’s new, 1,420-square-foot condo. The cats—a pair of Bengals named Hobbes and Agnes—share the space with their human owners and the couple’s daughter. Their paradise is the brainchild of Studio Nato’s Nathan Cuttle, who tailored the design to the cats’ nature. Understanding Bengals’ proclivity for acrobatic heights and greater need for exercise…

Housing is a human right, says Ilhan Omar, the Democratic congressperson running for her second term representing Minnesota’s 5th district. And she doesn’t believe the marketplace will provide it for everyone. Last year, she introduced the Homes for All Act. The bill proposes that the federal government spend $1 trillion to build 12 million new housing units in the next decade, rolling back tax cuts for the rich and reducing wasteful military spending to cover the cost. The bill is a loud call for what had been politically unutterable for generations. We asked her why it’s time for the country to revisit public housing in a big way. Why have you made affordable housing a legislative priority? Even before the pandemic hit, more than one in four households in Minnesota…

The path to homeownership can be daunting—especially in Los Angeles, a cutthroat real estate market where what’s deemed an affordable housing unit averages $500,000 to $600,000. “And that’s not even for a single-family home—that’s for an apartment or condo in a multi-unit building,” says Michael B. Lehrer of Lehrer Architects. “Most single-family homes go for even more. That’s just insanity.” Lehrer Architects has a history of working on community-minded projects. A 2013 collaboration with the nonprofit development corporation Restore Neighborhoods Los Angeles (RNLA) created five three-bedroom, two-bathroom singlefamily homes on land donated by the city. The houses ended up costing $300,000 to $400,000 each to build—making their sale price less affordable than the team had hoped—in part because of their size and in part because public funds supporting the project…

Dutchess County Studio N↑ ARCHITECT GRT Architects LOCATION Dutchess County, New York A Entrance B Guest Sleeping Area C Workspace D Bathroom E Kitchen F Living/Sleeping Area G Outdoor Shower “I don’t paint landscapes when I’m here because I can’t compete with the natural beauty.”YAEL MERIDAN SCHORI, RESIDENT At the end of a meandering driveway that rises over a tree-dotted hill, a small, faceted structure comes suddenly into view, edged against a brown horse fence. Below it, cradled in an expanse of green, is a sparkling lake. “We like to reveal things gradually, to allow the views and the experience to develop,” says architect Tal Schori, who is visiting the site, located in New York’s Dutchess County, with a guest on a September day. The structure belongs to his parents,…

More at Dwell.com/Shop Kül Grilles Modern Grilles for the Modern Home Quality floor and wall grilles available in standard and custom sizes. See our gallery and architectural finish options online! Discount: dwell1120 kulgrilles.com LACAVA Creating Beautiful and Timeless Bathrooms The modern design of the Linea vanity creates a perfect combination of the horizon blue luxurious finish and brushed brass metal frame; shown with Eleganza faucet, Suave tub and Eleganza tub filler in brushed gold. Our furniture collections, made in the USA, have been designed & built with attention to detail and feature various sizes, finishes and functional & stylish countertop and sink options. LACAVA, a company of Italian origin located in Chicago, provides a complete bathroom experience from vanities, sinks & tubs to faucets, toilets & more. Tel. 773-637-9600 lacava.com…

What I love about this skate deck is its ambiguity. The colors blur, the shapes are undefined, but there are enough recognizable images in there to capture the eye—almost like an optical illusion. I have it hanging in my studio, and as I’m going about my day, I will usually stop and stare at it at least a couple of times. I started skateboarding in high school. That’s pretty much all I did—skateboard and work on oil paintings for my portfolio. I kept skateboarding all through college in New York and grad school in Boston. It was only after I moved to L.A. to work at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and eventually launched my own studio there, that I really focused on architecture and put that hobby on the back…

Fort Makers New York City “We’ve been making our glasswork at UrbanGlass in Brooklyn since it opened its new studios in 2013. Right now, we’re making a Sunrise Sunset cup. It’s a 12-ounce drinking glass that features a fade from an intense color density to near transparency. Well, it’s actually a reverse fade, so you have to make the gradient first and then make a separate cup that you stuff the colored glass into—you can’t really replicate that with a machine. Then we add a solid orb on the side that creates a subtle indentation in the cup and also acts as a grip, or holder. We designed them to be kind of Surrealist cups. So the orb on the side has this nice optic quality that creates a kind…

Sabai New York City and High Point, North Carolina “We started Sabai in the summer of 2018 and launched our first line of sustainable but affordable seating products the next year with a sofa, an ottoman, and a sectional. We’re based in New York, but all our furniture is made by M&M Custom Upholstery Design here in High Point. Right now, I’m looking at fabric with Carlos Montenegro from their team. I handle mostly product design, and one of our goals was to make furniture that is convenient. That meant it had to be flat-packed and easily assembled and disassembled—and eventually recycled—but also look like a cohesive product. Beyond that, we wanted to create something that had clean lines, was relatively modern, and could work in most homes. We use…

Even clients with an aversion to therapy look forward to their sessions with Ryan Post. Rather than usher them into an airless office with unremarkable furniture and fluorescent lights, Ryan meets them in an airy, 470-square-foot cabin set in a field amid towering trees. Two armchairs face a comforting woodburning stove, and a wide mahogany bench allows for stretching out. Sometimes sessions take place outside, especially these days. As a psychotherapist who spent much of his career treating teens in Colorado’s backcountry, Ryan believes deeply in the healing power of nature. When he relocated with his family to the 75-acre property in southeastern Rhode Island where his wife grew up, he saw an opportunity to forge a practice that merges 60-minute sessions with experiences that take advantage of the outdoors.…

CR8 Design Greenville, South Carolina “I’m from Anderson, South Carolina, born and raised. I studied architecture and got a job as a courier at a design studio, where I was always behind the scenes watching, listening, asking questions. I went on to work at a high-end residential design firm in Charlotte, but I always felt something was missing. I wanted to be more hands-on, which landed me in custom furniture design. Every piece I make has intention behind it. My brain is constantly churning and trying to find a different way to do things, which can be maddening at times. But it all works itself out through the process, bringing the idea to the hand and figuring it out. Everyone who engages with my work has a different experience. I…

Marvin Windows Warroad, Minnesota “Before I joined, I did my research about how the company does business and how they treat their employees. I found out it is a family-owned company and a people-oriented company. I really dig that. This is called SkyCove—a pre-assembled window seat that’s not just a window, it’s a structure. It lets you add square footage to your home without building extra sticks. In our Modern department, we do all the prep work for the metal and for all the high-density fiberglass. Then those parts get put on a pit cart, delivered to the assembly line, and manually put together. Everyone who works on the line, they put their heart and soul into every window that’s made, and they know it’s made for a person and…

“Instead of trying to compete with the developer/builder types with capital and resources, we looked for opportunities that were cheap and economical.”JONATHAN TATE, PRINCIPAL, OFFICE OF JONATHAN TATE Carroll Fife, head of the Oakland chapter of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), hit a major turning point last fall. A homeless mother who’d sought help from her organization had just attempted suicide, while up to a quarter of her staff were themselves facing homelessness. For Fife, the complete erosion of affordable housing in the Bay Area, and the despair that came with it, demanded a new, bolder course of action. “I said, Look, I don’t have any money. I don’t have friends who own apartment buildings or houses. I really don’t have anything to give other than my…

“Architecture and sculpture are both about breaking norms.”WINKA DUBBELDAM, DESIGNER The picket fence isn’t for everyone. Take fashion designer Tia Cibani. Her recently renovated Hudson Valley farmhouse has a traditional shingled exterior, but when it came to a fence to protect her young children from a pool on one side of the property and a pond on the other, she went with a more contemporary enclosure. “It’s a nice, light, feathery move in the landscape because of its transparency,” says Winka Dubbeldam, founder and principal of Archi-Tectonics, who designed the home’s renovation as well as the fence. Dubbeldam devised two arcing lines of parallel wooden rails set in steel brackets connected by a below-ground metal bar that is anchored in a concrete channel. Installed at meticulously consistent intervals, they have…

18 Cat Tricks Studio Nato studionato.com SHL Builders shlbuilders.com TJ Woodworking 201-344-5479 Wallpaper by Mitchell Ehrlich 201-370-1176 19 Bollo chair by Andreas Engesvik and Fogia fogia.se; Flowerfield pouf by Baum und Pferdgarten from Common Seating commonseating.com; custom ottoman and media cabinet by Studio Nato studionato.com; Flotation chandelier by Ingo Maurer ingomaurer.com; chairs by Adrian Pearsall, vintage 44 Points of Entry Lehrer Architects LA lehrerarchitects.com Redstar Construction 626-482-8372 Nous Engineering nousengineering.com 46 Shelving from IKEA ikea.com; Chickadee paint by Dunn-Edwards Paints dunnedwards.com; sliding doors by Milgard milgard.com 47 Refrigerator from IKEA ikea.com; Carter sofa by Bloomingdales bloomingdales.com 50 Approaching Calm From [in] Form frominform.com Build team: Jason Wood, Rachel Stopka, Tristan Mead, Shou Jie Eng Structural engineering by Structures Workshop structuresworkshop.com Civil engineering by Able Engineering ablenewengland.com 52-53 Wood stove by…