What now feels like forever ago, I visited Lake Lugano en route to the 2019 Salon del Mobile in Milan. One morning I took a walk, with no destination or purpose beyond absorbing the landscape. Until I came upon a gate and beyond it, a simple little house. Vines had grown across the gate, so someone, at some point, must have pulled them.

I think it was the layered history of the gate and its artful “undoing” over time that captivated me. The painted metal where the vines had been pried off revealed tiny glimpses of the earlier vermilion paint. The combination was irresistible: the texture and the totally unintentional “artful” layering. I loved that gate.

When you notice something, and start to think about what you are seeing, you can also think about what you aren’t seeing: its story. As we begin a project, we look back—to a place’s history—and we look ahead. Thinking about what a place will feel like over time inspires us. Nostalgically —