Meet the Faces Behind Our Dream Homes Issue

Deputy director of design at Metropolitan Home magazine until it closed in 2009, Arlene Hirst is a freelance journalist with frequent bylines in the New York Times Magazine, Surface, Modern, and Interior Design. She covered a home designed for large family gatherings in the Adirondacks, for this issue. “The most amazing thing to me about the project is that it was a group effort,” she says. “Usually, this is a recipe for disaster, but everyone’s concerns were amicably addressed, even though many of them lived thousands of miles away.” What notable house would you love to live in? “Visiting Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye and Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat were almost religious experiences. I’d happily move in to either one of them.”

New York–based photographer Collin Hughes ventured to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, to capture the dwelling of photographer Josué Azor. He was struck by the house’s “ability to transport you far away from the busy streets and city that surround it,” he says. “It provides the perfect escape to admire light and slow down to enjoy the simple things that make a house a home.” Hughes, who hails from Minnesota, travels far and wide to document people and cultures for clients ranging from Wired and GQ to Nike and Warby Parker. What notable house would you love to live in? “Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright has always been a place of dreams for me. Anything as secluded as that would be just about perfect.”

While researching a book about Venice, writer Robert Landon met architect Martino Pietropoli, who took him to see the twin houses he designed for a pair of families in Padua, featured on. His most memorable experience visiting the property was “stepping out onto a rooftop veranda and discovering a gorgeous, green roof,” he says. “The architects purposely failed to mention it, so as to preserve the element of surprise.” Based in New York City, Landon has written about architecture and travel for Metropolis, the Los Angeles Times, and Lonely Planet. What does your dream home look like? “Full of windows, boasts a huge terrace, and sits steps from great, cheap restaurants.”

native Barcelona to Padua, Italy. On the shoot, he was pleased by “the kindness with which Luca Pagnan and his family hosted me, and the freedom that I was given to photograph their intimacy.” Trained as a graphic designer, López has had his photos published in Monocle, the Wall Street Journal, and Travel + Leisure, among others. What does your dream home look like? “A country house on the island of Minorca. It would have a big living room and an integrated kitchen with a wood oven.”