Description
“Home” deals with people and their homes. Reflecting on the building blocks of life is of paramount importance—especially in times of difficulty—and that this foundation begins in the home. We took a break from showcasing one single brand to focusing on individual spaces where we create and live myriad stories of our lives.
“The Home” focuses on houses that shows a distinct attitude of the owner on the way he or she views the space rather than just style, size, or structure. We also categorized the homes that share a similar value: A person who lives and works from home would go under ‘Home Office’ while someone who chose to live in the suburban area that prefers freedom over convenience would be categorized as ‘Rural Life’. Starting with our short interview with Magazine B founder and publisher Suyong Joh, Magazine B’s editorial team met with numerous creators all over the world to hear their opinion on the meaning and purpose of home and how homes can be so much more than the typical house we experience in our daily lives.
“HOME” PUBLISHER’S NOTE:
I wonder how you have been doing. After a long hiatus, I feel both excited and purposive. Most are treading through unfamiliar and uncertain times as the pandemic restricts us from our ordinary activities. For the editors at B, it was certainly not an easy decision to suspend our publications, albeit temporarily. Getting an issue out every month is second nature in our industry, so much so that we often quip: “There will always be deadlines—even during a war.”
This month, we present “The Home”, which is the product of us admitting that the COVID- 19 pandemic overpowers these seemingly unshakable deadlines and our effort to weather the storm. As seen by the title, The Home deals with people and the home. We settled quickly on the home as the topic because we believe that reflecting on the building blocks of life is of paramount importance—especially in times of difficulty—and that this foundation begins in the home. That is, we took a break from visiting scenes showcasing one single brand to individual spaces where our lives leave behind myriad stories.
“The convergence of B and the home” may sound a bit high flown, but the series of homes we’ve visited for interviews offered us meaningful insight. As people feel the freest and become their truest selves in their own private spaces, we were able to observe subtle facets about each interviewee in their home. For example, we got a new take on movie director Ned Benson at his place in Venice, Los Angeles, even though we have seen him three times from our Le Labo issue to this issue of The Home. We also got to meet up with the husband-and-wife founders of Copenhagen’s fashion brand Ganni along with the CEO of creative agency Moon International in their homes. In fact, this is why B asks brand founders, collaborators, and users to interview in their personal spaces instead of in studios or cafés. Many are apprehensive about showing us their homes because they want to keep their public lives separate from their personal lives, but recently more interviewees have readily opened the doors to us—perhaps because they’re now more accustomed to revealing their private lives on social media. Indeed, B editors and correspondents for The Home were welcomed into about ten homes in spite of the pandemic. In this contactless era, we are all longing for a more human touch. We certainly felt the warmth of these invitations, and we’d like to thank all our interviewees again.
As I mentioned earlier, the home is where people become their true selves, and I think a good home is a place that really reflects the essence of the people living there. That’s why a good home cannot be built quickly no matter how much energy and money is invested. Building a good home is the result of inevitable trial and error. Maybe there’s no such thing as a completed home because home evolves constantly alongside the people living in it. And the changes in each home also stack up over time. That’s the kind of home that made it into The Home. B searched for spaces that reflected each resident’s philosophy on what a home is rather than a certain configuration, scale, or style, and we classified similar types of homes by these visions.
“THE SHOP” and The NEIGHBORHOOD are other issues in this series.