Sir David Adjaye
Accra, Ghana
The pandemic happened to co-incide with the one-year anniversary of my return home to Accra. In many ways, being here in the midst of this global crisis has furthered my process of rediscovery into Ghana’s past and its narratives—both biographical and national—that have inspired my work on the continent and abroad. I chose to take this photograph in Black Star Square because it is not just a symbol or historical ode to the past but a beacon that will speak to a vibrant future as Accra’s infrastructure and cultural fabric continue to evolve.”
Emily Ward
Los Angeles
“My family and I have embraced the chaos of what has become our makeshift playroom, off the kitchen. This pandemic has reminded me that there is nothing more beautiful than function—messy, lived-in, realistic function.”
David Cafiero
Manhattan
“I live above my shop, which is also my office. We’ve been experiencing a lot of online traffic these past few weeks, but I do hope we can still maintain the charm of an actual in-shop experience. Moving forward, that will be more important than ever. The need to connect will never diminish.”
Vincent Van Duysen
Antwerp
“Recent global events represent a loud wake-up call. What was once a collective and mundane social life, characterized by interaction with others, is now confinement with oneself. But restraint is not always detrimental. This is the time to be connected with our inner selves.”
Fernando Caruncho
Madrid
“The 21st century will be the century of the garden, a return to nature. That is what this pandemic is clearly telling us, as the environment recovers. We have to make an absolutely radical change in terms of our relationship with Mother Nature.”
Vicky Charles
Upstate New York
“After putting a lock on my bathroom door, I’ve been working fully dressed from the tub. It’s the only space to have peace, to focus, and to take client calls without my children around.”
Charles de Lisle
Sonoma, California
“The slowdown has allowed our office to step back a bit and take stock of what’s important in our work. All of a sudden, certain things that used to seem trivial were now incredibly meaningful.”
Pierre Yovanovitch
Provence
“I try to look at the silver lining and see this as an opportunity for a creative reset, taking a pause from our overly scheduled lives to tap back into what inspires us.”
Kulapat Yantrasast
Los Angeles
“Although we are physically distant at the moment, as social animals we are longing for company and hoping for empathy. The pandemic has challenged designers to find new ways of fostering human connection.”
Olivier Marty & Karl Fournier
Corsica
“With our three-and-a-half-year-old, we have no time to stress—we are playing, teaching, cooking, all while teleworking with our teams. We have organized our spaces a little bit differently, but decorating is not exactly the term. A guest room became our office. Another one is dedicated to sport. Another one to our psychiatrist sessions.”
Robert Kime
London
“For me, design has always been about comfort, ease, and safety. I imagine we will carry on in
that way. And more people will look for that meaning too.”
Richard Gluckman
Long Island, New York
“This has been the longest uninterrupted amount of time I’ve spent in the house that I built 20 years ago, and the coldest, wettest, windiest spring I’ve ever experienced. I will value it forever. Nature has evened out the rough spots.”
Louisa Pierce
Florida
“When I’m daydreaming, on bike rides in nature, is when my creative mind really kicks in. I used to feel like I knew what the future held, but now? Who knows!”
Tom Kundig
Seattle
“People are reengaging with their living space and relearning what home means. We’ll see design push beyond style to deliberately foster those feelings of safety and comfort much more.”
Jamie Bush
Long Island, New York
“We started a new job in San Francisco without ever meeting the clients in person or going to the house. It’s not ideal, but we’re making it work. This is the new reality.”
Oliver M. Furth
Los Angeles
“For years, our industry has been gradually headed toward a new way of operating, but I still don’t think we’ve evolved much since the advent of the internet. Maybe this is the push we needed to propel us into the 21st century.”
Francis Sultana
London
“I have elevated my blue salon into the perfect work space, which has kept the passion and drive flowing! Coming out of this stronger, I will have restored my balance of life.”
Miranda Brooks
Gloucestershire
“We have spent this time on our own building site, rather than other people’s. The slow transition from rubble to garden has followed a definite shift in thinking. I want simplicity—could three plant species create more feeling than twelve? There has been a definite letting go.”
Brian Sawyer
Long Island
“In landscape design, the crisis has engendered a heightened understanding of the significance and consequences of ecology. In house design, there’s a finer appreciation of the crucial relationship between building and site. And in interior design, I sense a renewed awareness of domestic pleasure and beauty for the sake of it.”
Ariel Ashe
Martha’s Vineyard
“I get comfort from taking walks, planning meals—not cooking them, my husband does that—and playing with my daughter. Every morning we walk through the woods and visit friends, from a safe distance. That’s a luxury and privilege. I don’t like the notion of finding a silver lining in any of this, because people are suffering sickness and loss like I never could imagine. But if I had to find one, I’d say my appreciation and gratitude for small things has grown immensely. Flowers left by a neighbor. Fresh air. Buying a sandwich that I didn’t have to make.”
Barbara Bestor
Los Angeles
“Creatively, I find I have a lot more time to draw by hand and think through details in a way I have not done since graduate school. It is a happy affirmation that my profession is also a creative release.” Pictured are Bestor and her daughter Charlotte Silverman working in Charlotte’s makeshift silk-screening studio, set up in Bestor Architecture’s cleared-out model shop.
Emiliano Salci
Milan
“After lockdown, unpretentious elegance and timelessness will become paramount—styles that are less fleeting, less trivial and fussy.”
Sharon Johnston
Los Angeles
“In the relatively short period that we have been in quarantine we have seen a host of projects change direction and refocus towards opportunities that embrace temporality, highlight flexibility, and put community at the center of their mission.”
Martin Brudnizki
London
“Design requires human contact, whether for inspiration or collaboration. We will start to appreciate what we have more—in nature and in each other.”
Rose Uniacke
London
“I am fortunate to be quite a homebody, so the change of pace has been unexpectedly productive—listening to music, drawing, working, cooking, sewing. I made a new skirt with one of the new Rose Uniacke pale pink wools. We have been encouraged to focus on the simpler essential needs of life and that has been a powerful call to reduce in lots of different ways. Of course we know that beauty and pleasure and good design don’t have to be complex, but it is good to be reminded.”
Laura Sartori Rimini and Roberto Peregalli
Milan
“Regarding the future effects of this pandemic, on one hand it has been recognized the importance of the house as a center, a place of the soul in people’s life. On the other hand, the inevitable economic impact that will follow this situation will, we hope, generate among people the idea that the house isn’t just an object that follows the trends to be discarded and replaced for the next upcoming thing. You should aim for an object of beauty, made to withstand the proof of time.”
Toshiko Mori
Manhattan
“Living in New York City during a pandemic convinced me that we need to mutually protect each other and that for communities and cities to survive into the future we have to consider equity as essential qualities of urban life. We depend on each other and we will come out of it together. Design post pandemic needs to focus on essentials, universal values, and equities. We need to give more space to each other and more time options so we can start to breathe back into life.”
Richard Petit
Los Angeles
“Author Erri de Luca, producer Paola Porrini Bisson, and director Michael Mayer invited writers, journalists, poets, and actors from all over the world to share a compassionate vision of our collective human experience during the pandemic. The project was inspired by Giovannni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, a 14th-century collection of stories written in response to the black death sweeping across Europe. As a backdrop to each new story and performance, I created a unique digital collage incorporating elements of 14th- and 20th-century art by painters with a close relationship to Florence.” Pictured is Petit with one of his digital backdrops.
Virginia Tupker
Connecticut
“The little stream that meanders through our woods has been a godsend. I’ve spent time cutting back the brambles so that my children would have a clear area to play in. We have marvelled at the amazing wildlife here—the deer visits at breakfast, a wild turkey, and a not so elusive fox who likes to prowl just around suppertime. Meanwhile, I’ve been turning to my library for inspiration. My home office has practically become a tile, stone, and flooring showroom, with all the samples we call in for clients and then ship out as curated packages to their homes.
Rafael de Cárdenas
Brooklyn
“These arrangements are essentially weeds, the plants we do our best to kill. Emily Thompson, an old friend, foraged them during the quar and I picked them up from her house, where she is creating a meadow-like garden, which I tried to recreate on my dining table, my own lab of sorts. We had many discussions on how to display them—many with their roots and all in these gorgeous, hand-blown vessels. Emily directed my attention to beauty where I wasn’t looking for it.”
Deborah Berke
Long Island
“Spending the last few months largely indoors has been a revealing experience for me as an architect but also as a human being. I found myself rearranging things often. Moving a chair around the room throughout the day to get a different view outside, particularly of the sky. Seeing the changing light and the varying greens of the trees has a great calming effect. It makes me feel connected to nature even when I am indoors. My daughter returned from graduate school and brought her houseplants with her—she knew she would be here for a while and she enjoys them. We’ve had a similar experience with the plants, following the light in the house throughout the day and moving the plants to the places where they will thrive. Taking the time to watch them in this environment is a kind of investment in the future. We’re nurturing them and each other.”
