Dwell revisited

19Feb07

Images Mar07 Cover Homepage200702192215
I have to admit, Dwell Magazine has been a love hate relationship for me. When I first discovered it several years ago, I was thrilled to see that there were like minded people out there. I read it religiously every month, and then…. Well things changed. The houses got more expensive and it felt like they were loosing their sense of direction. I even went as far as to write the editor to ask what happened to the ideals of the fruit bowl manifesto. I got no response and my subscription lapsed.
Yesterday while I was at Lowes picking up some stuff to tile our bathroom, I saw the new copy of Dwell, and the cutline caught my attention. Modern Living on a Budget. That sounds more like it. The story turns out to be a good one, about a Austin couple who managed to stumble into a 1200+ square foot newly built modern home for $110,000. That includes the land. The story actually inspired me to wander over to Dwell’s new website to see what was new. There is a bunch going on like a podcast, a daily video (but no video podcast, who knows why) a blog, and the big surprise was a forum/community area called Dwell Connect. I took the time to sign up, and wasn’t completely impressed, but it is at least a step in the right direction.

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  4. Dwell Studio 2010
  5. Ma Modular

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Comments

5 Responses to “Dwell revisited”

  1. Mark on February 20th, 2007 8:41 am

    I’ve only subscribed to Dwell for a little over a year now. As a latecomer, I haven’t fully understood the flak Dwell’s gotten for perceived changes. That said, after reading (Dwell Founding Editor) Karrie Jacobs’ “Perfect $100,000 House” and following up with her site and a few emails, I’ve witnessed some of her dismay as well, and noted that she has moved over to Metropolis, which I subscribe to also.

    There’s a lot of expensive stuff featured in Dwell, but there’s a personal touch to most of the stories, which is what I appreciate. You can only document so many affordable, green, modern solutions. The letters continue to be passionate and often request other options that are met with replies to stay tuned for an upcoming issue, or a reference to a past issue.

    The affordable solution is the starting point. What can I do with it to make it unique? What’s cutting-edge (and thus likely expensive) that might come down in price so that I can adopt it at some point? What’s out there to inspire me to make my dream a reality?

    I can certainly understand a frustration with seeing something familiar change and, it sounds, become irrelevant. I find that with a healthy mix of media, that includes Dwell for me, things come together to form a complete picture. If I want affordable ideas, I can turn to Grassroots Modern, Curbly, Make, etc. If I want stories that drive me to make my dreams a reality, I’m turning to Dwell.

  2. Heather on February 20th, 2007 1:06 pm

    I agree! We subscribed to Dwell for the first two years of its publication and found ourselves turned off by the exorbitant prices of products and the aura of pretension (our opinion, YMMV). Those are what I came to expect from Metropolitan Home, so we dropped the Dwell subscription. Perhaps I’ll check out Dwell at the library.

  3. ctiare on February 20th, 2007 2:43 pm

    I absolutely agree.

    Dwell was initially a humble and intimate community of sustainable designers who wanted to make a difference. They spoke of spreading the modern message to the mainstream, one of the biproducts being reduced costs as modernity popularity grew. “The fruitbowl manifesto” was to inspire, well, a modern grassroots movement.

    But as the years went by, the magazine and its corresponding show on Fine Living, seemed to turn its back on its meager roots and cater to a more upscale crowd. So now, yes, modern design is more popular in that much more people have heard of it. But it seems more unattainable than ever, achieved only by those with exorbitant amounts of money and creative connections constantly on hand.

    I messaged the owner of this blog via Dwell Community yesterday, commending s/he on the admirable motives and efforts of this particular site. (Yes, there is much room for improvement on dwell.leveragesoftware.com.) Keep up the good work.

  4. Dwell: Good Design Means Standards at blunderWerkz Design Notes on February 23rd, 2007 1:42 pm

    [...] Dwell’s big, expensive, Web 2.0-ish release is being hailed around the web. [here, and here, and here] [...]

  5. Matt on February 25th, 2007 8:09 am

    Dwell’s gotta run out of wealthy wire-framed-glasses-wearing architect/designer couples to profile someday. Then maybe I’ll consider buying it again.

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