Suzy Annetta G reat

Editor-in-Chief

architecture does more than just add visual interest and texture to the built landscape. Great architecture can lift the spirit and enable individuals to connect with their communities. It has the ability to shape our behaviour. It can improve our mental well-being. And it has the potential to not just save energy, but to produce more than it consumes. Great architecture is powerful.

Welcome to our annual cross-disciplinary edition: this year, we present The Architecture Issue, in which we focus on the world of architecture more keenly than we would in a regular issue. In our recently launched story format Studio Culture, we look inside the Jakarta office of architectural practice d-associates, whose principals Gregorius ‘Supie' Yolodi and Maria Rosantina have created an urban oasis that perfectly showcases their talent and philosophy. And in A Day in the Life, another new addition to our table of contents, we get a glimpse into the daily rituals and practices of renowned Vietnamese architect Võ Trọng Nghĩa, which border on the monastic.

In our Style section, we meet Los Angeles-based Japanese fashion designer Airi Isoda and her partner Ryan Upton, both of whom are trained architects and whose label wrkshp is a reflection of how one discipline informs the other in their practice.

We bring architecture to armchair travellers (is there any other kind right now?) with Ben Hosking's photo essay on the built marvels of Chandigarh, the capital of both Punjab and Haryana in India, which is widely considered to be one of the most successful examples of urban planning and modern architecture of the 20th century.

And of course, we have a curated selection of homes — from Taipei and Hong Kong to Japan, Singapore and Vietnam — each architecturally designed, some inhabited by the architect or designer themselves and all unique.

I sincerely hope that you enjoy this year's first issue of Design Anthology, and with it we wish you all a happy new year. May 2021 be a kinder and gentler year for us all.