Natassa Pappa is an architect and editor based in Athens who started walking cities long before she started publishing about them. Walking was her research method. Her first guidebook was an index of neglected Athenian passageways forming a city within a city. In 2018, she launched Desired Landscapes: a pocket-sized magazine (105 x 165 mm) that reads into a diverse mix of cities through visual culture, person-to-place bonds, and poetic snapshots. We read to walk, the tagline says, and walk to write.
Eight issues in, the magazine has mapped Athens, Tokyo, Munich, Istanbul, Los Angeles, Beirut, London, Kuwait, Berlin, Moscow, Paris, Brasilia, Singapore, Lampedusa, Cairo, Miami, Stockholm, Kyiv, Bologna, Dhaka, Hamburg, Basel, Vienna, Bangkok, Canberra, Amsterdam, Hong Kong, Tangier, Tbilisi, and more. Each city is explored through the eyes of a single contributor whose connection to the place is genuine and specific. A book designer explains map keys. A post-breakup letter to Venice chronicles charm and betrayal. A runner traces typography on the city grid. A feature on Dhaka reveals urban qualities Western cities lack. Every issue aims for contrast: iconic cities sit beside places that are frequently misrepresented.
Printed in Greece on fine papers, never reprinted (out-of-print issues become digital-only), and stocked at magCulture in London, Rare Mags, and Public Knowledge Books, Desired Landscapes has been featured by Monocle, The Guardian, Lonely Planet, and AIGA Eye on Design. Pappa also runs Desired Walks, guided tours through Athens exploring fading typographic landscapes and hidden stoas, turning the magazine's editorial philosophy into physical experience. When asked for advice on launching a publication, she says: be naive. If she had listened to the warnings, this magazine would not exist.
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