Issue 9
ISSUE
STORY TYPE
AUTHOR
13
BOOK REVIEW
November 25, 2024
A Mind-Body Experience of Architecture, Delivered in a Photo
by Marianela D’Aprile
13
PERSPECTIVE
November 18, 2024
Seeing Chinatown as a Readymade
by Philip Poon
13
PEOPLE
November 11, 2024
The Place of the Handmade Artifact in a Tech-Obsessed Era
by Anne Quito
13
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
November 4, 2024
How a Storied Printmaker Advances the Practice of Architecture
by Diana Budds
12
PEOPLE
October 21, 2024
Sounding Out a Better Way to Build
by Jesse Dorris
12
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
October 7, 2024
What It Means—and What It’s Worth—to Be “Light”
by Julie Lasky
12
PERSPECTIVE
September 23, 2024
Redefining “Iconic” Architecture and Ideals
by Sophie Lovell
12
PERSPECTIVE
September 9, 2024
Surrendering to What Is
by Marianne Krogh
11
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
August 26, 2024
Sometimes, Democratic Design Doesn’t “Look” Like Anything
by Zach Mortice
11
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
August 19, 2024
What Does Your Home Say About You?
by Shane Reiner-Roth
11
BOOK REVIEW
August 12, 2024
Is Building Better Cities a Dream Within Reach?
by Michael Webb
11
PEOPLE
August 5, 2024
The Value of Unbuilt Buildings
by George Kafka
11
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
July 29, 2024
Future-Proofing a Home Where Water Is a Focus and a Thread
by Alexandra Lange
11
BOOK REVIEW
July 22, 2024
Modernist Town, U.S.A.
by Ian Volner
11
PEOPLE
July 15, 2024
Buildings That Grow from a Place
by Anthony Paletta
10
URBANISM
June 24, 2024
What We Lose When a Historic Building Is Demolished
by Owen Hatherley
10
PERSPECTIVE
June 17, 2024
We Need More Than Fewer, Better Things
by Deb Chachra
10
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
June 3, 2024
An Ode to Garages
by Charlie Weak
10
PERSPECTIVE
May 28, 2024
In Search of Domestic Kintsugi
by Edwin Heathcote
10
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
May 13, 2024
The Perils of the Landscapes We Make
by Karrie Jacobs
10
PERSPECTIVE
May 6, 2024
Using Simple Tools as a Radical Act of Independence
by Jarrett Fuller
9
PERSPECTIVE
April 29, 2024
Why Can’t I Just Go Home?
by Eva Hagberg
9
PEOPLE
April 22, 2024
Why Did Our Homes Stop Evolving?
by George Kafka
9
ROUNDTABLE
April 8, 2024
Spaces Where the Body Is a Vital Force
by Tiffany Jow
9
BOOK REVIEW
April 1, 2024
Tracing the Agency of Women as Users and Experts of Architecture
by Mimi Zeiger
9
PERSPECTIVE
March 25, 2024
Are You Sitting in a Non-Place?
by Mzwakhe Ndlovu
9
ROUNDTABLE
March 11, 2024
At Home, Connecting in Place
by Marianela D’Aprile
9
PEOPLE
March 4, 2024
VALIE EXPORT’s Tactical Urbanism
by Alissa Walker
8
PERSPECTIVE
February 26, 2024
What the “Whole Earth Catalog” Taught Me About Building Utopias
by Anjulie Rao
8
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
February 19, 2024
How a Run-Down District in London Became a Model for Neighborhood Revitalization
by Ellen Peirson
8
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
February 12, 2024
In Brooklyn, Housing That Defies the Status Quo
by Gideon Fink Shapiro
8
PERSPECTIVE
February 5, 2024
That “Net-Zero” Home Is Probably Living a Lie
by Fred A. Bernstein
8
PERSPECTIVE
January 22, 2024
The Virtue of Corporate Architecture Firms
by Kate Wagner
8
PERSPECTIVE
January 16, 2024
How Infrastructure Shapes Us
by Deb Chachra
8
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
January 8, 2024
The Defiance of Desire Lines
by Jim Stephenson
7
PEOPLE
December 18, 2023
This House Is Related to You and to Your Nonhuman Relatives
by Sebastián López Cardozo
7
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
December 11, 2023
What’s the Point of the Plus Pool?
by Ian Volner
7
BOOK REVIEW
December 4, 2023
The Extraordinary Link Between Aerobics and Architecture
by Jarrett Fuller
7
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
November 27, 2023
Architecture That Promotes Healing and Fortifies Us for Action
by Kathryn O’Rourke
7
PEOPLE
November 6, 2023
How to Design for Experience
by Diana Budds
7
PEOPLE
October 30, 2023
The Meaty Objects at Marta
by Jonathan Griffin
6
OBJECTS
October 23, 2023
How Oliver Grabes Led Braun Back to Its Roots
by Marianela D’Aprile
6
URBANISM
October 16, 2023
Can Adaptive Reuse Fuel Equitable Revitalization?
by Clayton Page Aldern
6
PERSPECTIVE
October 9, 2023
What’s the Point of a Tiny Home?
by Mimi Zeiger
6
OBJECTS
October 2, 2023
A Book Where Torn-Paper Blobs Convey Big Ideas
by Julie Lasky
6
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
September 24, 2023
The Architecture of Doing Nothing
by Edwin Heathcote
6
BOOK REVIEW
September 18, 2023
What the “Liebes Look” Says About Dorothy Liebes
by Debika Ray
6
PEOPLE
September 11, 2023
Roy McMakin’s Overpowering Simplicity
by Eva Hagberg
6
OBJECTS
September 5, 2023
Minimalism’s Specific Objecthood, Interpreted by Designers of Today
by Glenn Adamson
5
ROUNDTABLE
August 28, 2023
How Joan Jonas and Eiko Otake Navigate Transition
by Siobhan Burke
5
OBJECTS
August 21, 2023
The Future-Proofing Work of Design-Brand Archivists
by Adrian Madlener
5
URBANISM
August 14, 2023
Can a Church Solve Canada’s Housing Crisis?
by Alex Bozikovic
5
PEOPLE
August 7, 2023
In Search of Healing, Helen Cammock Confronts the Past
by Jesse Dorris
5
URBANISM
July 31, 2023
What Dead Malls, Office Parks, and Big-Box Stores Can Do for Housing
by Ian Volner
5
PERSPECTIVE
July 24, 2023
A Righteous Way to Solve “Wicked” Problems
by Susan Yelavich
5
OBJECTS
July 17, 2023
Making a Mess, with a Higher Purpose
by Andrew Russeth
5
ROUNDTABLE
July 10, 2023
How to Emerge from a Starchitect’s Shadow
by Cynthia Rosenfeld
4
PEOPLE
June 26, 2023
There Is No One-Size-Fits-All in Architecture
by Marianela D’Aprile
4
PEOPLE
June 19, 2023
How Time Shapes Amin Taha’s Unconventionally Handsome Buildings
by George Kafka
4
PEOPLE
June 12, 2023
Seeing and Being Seen in JEB’s Radical Archive of Lesbian Photography
by Svetlana Kitto
4
PERSPECTIVE
June 5, 2023
In Built Environments, Planting Where It Matters Most
by Karrie Jacobs
3
PERSPECTIVE
May 30, 2023
On the Home Front, a Latine Aesthetic’s Ordinary Exuberance
by Anjulie Rao
3
PERSPECTIVE
May 21, 2023
For a Selfie (and Enlightenment), Make a Pilgrimage to Bridge No. 3
by Alexandra Lange
3
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
May 8, 2023
The Building Materials of the Future Might Be Growing in Your Backyard
by Marianna Janowicz
3
BOOK REVIEW
May 1, 2023
Moving Beyond the “Fetishisation of the Forest”
by Edwin Heathcote
2
ROUNDTABLE
April 24, 2023
Is Craft Still Synonymous with the Hand?
by Tiffany Jow
2
PEOPLE
April 17, 2023
A Historian Debunks Myths About Lacemaking, On LaceTok and IRL
by Julie Lasky
2
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
April 10, 2023
How AI Helps Architects Design, and Refine, Their Buildings
by Ian Volner
2
PEOPLE
April 3, 2023
Merging Computer and Loom, a Septuagenarian Artist Weaves Her View of the World
by Francesca Perry
1
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
March 27, 2023
Words That Impede Architecture, According to Reinier de Graaf
by Osman Can Yerebakan
1
PEOPLE
March 20, 2023
Painting With Plaster, Monica Curiel Finds a Release
by Andrew Russeth
1
PERSPECTIVE
March 13, 2023
Rules and Roles in Life, Love, and Architecture
by Eva Hagberg
1
Roundtable
March 6, 2023
A Design Movement That Pushes Beyond Architecture’s Limitations
by Tiffany Jow
0
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
February 7, 2023
To Improve the Future of Public Housing, This Architecture Firm Looks to the Past
by Ian Volner
0
OBJECTS
February 7, 2023
The Radical Potential of “Prime Objects”
by Glenn Adamson
0
PEOPLE
February 20, 2023
Xiyadie’s Queer Cosmos
by Xin Wang
0
PEOPLE
February 13, 2023
How Michael J. Love’s Subversive Tap Dancing Steps Forward
by Jesse Dorris
0
SHOW AND TELL
February 7, 2023
Finding Healing and Transformation Through Good Black Art
by Folasade Ologundudu
0
BOOK REVIEW
February 13, 2023
How Stephen Burks “Future-Proofs” Craft
by Francesca Perry
0
ROUNDTABLE
February 27, 2023
Making Use of End Users’ Indispensable Wisdom
by Tiffany Jow
0
PEOPLE
February 7, 2023
The New Lessons Architect Steven Harris Learns from Driving Old Porsches
by Jonathan Schultz
0
PERSPECTIVE
February 7, 2023
The Day Architecture Stopped
by Kate Wagner
0
OBJECTS
February 7, 2023
The Overlooked Potential of Everyday Objects
by Adrian Madlener
0
ROUNDTABLE
February 7, 2023
A Conversation About Generalists, Velocity, and the Source of Innovation
by Tiffany Jow
0
OBJECTS
February 7, 2023
Using a Fungi-Infused Paste, Blast Studio Turns Trash Into Treasure
by Natalia Rachlin
Untapped is published by the design company Henrybuilt.
THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
01.08.2024
The Defiance of Desire Lines

Observations on how ordinary people inhabit the built environment from an architectural filmmaker and photographer.

Desire line cutting diagonally across green grass with daisies in it
A desire line made by the occupant’s feet at Gardener’s Cottage, designed by PAD Studio. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


When I arrive on site to document a building, there are several things I am hoping for: good light, a hot cuppa, and something indescribable that people younger than me would call “good vibes,” to name a few. But the first (and not least important) thing I hope for is that the building is actually finished.

This might seem like a given for someone who is paid by architects to photograph their work, but it’s not. The impact of trying to make work at an unfinished or unoccupied building is manyfold. There are ways to get around it for sure, but one thing that’s truly difficult to fake is the real, unstaged presence of people in that space.

I’m lucky in my job. I have seen a lot of completed projects, and so I have uncommon insight into the ways these spaces are populated and used after the architect has left the building. Recently, I made a film about a private home in the Scottish countryside, designed by the architecture studio Denizen Works, that included an 18-foot-high entrance hall with one express purpose: to hold an enormous Christmas tree when the time came round each year.

It is an amazing space with a beautiful gold-tinted light well, but I wonder about the other 11 months of the year, and all the ways the family will end up using the hall when it doesn’t have a Christmas tree in it. Maybe it will become a boot room of sorts? Or someone will fill it with plants, put a bench in there, or create a gallery of family photographs? It’s probably large enough to hold a badminton court. Do they even play badminton? Maybe a giant train set? All of the above, probably—I’ll never know—but it’s fun to imagine the possibilities that an open, free space in a home like that offers the people who live there. Not all architects consider those possibilities, or the importance of designing for them. People do not use the same spaces in the same ways.

A close up of a brown wall with two small windows in it and a brown ceiling with a hole in it for a Christmas tree
A room for a Christmas tree, and everything else, at Hundred Acre Wood, a home designed by Denizen Works. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


On any given day on location, I’m chasing the first photo or film scene that makes me smile. Once I have the first one in the box, I can relax. Invariably that moment is a human one. I love to see the mess of life in architecture.

I refer to my work as “controlled chaos” and “managed mess.” Sometimes it’s a pair of shoes kicked off in the hall, and other times it’s a whole room that has been repurposed. In my experience, there have been times when architecture is used in unanticipated ways, and times when the design of a space allows for that transgression of use in a more purposeful and playful way. When I get to capture those moments, I know I’m going to have a good day.

Close up of brown shoes under a brown wooden bench against a concrete wall
A discarded pair of sneakers inside the otherwise well-ordered Secular Retreat, designed by Peter Zumthor and Mole Architects for Living Architecture. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


In the era of the Instagram-ready project, there is a continuation of an age-old trend in architecture to create buildings as edifice. Looming large in our feeds, we are shown spaces that are clinically lined up, beautifully styled and dizzying in their scale and intention. Often there are no people present, and if there are, they are equally as manicured and posed as the bricks and mortar.

For many designers and architects, the idea that something which has been so carefully executed could be misused or misunderstood by the end user is a source of anxiety. Once the architect has left the building, though, there’s no recourse. I’ve seen it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly. And yet I find the larger concept of desire lines—the tracks left by people creating their own paths through green spaces—in architecture to be beautiful, a record of small acts of civil disobedience, resisting the CGI and well-considered plans. People showing they won’t be told what to do. These surprising and infinitely understandable acts of engagement certainly make for better images, filled with humor and humanity.

Large 3-D grid structure of thin white bars with two women standing on it talking and a baby below them climbing on it
Sou Fujimoto created something so open to interpretation for his Serpentine Pavilion in 2013 that only children had the imagination to use it to its full potential. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


Much like a physical desire line in urban planning, a tension exists between what the architect intends and the eternal human yearning to have a choice, to not be dictated to, to resist or transgress.

In my opinion, the reason any of my images are successful is because they communicate the way the building in question is being used, and the more unexpected the better. I try to practice a slow, considered, experiential type of photography, and that means spending time in a place. The best, most successful (and fun) days are an act of collaboration between myself and the architect, and an often unspoken collaboration with the end users and the building itself.

Candid shot of two parents and two children, one of whom is wearing a hulk costume, standing in front of Maxxi
The Hulk, even at Zaha Hadid’s Maxxi in Rome, does not respect your first-year architecture field trip selfie. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


With architect Tina Bergman in Sweden last year, I had originally planned to photograph a small cabin she designed when snow was on the ground, but due to rescheduling we ended up visiting the site in late September. Tina had driven us hours into the hills and the countryside, and we had happily chatted about life, work, bears, and driving in the dark.

The next morning, having arrived after sunset, we realized that we weren’t surrounded by snow, but instead, a glorious birch forest that had just turned all the shades of gold you could imagine. Electrified by the potential, I went to recce the site and ended up going on a long walk with Tina, the owner of the cabin, and her dog. When we returned to the cabin I got an opportunity to see what the structure was really made for. We left our shoes by the door, the fire was lit, we had coffee and cake, and I began the process of documentation in earnest unencumbered by any need to style and preen.

Wide shot of two people and a dog wandering rust-colored hills in Tänndalen, Sweden
A walk in the golden hills around Tänndalen, Sweden. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


The resulting photographs are some of my favorites from that year, precisely because together, the three of us (and the dog) inhabited the space, showing how the little cabin, while having prescribed uses, also gives the people in that space an opportunity to choose how it gets used. The photographic series from that weekend tells a story of the place, and they show that Tina, as a designer, has listened not only to her client, but also the place in which the cabin is built. Her design allows the end user to impose a logic of their own on the space—something I have seen time and again in clever and generous design.

Interior shot of a modern wooden living room with the feet of someone lying down propped up on the couch
Feet up after a walk at The Hat House, designed by Tina Bergman. (Photo: Jim Stephenson) 


An end-of-terrace extension to a home in Glasgow might not be the most obvious gathering space for the local community, but Studio Kāp’s decision not to prescribe its use too specifically has created the dining room its client initially asked for: It is a prayer space, a room of counsel, an area for community meals, a homework desk, a dining room. Safe to say, the architects were thrilled about this outcome.

Three adults sitting and talking in a large corner window seat of a room with wooden walls and ceiling
A community space in a private home in Glasgow, designed by Studio Kāp. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


Years ago in Wrexham, whilst interviewing Sarah Featherstone of the architecture practice Featherstone Young for a film I was making about one of its projects—an art venue, market, and community space called Tŷ Pawb—she introduced me to its “baggy space” concept. Here was an idea, practical in its application, that explicitly said to the occupants of a building, “Here, it’s yours, you can do whatever you like with it.”

Dark blue birthday balloon that has floated up to the ceiling of the Sands End Arts and Community Centre
The ghost of birthday parties past at Sands End Arts and Community Centre, designed by Mae Architects. (Photo: Jim Stephenson)


This has stuck with me. And I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the joy I find in the helium balloon clinging to the ceiling at Glasgow’s Kinning Park or at London’s Sands End Arts and Community Centre, or at the graffitied heart of Somerset’s East Quay—all mess, all signs of resistance to the styled and preened—are signs the building is loved. Signs that it does the job it’s supposed to for a person or group of people who feel comfortable enough there, who have been afforded enough agency, to make it their own.


An exhibition of Stephenson’s work, presented as a dual-screen film installation and titled “The Architect Has Left the Building,” is on view at Newcastle University’s Farrell Centre through February 25. It was previously on view at the Royal Institute of British Architects, which commissioned the project.

This story was written with Stephenson’s long-term creative partner and wife, Sofia-Kathryn Smith.