Editor’s Letter: Home and Away

An old subway token from Philadelphia. One Turkish lira found on an Istanbul street on a really good day. A vintage ashtray from the (West) Berlin Hilton, acquired at a Minnesota flea market. These and many more objects that I’ve picked up while traveling are scattered around my Brooklyn apartment on more or less public display. Not just mementos from trips taken, they are reminders of the way travel has shaped how I think and what I value—enough so that they’ve become part of the design of my house.

Our annual travel issue explores the enduring hold that the experience of a place can have on how we live, whether it’s somewhere we choose to settle or somewhere we’ve left behind. For our Modern World section, we asked five creatives based all over the globe what they miss about the places where they grew up and what we should look for should we ever visit. The responses include contemporary design objects that may or may not fit into your carry-on and everyday things that feel transportive for our subjects—from a Plus soda in Barbados to dolls from New Delhi.

We also land in homes that create new twists on their locations. Take one of a pair of rentable cabins in the Wisconsin woods: By day, it looks like a typical Scandinavian-inspired box—not exactly novel in the Upper Midwest—but when the sun goes down and the brightly colored lighting zaps to life, disco vibes seep out, giving it a look that’s both incongruous and awesome. In Kyoto, a family modernized a historic home that comes right up to the street in one of the oldest parts of town. Updated for contemporary living, it’s true to its origins without appearing precious. And in Toronto, an apartment and studio pop up where there was once a parking space, enlivening one of the city’s many alleyways. 

In Sarasota, Florida, we take a different kind of trip. Writer David A. Banks spent some formative time there at a house that Rick Doblin, founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, built in the 1970s. The architecture was designed to facilitate the therapeutic use of hallucinogens, and for Banks, it recalls a personal turning point in his own journey.

Wherever we’re going, the best things we pick up while traveling are more than souvenirs. Filled with reminders of places that shaped us, a home can convey to ourselves and our visitors where and who we’ve been. 

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Top photo by Matt Dutile.

Head back to the July/August 2022 issue homepage