The Lens is where observation becomes reflection.
Through essays, notes, and visual narratives, it explores travel, design, and daily life as interconnected experiences—shaped by culture, place, and perspective.
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For those who experience places, not just visit them.
Each issue explores culture, space, and daily life through travel patterns, visual studies, and observations from the places that shape how we live — written by interior architect and experience designer Ali Giaudrone.
The observations collected here inform the journeys, stories, and spaces designed through the studio. Explore Experiences →
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What the Capitol Says: American Neoclassicism
…established through the timeless principles of liberty and order…
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Paris Notre-Dame: What the Fire Revealed
I have stood inside Notre-Dame three times, and each time…
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São Miguel: Fog, Fire, and Tea
São Miguel arrived after Pico, which meant arriving after something…
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Faial: From Green to Ash at the Edge of the Atlantic
I had imagined the Azores as something like Hawaii —…
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The Netherlands: Water, Tolerance, and the City That Shouldn’t Exist
On our first evening on the houseboat, we settled onto…
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Belgium: The Country That Contains Two Countries
The train from Breda was not what we had planned.…
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Buenos Aires: La Vida Es Buena
Buenos Aires doesn’t ease you in. It absorbs you, neighborhood…
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The American South: Three States, Three Campuses, One Tornado
The American South carries a history that shouldn’t be forgotten.…
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The Space Needle: What Was Gained, What Was Lost
The Space Needle was never meant to last. Built in…
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La Lonja de la Seda: Valencia’s Temple of Trade
Light streams between a forest of spiral stone columns. Each…
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The National Mall: Reading the Axis
In 1791, a French-born engineer handed the new American republic…
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La Nit de Sant Joan: Fire, Catalan Pride, and a Sleepless Night in Girona
From the shallow Juliet balcony of our apartment in old…
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The Italian Bar: How a Country Drinks Coffee
In Italy, the morning doesn’t begin with coffee. It begins…
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The Roman Pastas: Four Dishes, One City, No Substitutes
There are four pasta dishes that belong specifically to Rome,…
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From Overload to Awe in Vatican City
Vatican City contains the greatest concentration of human artistic achievement…
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How to Visit Vatican City
Vatican City is the world’s smallest country — an independent…
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Florence: The City That Rewards the Unhurried
Florence concentrates. Where Rome sprawls and Paris unfolds in layers,…
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Barcelona: Arriving Into Catalonia’s Crisis
Somewhere between Valencia and Barcelona, my phone rang a few…
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Valencia Doesn’t Announce Itself. It Reveals Itself.
We arrived at night, exhausted after a long day of…
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Brussels: The Second Reading
Discovering a City—Beyond Just a Hub in Belgium It wasn’t love-at-first-sight when…
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The Eiffel Tower: What the City Rejected, Then Claimed
We had been here before, Aaron and I, in a…
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Den Haag: The City That Governs Quietly
On a Thursday morning we stopped at Boulangerie Michel on…
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Amsterdam: Designed for What It Couldn’t Stop
The flat was on the Prinsengracht, third floor, its windows…
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London: Kensington and the Architecture of Privilege
As I poked between the iron gate, I heard a…
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