Dwell is a design and technology brand. It was launched with a magazine in October 2000 by CEO Lara Hedberg Deam with architecture and design critic Karrie Jacobs as its editor-in-chief. In August 2002, Jacobs left the magazine and was replaced by senior editor Allison Arieff. After Arieff, Sam Grawe held the position from 2006 to 2011, followed by Amanda Dameron from 2011 to 2017. William Hanley became the editor-in-chief in 2019. In January 2020, it was announced that Zach Klein would be taking over as Dwell's CEO.

In summer 2016, Dwell relaunched as a community publishing platform. In late 2016, the brand announced Modern by Dwell Magazine, a collection of over 200 products for Target. Designed by Dwell co-creative directors of product design Chris Deam and Nick Dine, the collection includes both furniture and decor pieces and will launch on December 27, 2016.

In 2022, Dwell was acquired by Recurrent.

Recognition

  • April 2005 National Magazine Award for General Excellence in the 100,000-to-250,000 circulation category.
  • March 2006 Adweek 2006 Creative Team of the Year award to creative director Claudia Bruno and photo editor Kate Stone.

The Tumblr blog “Unhappy Hipsters,” which launched in 2010, pairs photos from Dwell with humorous captions that mock the ascetic lifestyle suggested by some of the photos. The blog achieved significant popularity at the time, and its creators wrote a spinoff book in 2011, It's Lonely in the Modern World.

The magazine is featured in The Simpsons episode "The Day The Earth Stood Cool" (2012).

Dwell Home Design Invitational

In January 2003, Dwell invited 16 architects to participate in the Dwell Home Design Invitational, an international competition to design a modern prefab home for $200,000. The competition was conceived by Allison Arieff, after she published Prefab, a book on prefab homes in 2002. After reading Arieff's book, Nathan Wieler (an entrepreneur in North Carolina) contacted Arieff to inquire about how he and his fiancée Ingrid Tung could purchase a modern prefab home. Arieff's conversation with Wieler about a lack of affordable modern houses available inspired her to launch the competition.

The site for the Dwell Home was a 12-acre plot of land that Wieler and Tung owned in Pittsboro, North Carolina, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The participating architects were:

  • Anderson Anderson in Washington and California
  • Anshen + Allen in California
  • Michael Bell in New York
  • Central Office of Architecture in California
  • Claesson Koivisto Rune in Sweden
  • Collins + Turner Architects in Australia
  • Jones Partners: Architecture in California
  • Adam Kalkin in New Jersey
  • Konyk Architecture in New York
  • Marmol + Radziner in California
  • William Massie and NY; Resolution: 4 Architecture in New York
  • Ralph Rapson & Toby Rapson in Minnesota
  • Rocio Romero in Missouri
  • Jennifer Siegal in California
  • su11 architecture+design in New York Soon after at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York City, Dwell announced that Resolution: 4 Architecture (RES4) won the competition.

Resolution: 4 Architecture's proposal, entitled "Modern Modular," used prefabricated modules that were affordably built in a factory, shipped to the site, and craned onto a concrete foundation, which housed the mechanical systems. RES4's concept was that prefabricated modules could be configured in countless ways for unlimited design possibilities, though their proposal also included a home designed specifically to the clients, Wieler and Tung, and to the site. reads as two intersecting bars, with the open-plan communal areas in the lower level bar and the private spaces in the second story. RES4's design used many windows and sliding glass doors for daylighting and views, and a roof deck includes an outdoor fireplace. Materials such as cedar siding, bamboo flooring, and aluminum-clad windows demonstrated the potential for customization with prefabricated construction.