What’s Happening: An new initiative launched by SWA is building employment opportunities for Ukrainian design professionals displaced by the war.

The Download: As Russia’s war on Ukraine continues, the local architecture and design industry is suffering along with everyone else. The Biden administration recently announced it will help a vanishing small number of potential refugees who have U.S. sponsors, while businesses and local governments across Europe are finding ways to offer employment directly to those who reach their borders.

It’s easy to feel helpless in the face of geopolitical atrocities, and simultaneously over- and underwhelmed by the scope and speed of bureaucratic responses. But direct action is possible. Kinder Baumgardner formulated one method: Support by Design, an initiative the managing principal of landscape architecture firm SWA began simply by cold emailing Ukrainian designers. Did they need work? Did they know others who needed it?

Baumgardner compiled a spreadsheet of designers and their portfolios, along with information including whether they’re enlisted in the civil defense force and thus can only work part-time, and whether they’re in Ukraine or settling elsewhere. Firms took notice: to date, according to Fast Company, SWA has hired eight off the spreadsheet; Chicago’s Site Design Group hired another individual and put a Ukraine-based firm of two dozen on contract; Gensler is also exploring possibilities. The Landscape Architecture Foundation and ASLA have expressed their support, too.

So far, architects who’ve fled their homes are finding meaning in the program. As the Ukrainian landscape architect Anna Kulvanovska stated, “I am enjoying the project work—the brainstorming, the exchange of ideas, work culture, and design culture. Life in Ukraine will never be the same, and of course we are angry and upset and want to rebuild our cities. It’s affirming for us to be connected to the broader professional community, and it makes a difference for us individually.”

In Their Own Words: “Some firms are keeping it fairly simple and using Ukrainian designers on a task-by-task basis, and others are remotely embedding them into their office culture,” Baumgardner says. “We’ve found that you just have to take the first step of reaching out to someone on the list, chat with them about their expertise and situation… and then just give it a try.”

Surface Says: While contract work like this is no substitute for the careers the war has disrupted, it’s a necessary start.

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Wilco may have spent the last 20 years trying to break your heart with their masterpiece Yankee Hotel Foxtrot album. Now, they’re trying to make you breakfast. A collab with fellow Chicagoans Foxtrot and artist Louie Capozzoli, the Foxtrot x Wilco collection brings to the table boxes of cinnamon Wilc-O’s cereal with Off Limits, along with a sour mix of I Am Trying to Eat Your Heart Gummies for snackers and a Jesus Don’t Cry Pilsner with Great Central Brewing to wash down the tears.

A merch line includes a Manager’s Jacket fans will be asking to see, T-shirts, and the inevitable Dad Hat for this most dad-rock of bands. The limited-edition collections take over Foxtrot’s Old Town Store in Chicago, and will be available at locations in Dallas, D.C., and Virginia, along with Foxtrot Anywhere for other customers.

The UK designates buildings “of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve it” with the listing Grade II. A particularly fine example of a manor with such interest can be found on London’s lush Grosvenor Square in posh Mayfair. There, a 1906 Edwardian gem now houses The Twenty Two hotel and private members club.

Designer Natalia Miyar restored many of the former private home’s double-height ceilings and original architectural delights while layering 30 bedrooms and suites—not to mention the must-stay mews house, with bespoke wall coverings and treatments of velvet and silk. Executive chef Alan Christie plates up Mediterranean takes on British classics in the public restaurant, while a quartet of bars offer lubrication via the brand’s own spirits. But the true luxuries are reserved for The Twenty Two club members and hotel guests: a private dining room and bar, collab spaces, and an outdoor terrace which, no doubt, will be the perfect spot to sip a cocktail and watch past meet present in the Grosvenor Square gardens.

Let’s face it: no one likes going to the dentist. And they know it. You need us more than we need you, they seem to say. Come for the scraping and drilling; stay for the sterile, lifeless confines. That’s where Tend comes in. Former SmileDirectClub CEO Doug Hudson co-founded the New York City startup with something of a quotidian moonshot: take the routine out of dental hygiene, and make biannual checkups experiences rather than chores.

Tend does this by mirroring “touchpoints” in the hospitality process. It’s how the sleek, muted tones and utter clarity of its website flow seamlessly into the in-person experience. It’s how you forget, until you’re peering up at the ceiling-mounted television through Warby Parker sunglasses and basking in the dulcet tones of Sir David Attenborough through Beats headphones, that you selected Our Planet when you scheduled. Brushing your teeth isn’t so mundane when you’re doing it inside of an artistic selfie studio with custom sinks by Montreal makers Concrete Cat.

Everything is cohesive. The paint and wall coverings speak to the honey-colored cabinets, which speak to the custom carpets and tooth-shaped fixtures, which speak to the fine-tuned lighting. Tend’s language is calm. So, yeah, patients may leave appropriately shamed about their non-existent flossing regimen. But they may actually be glad to return and report on their progress.

Bert Furnari’s Sea Foam Mirror is an investigation into the possibilities of aluminum. Like the undulating formations found in the ocean’s waves, the mirror’s playful shape evokes the organic beauty of nature. More than an homage, the abstract teal-tone frame is crafted out of aluminum—Earth’s most common element with 100 percent recycling properties.

Like most of his work, the Sea Foam Mirror speaks to Furnari’s daring, sculptural style achieved through experimentation with a malleable type of aluminum called heavy gauge. Whether it be his squiggly powder-coated coffee tables or other free-form mirrors resembling Swiss cheese, the artist and self-taught metal fabricator from Easton, Pennsylvania, imbues a sense of whimsy into his one-off furniture creations.

The 30-year-old flagship of Mumbai’s beloved bookstore chain Crossword is showing off a bold new look thanks to local designer Ajay Shah, who aimed to infuse the space with color and exuberance. Yayoi Kusama–inspired polka dots, mobile Mondrian-style display boxes, and an abstract arboreal ceiling installation are a few of the playful new features that foster an atmosphere of childlike whimsy.

In the loft space, an outpost of the sustainably minded Third Wave Coffee serves visitors cups of fresh brew made with fair-trade beans from farms in the Indian regions of Chikmagalur and the Nilgiris. For Shah, the commission was a dream project that tapped into his experience as a frequent customer—and as a retailer who sells his stationery line, Rubberband, onsite.

RIOS is an international design collective working beyond boundaries to inventively combine disciplines and amplify the impact of design. Combined, the firm’s talents comprise a wide range of professional skills including architecture, landscape, urban planning, interior design, video, graphics and signage, experiential, and product design. Its work is irreversibly connected to the narrative of place and the complex order of human culture, creating solutions that are joyful, authentic, and unexpected.

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