Why India Is Reviving Ancient Water Systems—and Everything Else You Need to Know About This Week

• As India’s modern water systems run dry, communities are looking to a traditional fix: restoring ancient stepwells, ponds, and earthen dams known as johads. (BBC)

• Private chefs, contractors, plumbers, and landscapers are bringing their work to social media, with their clients’ luxury homes often serving as the backdrop. Posting can be a great marketing strategy, bringing customers and bigger paychecks, but only when client privacy doesn’t get lost in the frame, so to speak. (The Wall Street Journal)

• The Van Alen Institute is reviving its Paris Prize, with a new focus on regenerative design across the postcolonial landscape. Created with the team behind Nairobi’s inaugural Pan-African Biennale, the program will award three designers $35,000 each to research communities shaped by displacement and exclusion. (The Architect’s Newspaper)

• The late Paul Revere Williams designed thousands of buildings that shaped Los Angeles, all while navigating racism as California's first licensed Black architect. Now, three new exhibitions are giving the modernist his long overdue recognition. (The Guardian)

• Reality TV stars, influencers, and retired athletes are turning their fame and followers into real estate careers. Here why some argue that the jump to selling homes not as much of a stretch as it may seem. (The Atlantic)

Top photo by Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images