“I used to be really scared of this area,” says the artist Francis Upritchard of London’s Hackney district, where she and the furniture designer Martino Gamper share a charmingly quirky three-story apartment in a public housing project — what the British call a council flat. “When I went with the estate agent, there were eight students living there and it was filthy,” she recalls of the flat, which she bought six years ago. “The living room was two different rooms.”

Like the neighborhood, which has recently blossomed with hip hangouts like Broadway Market and London Fields, the house transformed slowly. With the help of her brother Rob and her sister Hannah, Upritchard ripped out everything that was possible to rip out. Two years later, when Gamper, then her boyfriend, moved in (the couple married in 2009), things really started to take shape. “Before Martino moved in, the flat just had furniture from the street,” Upritchard says, “so it was quite a relief to have help in that department.”

Today, the house is the couple’s best collaborative work to date, a happy medium between each artist’s aesthetic. A palette of warm browns, natural greens, Prussian blue and bright yellow, as well as a preponderance of textiles and pottery, come from Upritchard’s sculptures: fantastical, fairylike clay creatures that she sometimes displays on Gamper-designed tables and chairs. Brightly colored carpets from Morocco cover the floors, and textiles by Lynne Mackay, a weaver from Upritchard’s native New Zealand, lie across beds and couches.

Gamper is known for work like his remixed Gio Ponti furniture and the project 100 Chairs in 100 Days, a sort of design performance piece in which he reconfigured 100 discarded chairs that he had collected over two years. In the apartment, his sensibility is evident in pieces like the table he made from off-cut wood and dotted with butterfly-shaped bandages, giving it the feel of a tableau from a Japanese scroll. There is also a Gamper-Ponti table, bed and dresser; a wooden stool from “Profusion,” a group exhibition at the Calke Abbey in the summer of 2010; and a stunning skewed dresser in the couple’s “clothes room,” which he made with a group of carpenters from the Dolomites in northern Italy, where he grew up. Gamper even cut down Upritchard’s dining table into an oversize coffee table. The couple like to eat there when they make Japanese food.

The apartment is also an amalgamation of wedding gifts from the couple’s crafty friends and family, from the Franco Albini Tre Pezzi armchair that they received from Nina Yashar, the owner of the Nilufar Gallery in Milan, to the ash and oak floor on the ground level. “I had a project in Croatia, and I was taken to a parquet manufacturer,” Gamper says. “They use this as an under-flooring for real parquet. But I like it because it has all these knots in it and actually has a lot of character.” Friends chipped in not only to buy but also to install the floor. “It probably took about 40 times longer than it would normally to lay,” says Upritchard, laughing, explaining that in the end she and Gamper did quite a bit of the work themselves. But the gesture is there, along with their friends’ names, which are carved into the puzzlelike squares.

Domestic harmony is not just a result of the spaces they share, but also the ones they don’t share. Upritchard and Gamper keep separate studios, albeit in the same building, in Hackney, less than 10 minutes by bicycle from their home. Upritchard has a new show opening this month at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati; another, atSalon 94 Bowery in New York, opens in the fall. Her work is also part of a group show, “Lilliput,” on the High Line.

After long days in the studio, the two meet back at home to make dinner for themselves and the rotating cast of family and friends who always seem to be staying with them. “All of the sudden there are six people around the dinner table,” says Gamper of the constant motion in their household. Says Upritchard, “That’s how we get on so well.”

Mitte is a central district in the Berlin’s former East. Once a post-Wall petri dish for Berlin’s creative innovators, the area has gradually gone commercial, welcoming international chains, four-star hotels and, on sunny days, seemingly half the under-40 population of Western Europe.

Yet there’s still no place in the city richer with high-end homegrown fashion boutiques, as neighborhood trailblazers hold their ground and each year a different cobblestone back alley comes of age as the new-style strasse of the moment. The after-hours action may be elsewhere, but Mitte is where Berlin’s singular gestalt is minted into high fashion.

This eyewear designer, which specializes in ultra-light, high-tech specs, has welcomed the likes of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Sci-fi shades inspired by the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin are favored by Lady Gaga.

Opened last March, this shop carries androgynous Japanese- and yoga-inspired clothing (100 to 350 euros) made solely from vegan and sustainable materials.

This high-concept “gallery” of jewelry carries colorful, futuristic pieces by designers like Volker Atrops. Pieces are as likely to include materials like resin and plastic as gold and precious stones.

Owned and founded by Leyla Piedayesh, this local label is beloved for its intricate knitwear and Bedouin-inspired cashmere scarves that start at 319 euros, about $422 at $1.32 to the euro. This shop has helped turn the side street into Mitte’s newest couture hot spot.

Rolf Bruggink, a Dutch designer, calls the crumbling town house he renovated in Rotterdam the Black Pearl, after the blackpainted brick facade that replaced the original one. His workshop, Studio Rolf.fr, is on the ground level.

The greenhouse on the roof, which houses a whirlpool tub but no plants, offers bathers a panoramic view of the city.

Mr. Bruggink and his dog, Bart, on the new stairs to the third-level sleeping quarters. The brick wall is original.

The antique dining table in the kitchen was modernized by Studio Rolf.fr, using orange laminate. The appliances are from Ikea, and the cabinet doors are made out of old wood salvaged from the house.

A sink designed by Roland Manders sits under the stairs to the roof garden, at right. On the left, a bathroom and walk-in closet off the sleeping quarters.

The view from the kitchen to the living room at the back of the house. The stairs at the right lead to the sleeping quarters; the ones at the left, to Mr. Bruggink’s workshop.

The new construction separates the living area and the kitchen without creating closed rooms, which “expands a relatively narrow space,” Mr. Bruggink said.

The windows of the bedroom on the third level open onto a small balcony; the shower is hidden in a closet to the right of the bed. The bench is a modernized antique.

For Yodit Eklund, the 26-year-old designer behind Bantu swimwear, the beaches along Africa’s West Coast are a source of inspiration — so she photographed her recent collection there (including the suits above, on the road to Assinie-Mafia in Ivory Coast). She wonders why ‘‘some of the best beaches in the world’’ are surfed only by locals. Here, Eklund’s favorite spots.

Dakar, Senegal The beaches in and around Senegal’s capital are a boater and surfer’s paradise. From the city it’s only a 10-minute ferry ride to Île de N’Gor, an island with world-class breaks. (It was one of the stops in “The Endless Summer.”) For lessons, check out the N’Gor Island Surf Camp, a rustic inn popular with surfers.

Kribi, Cameroon Kribi is known for the break at Tara Plage, but surfing is only one reason to visit. Close by are the Lobé waterfalls, where fresh water falls directly into the Atlantic. Stay at Hotel Ilomba, nestled in a tropical garden along a sandy beach. If you’re feeling ambitious, head a few hours north to Limbe, where black sand beaches come courtesy of Mount Cameroon, an active volcano.

Azuretti, Ivory Coast This quaint community is known for its expert fishermen, who charge the morning waves in pirogues, or flat-bottom canoes. In the afternoon, you can watch the fishermen’s children surf on planks of wood — or anything they can find that floats. “No one knows the ocean better,” Eklund says. La Maison de la Lagune offers charming beach bungalows.

Assinie-mafia, Ivory Coast Eklund’s all-time favorite beach — “the St. Tropez of West Africa,” she says — is east of Abidjan, between the ocean and a lagoon. It’s accessible only by canoe or private boat. Among mostly private beach chalets sits the Coucoué Lodge, a waterfront hotel with a fun nightclub. A few miles further down the coast is a remote surf spot near the Ghana border known locally as Mami Wata. You have to cross two lagoons by canoe to get there, but when you’re surrounded by nothing but mangroves and ocean, Eklund says, you’ll feel like the only person on earth.

A former ambulance garage may seem like an unusual option for a home, but in the hands of innovative Rotterdam design office Doepel Strijkers it proved to be an inspired choice. The strongest point of the 2,800-square-foot space, remodeled into a family home for clients Maarten Laupman and Simone Rots, is its location bordering a quiet park.

The rear wall was therefore replaced by an enormous glass window, opening the space to the greenery outdoors. The garage’s single level was restricting, but Doepel Strijkers solved this by adding a dugout in the middle of the building, creating the height needed for a second level and for the bedrooms, which are housed in a polycarbonate “lightbox.” The custom-built storage elements, kitchen, and stairs—all finished in bright orange polyurethane—link the dugout to the entrance (on the street side) and living room (on the park side). Isn’t it astonishing and so relaxing. While watching those picture, they shift me to my childhood, when my family took me to a villa each summer in the deep rain forest….So meditative…

Travelers who take their design as seriously as their food may well have a new stop to make when they swing through Spain: the new Poncelet Cheese Bar in Madrid. The multidisciplinary firm Gabriel Corchero Studio is responsible for the design, from the website to the chairs at the tables. A few highlights include the living green wall, a pair of Corian bars, and of course a custom cheese case. Enjoy this wonderful aspect of a life!

Designing an innovative house is a rite of passage 
for many young architects. But building in a city doesn’t always make experimentation easy; after all, neighbors have their own ideas about how a block is supposed to look.

When Ho Ping Kong and Tan found their site 
back in 2001, it held a building you could literally back a truck into: a contractor’s warehouse with 
a storage yard. Yet the two-story concrete-block structure seemed like the perfect place to begin. “Here, you don’t have to conform with the facades of the street,” Ho Ping Kong says. And the building itself “was so elemental—a block and an empty space,” Tan says. “It was perfect. We weren’t paying for things we didn’t want to use and we could experiment with all our crazy ideas.”

Just a few months ago, Fasano Hotels opened a sprawling property in Sao Paolo, Brazil, that highlights the natural beauty of the area. It’s so easily accessible from the city that guests are shocked at how quickly they are transported into what seems like a different world—a world surrounded by lakes, preserved forestry, and stunning gardens that flow seamlessly into the Fasano Boa Vista. The man behind the hotel’s strong structure and bold design is one of Brazil’s most renowned architects, Isay Weinfeld. With this project, his goal was to create a hotel that looked and felt as wondrous and peaceful as the nature that envelops it.

True to the spirit of sunny Southern California, where surf and stars blend in casual harmony, Planet Blue has emerged as an authentic alternative to the fast-paced retail world of mass malls and faceless crowds. Planet Blue has served to inspire the fashionista in each of us- along the way it has cultivated a strong and loyal following from in-the-know locals, swank, well-traveled tourists, and high profile celebrity shoppers, alike.

photography//zoey grossman, model//rina@photogenics, makeup//stacey tan……………………………

Any traveler, who ever been  to Iceland, know that is one of the country full of creative people and interesting places to explore. Last May thanks to Kex Hostel, a new hostel concept that was an instant hit with locals and tourists alike. There are 16 bunk-bedded dorm rooms—and if you aren’t a 20-something backpacker anymore you can stay in one of sixteen private rooms, two of which have a private bath. 

Kex is the Icelandic word for biscuit, and the 132-guest hostel was built in an old biscuit factory on the Reykjavik shore overlooking Mt. Esja in the distance. It’s located near the main shopping street, close to many restaurants and bars—nothing in tiny Reykjavik is really very far away, but you could easily never leave the hostel and have a great in-house experience.

While staying at the hostel, you won’t be bored, even for a week. You will find there a variety of dorms and rooms for up to 138 guests along with a café and bar, lounge area, heated outdoor patio, tourist information desk, laundry room, old school gym, guest kitchens, meeting room, free Wi-Fi, and more. KEX is also just steps away from an interesting array of cafés, museums, shops, bars, music venues and various attractions.

KEX Hostel offers a full range of accommodation options. Shared accommodation is available in dorm rooms for 4, 6, 10, or 16 persons. Private accommodation (with shared WC) is offered in family-style quad rooms as well as double and single rooms, and there are also two hotel-quality double rooms that include private WC.

The biggest surprise is in how quickly the restaurant and living areas became a destination for both locals and tourists to hang out. But by far, the most was seeing local Reykjavik residents, teenagers as well as people in their 70s and 80s, coming in for dinner.