Gaetano Pesce died on April 3 at age 84. Pesce’s rebellious career of designing buildings, interiors, furniture, and objects raged against an early-21st-century aesthetic backdrop of increasingly monotonous, boring interiors. Who else could get away with melty resin wardrobes or a chair that resembles a reclined busty lady or a proposal for a building entrance in which one would process under a pair of spread butt cheeks?

If you were at Salone del Mobile this year, you had the chance to witness Pesce’s designs on display at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana. Pesce’s work is not for the faint of heart, and he realized it with an attitude of future-forward optimism. We desperately need more of that these days. For a wider roundup of impressive installations by architects and new products released at the fair, check out our extensive coverage.

A similar appreciation for eclecticism fills the sails of this issue of AN Interior, which gathers fun features from around the world. To start, witness a relaxing spa by Neri&Hu, followed by a quartet of adaptive reuse projects that prize material richness. Plus, our annual Kitchen & Bath section takes a new tack, beginning with an exploration of the culinary creatures designed by Sam Chermayeff Office in Berlin and proceeding to witness three small, saturated kitchens and three venues where people can bathe and relax together.

Similar to last year’s Spring/Summer release, this issue was loosely theorized as a coursed meal set upon the page’s table: There are amuse-bouches, appetizers, piatti primi and secondi, dessert, and even a back-page lagniappe. It’s rare for readers to consume a magazine in this sequential format—a publication is often absorbed in pieces on the go or in various states of distraction—but this was part of the idea. Sometimes there are distant allusions, like in the cat witnessed in PRODUCTORA’s loft and the feline dinner guest who appears in Erin Wright’s The Thief.

Part of the ongoing inspiration here has been a conversation about what our architectural audience wants to see. What is surprising, challenging, urgent? Hopefully there are some discoveries along the way. As Gaetano Pesce reflected in 2021, “To be incoherent means to be free from what you were doing before, to be free from yourself. Meaning you’re free to experiment.” Each issue of AN Interior is basically a little adventure. I hope you like this one.