Behind the Cover – October

Early on, it was decided that our cover story would be about activist-design—what we’re calling ‘public-interest architecture.’ We wanted to convey the power architects have on their local communities, and ultimately on the world. But visualizing this idea was not easy—there was no single image in the story that captured it. So we contacted Chris Ro, of the graphic-design studio ADearFriend, whose ability to illustrate conceptual ideas had long impressed us. He came up with a slew of possible solutions, but in the end we all agreed on one: his illustration of an architect’s hand holding up our fragile planet is both striking and thought-provoking. As the earth opens up—like a hopeful version of Pandora’s box—the world is remade by a new generation of activist architects.