Weekendpaper* | Paris Fashion Week highlights

Half-buried in grass and soil, Iceland’s turf houses appear less built, more grown, their roofs thick with moss and wildflowers. For centuries, these dwellings were dismissed as relics of hardship, symbols of poverty best erased by concrete and corrugated iron. Today, in an age defined by ecological reckoning, turf houses are seen as works of sustainable architecture, design intelligence, tuned to climate, material limits, and human need.

Constructed from layered blocks of turf – grass and soil cut from marshy ground and stacked like masonry – they are supported by stone foundations and minimal timber frames. The method arrived with Norse settlers over a thousand years ago, but quickly evolved into something distinctly Icelandic. Thick earthen walls trapped geothermal warmth, narrow openings limited heat loss, and the living roof acted as insulation, windbreak and camouflage.

As the genre returns as a reference point, Teja Lele explores seven contemporary takes on the turf house – from Icelandic retreats to a viewing platform in China and a 23,000 sq m museum in Hungary – that suggest how architecture shaped by landscape may yet point the way forward.

British fashion designer Jake Burt, one half of London-based label Stefan Cooke, remembers coming across The Shop – the 1993 venture of British artists Tracey Emin and Sarah Lucas that sold slogan T-shirts for the price of a packet of cigarettes, alongside their own works – in his parents’ newspaper while he was growing up in Somerset.

‘I read about it and got completely obsessed,’ he recalls, citing it as the starting point for his own shop, Jake’s, which takes a similarly irreverent approach to retail. First opened in 2024 and currently based on Vyner Street in Bethnal Green, Jake’s comprises an energetic curation of pieces, from one-off garments pieced together from deadstock fabric to key chains and charms. It’s as much a hangout as a store, and each Saturday, friends and customers come to chat, drink free coffee and eat the latest pastel-coloured confections made by pastry chef-cum-model Louis Thompson – memorably, an enormous cherry and almond cake to celebrate the launch of Stefan Cooke’s A/W 2025 collection. 

As Jake’s wins a Wallpaper* Design Award for its unique approach, Jack Moss speaks with Burt about what sets the store apart, and the designer’s desire ‘to make something tangible’.

About an hour-and-a-half north of San Francisco, sheltered from the rest of the world by a lush canopy of oaks, is a dynamic young family’s year-round escape from city life. But this place is more than a quick getaway – it’s pure devotion to the art of living.

Located on an acre-and-a-half-lot in the heart of Sonoma’s wine country, the house offers sweeping views of the Mayacamas Mountains and the region’s famed vineyards. What was once a traditional 1960s Spanish hacienda-style home has been transformed into a stunning contemporary retreat thanks to Chroma, the San Francisco-based interior design studio led by partners Alexis Tompkins and Leann Conquer.

‘[Before we got involved] there was a discussion about whether to embrace the Spanish style or modernise it,’ says Tompkins, noting that a whole-house renovation by Oakland-based firm Building Lab set their design stage. ‘In the end, [the clients] really wanted to modernise it because of their incredible art collection.’ Take a tour as David Nash reports on how the design duo conceived a vibrant, textural and wholly midcentury aesthetic that pays a convivial deference to the native landscape.

Ceramic artist Devin Wilde’s new collection for Design Within Reach spans vessels and cocktail tables in beautiful glazes, all handcrafted in his Brooklyn studio by a small team of artisans. ‘I think of these pieces as usable art,’ he told us ahead of the launch. ‘They’re meant to be part of daily life.’