Last year, Airbnb introduced a global ban on “party houses,” or listings that repeatedly caused a nuisance within their community. It didn’t seem too drastic of a measure—according to the home-sharing behemoth, 73 percent of listings already prohibited parties in their house rules. Enter the coronavirus, which encouraged Airbnb to crack down on large gatherings even further. When the pandemic first broke out, Airbnb removed the “event-friendly” search filter from its platform and suggested that users adhere to local Covid-19 health mandates for social distancing. As of yesterday, however, the platform has issued a ban on all parties at all properties worldwide until further notice.

In a blog post, Airbnb declared that taking such drastic measures is in the best interest of public health. “In many large jurisdictions, public health mandates on gatherings have changed—and in some places swung back and forth in response to the changing rates of Covid-19 cases—as have regulations on bars, clubs, and pubs. Some have chosen to take bar and club behavior to homes, sometimes rented through our platform. We think such conduct is incredibly irresponsible—we do not want that type of business, and anyone engaged in or allowing that behavior does not belong on our platform.” To enforce the ban, occupancy at Airbnb listings will be capped at 16 people, and the company may pursue legal action for hosts or guests that try to skirt the rules.

The new policy arrives during a turbulent year for the home-sharing platform, which has suffered greatly at the hands of the coronavirus pandemic. In May, the company laid off 1,900 employees, or about 25 percent of its workforce, after mass cancellations of bookings followed government-mandated stay-at-home orders. “Airbnb’s business has been hit hard,” said Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky, who revealed that the company’s 2020 revenue was expected to be half of the previous year’s. Earlier this week, however, Airbnb confidentially filed to go public despite the ongoing financial fallout.

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When: Until April 18, 2021

Where: Brooklyn Bridge Park

What: Auditory interventions have become commonplace for city dwellers this year, whether through evening cheers for essential workers or the chanting voices of protesters demanding racial justice. Riffing on this notion, the artist Davina Semo reveals five cast-bronze bells that recall the maritime communications once frequent at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s waterfront site.

Park goers are free to ring the bells, adding their own contribution to the city’s soundscape. Each bell takes on an elongated shape, dangles from a heavy industrial steel frame, and is coated in bright orange paint to signify alarm. Semo drilled holes through each bell, creating constellations of light and staccato patterns on their exterior shells that give each sculpture a distinct identity—Reflector, Singer, Dreamer, Listener, and Mother—expressed in the subtle nuances in their tone when rung.

In the internet’s early days, skeptics dismissed the notion of selling furniture online—design must be experienced in-person before the consumer can make informed decisions, right? New research from Furniture Today’s Strategic Insights report, an annual survey of the 25 largest furniture retailers, may suggest otherwise. The report finds that e-commerce players such as Amazon and Wayfair showed a 28 percent year-over-year growth rate in retail sales from 2018 to 2019, for a combined total of $7.5 billion. Experts predict that the 2020 upswing will be even greater: Wayfair has reported staggering growth during the pandemic, including 84 percent in the past quarter, perhaps proving the staying power of buying furniture sight unseen.

At first glance, the textile sculptures of Mary Little suggest an artist who has been painstakingly mastering her chosen medium of heavyweight canvas for decades—one who is very much attuned to the material’s unpredictability and poetic potential. Little’s tapestry-like works often evoke the tranquil landscapes from her upbringing in Northern Ireland, where she grew up surrounded by grasslands and rolling hills before her family relocated to Belfast. Recreating those idyllic settings plays a crucial role in Little’s work: “I need to focus on the good in my heart and environment. I claim the right to make beauty, to allow inner calm, to make peace.”

Given the calming nature of her works, one may never guess that Little, who maintains a small live-in studio in Downtown Los Angeles, originally found her footing as a product designer, having devised one-off collectible furnishings that now grace the permanent collections of the Vitra Design Museum and Musée des Arts Décoratifs. It wasn’t until a 2014 move to California that Little started working exclusively with heavyweight canvas, a material that enables her to experiment and take creative risks. It also affords her the clarity to reflect on turbulent times, which informs her latest exhibition, “Reflections,” a virtual show presented in collaboration with the local up-and-comers Estudio Persona.

HBF Textiles gives dimension to the lives and spaces of users, designers and communities through the essential qualities of fabric. The brand reveals the maker’s hand and the intentionality of design in everything it does, and its expertise comes from understanding the inherent qualities of fabric, including yarn, dyeing, spinning, structure, and weave.

Surface Says: Taking pride in North Carolina’s illustrious 200-year legacy of textile manufacturing, HBF Textiles finds its creative identity in weaving together narratives and generations. The brand displays expertise with myriad materials: felt, twine, quilt, leather, and more.

For charity, Sacha Jafri is creating the world’s largest work on canvas.

Harikrishnan’s viral blow-up latex trousers are finally available for purchase.

In Belgium, Burger King hands out masks that reveal each customer’s order.

This new mural sees a bold rug appear to cascade down a public staircase.