Smaller Is Smarter - Issue Archive

May 2007
Homes under 1000 square feet; Touring modern Paris; Karim Rashid reviews plastic chairs.

Features

Barrack Essentials

Major Arnold Strong traded life in a 4,000-square-foot ranch home for a cramped shipping container, and found that home can still be sweet. Story by Arnold Strong

Living Room

A shrine to organization or an exercise in ingenuity? There's no denying this San Diego, California, couple makes the most of their 426-square-foot space. Story by David A. Greene / Photos by Misha Gravenor

Stripped Ease

Everything's bigger in Texas—except Barbara Hill's apartment. When she stripped down her Houston home to its bare bones, Hill saw beauty in blemishes. Story by Fred A. Bernstein / Photos by Dean Kaufman

Family Style

The Higashibatas wanted to embrace a European lifestyle in the Tokyo home, but found the answer in a traditional Japanese design element—the engawa. Story by Femke Bijlsma / Photos by Adam Friedberg

Borderlands

Photographer Eirik Johnson finds the fringes of the American dream more transfixing than the center.

Departments

In the Modern World

A spring cleaning of our editors' desks yields a bounty of books, projects, products, and exhibitions from around the world.

My House

After David Carmel modernized his Manhattan apartment to suit his wheelchair, his wife and friends found that universal design has universal benefits. Story by Fred A. Bernstein / Photos by Raimund Koch

Off the Grid

Despite swampland and a composting toilet, this green vacation home in Ontario never smells "like old socks." Story by Amara Holstein / Photos by Paul Orenstein

Dwell Reports

The ubiquitous white plastic chair has had its day in the sun. Designer Karim Rashid joins Dwell to explore a rainbow of alternatives. Story by Christopher Bright / Photos by Martien Mulder

Nice Modernist

Oakland, California's Creative Growth continues to provide artists with disabilities a springboard to the inner sanctum of the art world. Story by Chelsea Holden Baker / Photos by Doug Adesko

Context

Although Chile never distilled its modernist style in a Brasilia of its own, the past informs today's advancing avant-garde in these four projects Story by Patricio Mardones Hiche / Photos by Cristobal Palma

What We Saw

There's more to Art Basel Miami Beach than string bikinis and pink flamingos; editor Amber Bravo reports back from Cologne's annual furniture fair.

Conversation

Dwell sits down for a lunch date with Mark Dytham, the English half of Tokyo's Klein Dytham Architecture. Story by Sam Grawe

Archive

Proving that to think outside the box, sometimes you have to build one, designer Ken Isaacs has made a career of versatile Living Structures. Story by Leslie Coburn

Dwell Labs

No weeding required: There's a lot to love about having a garden on your kitchen countertop. Story by Amara Holstein / Photos by Peter Belanger

Outside

You wouldn't guess it today, but designers once heralded playgrounds as dynamic development tools and sculptural landscapes. Story by Deborah Bishop

Design

An undershirt inspired Aleksandra Kasuba's stretched-fabric environments, a concept she has solidified in New Mexico. Story by Alastair Gordon

Essay

The Expos may have left Montreal for good, but Oren Safdie finds old Habitats are hard to break.

Detour

Critics call Paris a "living museum." If so, designer Erwan Bouroullec curates a must-see list from a compelling collection. Story by Michelle Hoffman / Photos by Jessica Antola

Architectural Movements 101

Which comes first, the movement or the manifesto? From Arts and Crafts to eco-design, a 7-step guide to design movements. Story by Barry Katz

Sourcing

Dwell's well is never dry; that's why we call it "sourcing." This pink page is swimming with contact information for the people and products in our text.

Houses We Love

The beauty of compromise: How a mother-and-son client-architect pair created "cozy" in modern Healdsburg, California. Story by Joanne Furio / Photos by Matthew Millman