If you’ve ever biked along the Cedar Lake Trail, you’ve probably encountered a modern house set among the stately Victorian homes in the Kenwood neighborhood. Built in 2004–2005, the home is a prototype for FlatPak, a prefabricated system for residential architecture designed by Charlie Lazor of Minneapolis-based Lazor Office. The idea for FlatPak emerged from Lazor’s prior work with Blu Dot, a…

What happens when good malls go bad? You don’t have to look far for answers. Hundreds of so-called “dead malls”—shuttered strip malls, derelict shopping centers, and abandoned big boxes litter our landscape. Among those leading the efforts to reimagine, resuscitate, and reincarnate these husks are artists and architects in the Walker exhibition Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes. In turn, enterprising…