Open Invitations: The Outdoor Issue

A patio or a porch, a backyard or a garden, even a tricked-out fire escape—an outdoor space can be as important a part of your home as the living room. Yes, it might be a personal escape to meditate and chill or a place for amusement-park-level family activity, but the sun really shines when you’re hosting friends, neighbors, and strangers in an open-air social space.

The homes in this issue all present possibilities for what a great outdoor environment for entertaining can be. In Puerto Escondido, a Venezuelan creative and her architect friend enjoy hanging out in a palapa-draped A-frame. The hefty concrete stairs at the heart of the home do a great job anchoring the invitingly open house. The porous screens at the Los Angeles home of one of my favorite artists make it feel a bit inscrutable from the street, but they frame space for music and a garden full of native plants that’s worth inviting people over to see. It’s the first phase of an ambitious building project that will eventually include a guest apartment for friends and family. We also dispatched our managing editor to a wooded cluster of prefab vacation outposts a couple hours from Mexico City that defy every precious cabin cliché.

While I’ve had some of my favorite backyard experiences over red Solo cups, our Modern World section has all kinds of accoutrements to set the scene for several seasons’ worth of memorable outdoor parties. Whether you’re full-on renovating (I’ve never seen someone go completely Copacabana on their patio with curvy pavers like the ones we feature here, but someone should) or just adding a few key pieces (the bar cart with a built-in streetlight looks brilliant), our recommendations will make an impression.