Editor’s Letter: For the Ages

Design defines the phases of our lives. What your home looks like and what you need it to do have likely varied—or they will—in your 20s, 50s, 80s, and (with any luck) beyond. For our first issue of the year, we decided to focus on how different homes accommodate and reinforce the priorities (and particularities) of their residents at any given moment in their lives.

We start with childhood and new design-focused toys, games, art supplies, and more. They might represent things that architecture-oriented parents would gravitate toward, but we also wanted to know what kids really thought of some of our favorites, so we paired children ages 1 to 10 with age-appropriate products and asked them for their reviews. Their comments were candid. (Though, in another piece, one Dwell staffer insists that you don’t need any of it.)

We also visited parents, some of whom live in a 20th-century modernist enclave in Chicago designed by no less than I. M. Pei and Harry Weese. The homes represent a less destructive version of 1950s "urban renewal" that took place in other cities at the time (though that’s not setting the bar very high). Nearly 70 years later, the town houses have proved to be ideal for modern families craving urban density and leafy play spaces. We profile two sets of owners who have transformed them with a reverence for the original design.