In this issue of RECORD, we look at architecture in communities around the world that typically don't have access to good design. The work of talented architects—often operating pro bono or at reduced fees—can have a big impact on a small settlement. Such exemplary projects as a cholera clinic in Haiti and a vaccination center in Kenya, a school in Zambia, and, closer to home, a multiunit housing project for the formerly homeless in downtown Los Angeles prove the point.

We've also included two projects that call on the arts or culture to transform their remote communities. “Art is a form of nourishment,” said Susan Sontag, and that hunger for cultural sustenance is universal. In a Senegalese village, New York–based architect Toshiko Mori created an artists residence and community center, sponsored by an arts foundation in Connecticut, while Beijing-based He Wei Architect converted the old factory complex of a dying rural hamlet in China into a cultural center celebrating the local tradition of making oils and cereals—and now the village attracts 20,000 tourists a year.