While the bathroom on our cover might have very au courant vibes, it is found inside a Brooklyn town house dated to the 1840s. Actually a pair of town houses, which Tal Schori and Rustam Mehta of GRT Architects restored using rigorous European Passive House standards. “Our practice loves engaging with historic architecture,” says Mehta. “We wanted to do right by these buildings.”

Rustam Mehta and Tal Schori of GRT Architects in the Brooklyn town house project.

Photo: Jason Schmidt.

In Kyoto, a young couple, Sam Brustad and Yuki Shirato, turned to Pritzker Prize–winning architect Kazuyo Sejima, a cofounder of the Tokyo-based firm SANAA, to preserve their century-old machiya, a traditional Japanese residence type. “Sadly, it’s a dying breed,” says Shirato, noting that hundreds are demolished each year because many locals find the structures inconvenient, old-fashioned, or expensive to maintain.

Homeowner Sam Brustad at the historic machiya in Kyoto he shares with his partner, Yuki Shirato.

Photo: Yoshihiro Makino

Inside the Kyoto machiya renovated by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA.

Photo: Yoshihiro Makino

Adapted for modern life, the past, present, and future harmonize in the many extraordinary dwellings preserved on these pages.

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