So far this year, more than 19,500 migrants have successfully fled war-torn Libya, embarking on a risky voyage across the Mediterranean to reach either Italy or Malta. Aiding these efforts is a pink motor yacht recently commissioned by the elusive British street artist Banksy, long a champion of social causes. Named Louise Michel after the French feminist anarchist and helmed by a team of 10 anti-fascist activists, the vessel secretly set sail from the Spanish seaport of Burriana, which is located near Valencia, on August 18 to rescue 89 distressed migrants stranded on a rubber dinghy in the central Mediterranean.

Louise Michel differs from most NGO rescue vessels. For one, Banksy painted its 100-foot-long body bright pink, including an artwork that depicts a girl wearing a life vest and holding a heart-shaped safety buoy. (It’s a maritime nod to the artist’s famed Girl With Balloon, a series of stencil murals that he has used several times to support social campaigns.) Reaching a top speed of 27 knots, the agile Louise Michel can likely outrun Libyan authorities before they “get to boats with refugees and migrants and pull them back to detention camps,” says Pia Kemp, a longtime activist chosen by Banksy to spearhead the project.

Since setting sail, Louise Michel successfully rescued its 89 migrants. During the mission, however, it encountered another ship with 130 people, who were also rescued. With more than 200 people aboard, the crew could no longer steer the ship due to overcrowding, and issued a distress call. Italian authorities near the island of Lampedusa, long a gateway to Europe for migrants, took in 49 of the most vulnerable passengers and transferred the rest to a different humanitarian ship. On a video of the rescue mission posted to Instagram, Banksy commented that EU authorities often ignore distress calls from “non-Europeans.” Louise Michel’s crew echoed his concerns, urging EU member states to open their ports to migrants: “The struggle of the survivors is not over.”

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When: Until Dec. 7

Where: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

What: Kicking off the Met’s long-awaited reopening, Zamora’s New York solo debut brings a curved, gridded brick wall to the museum’s Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden. Referencing celosía walls common throughout Middle Eastern and African architecture, Lattice Detour features terracotta bricks made from Mexican earth and laid out in a lattice-like construction, with thousands of hollow squares framing views of the Manhattan skyline. In doing so, the sculpture stands as a monument to openness at a time when walls, especially those along the U.S.-Mexico border, carry painful political overtones.

Are New Yorkers fleeing to the suburbs? According to Miller Samuel Real Estate Appraisers & Consultants, the answer is a resounding yes. Recent research reports a 44 percent increase in home sales for nearby suburban counties versus the previous year; compare that to a 56 percent decline in the number of properties sold in Manhattan during that same time frame.

Health concerns about living in dense locales, coupled with the prospect of remote work as office buildings remain closed, are fueling the flight, which may inhibit the city’s economic recovery and ability to offer quality-of-life services. Still, these migratory patterns are nothing new, and hardly signal a demise of urban life. The city bounced back after previous crises such as Hurricane Sandy and 9/11, and as Mayor Bill de Blasio notes, “if you don’t think New York City is coming back, then you don’t know New York City.”

Following in the footsteps of Isamu Noguchi and Aldo van Eyck, the New York studio Architensions has forayed into the art of play. With nods to Noguchi’s freeform “Contoured Playground” and van Eyck’s Amsterdam series of open-function structures, Architensions’ Children’s Playspace in Brooklyn gleans inspiration from nature. The indoor playground’s layout abstracts the movement through woodland forts, light speckling through trees, and the reflection of the sun off snow.

For Architensions, the project was driven by a few central prompts: “How can the built environment relate to children’s imagination, cognitive development, and aesthetic appeal? Is it possible to merge aesthetics and function for a space that appeals to children?” asks co-principal Alessandro Orsini. “The goal is to iconize the forms to make them recognizable and welcoming for the children and, at the same time, to create inspiring spaces where they will feel in control of their environments.”

Based in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, David Trubridge is a globally renowned design studio inspired by the patterns observed in nature and traditional island cultures.

Surface Says: David Trubridge’s designs balance mathematics, nature, and wonder in perfect proportions. His language rings clear across his lighting, furniture, and jewelry collections.

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