King's Cross has evolved into more than a pass-through transit hub. Coal Drops Yard has a bustling independent Japanese crafts market, cool listening bars and design shops galore. Meanwhile, visitors can soak in the creative energy of the neighbouring arts college, Central St Martins.

Adding to this mix, positioned at the northern edge of Lewis Cubitt Park, are the newly finished Cadence residences by London-based architecture firm Alison Brooks Architects (ABA). The red brick facade, with dramatic arched windows, makes the complex instantly intriguing, and you can’t help but think as you pass by, ‘I bet it's nice in there.’

Wallpaper* got a look when we toured the new ‘courtyard tower’ with its architect.

Step inside Cadence in King's Cross

Cadence houses 163 residential units, with commercial and social spaces, including an open courtyard and a gym. Upon entering, its lobby towers above you – almost like a cathedral, thanks to towering arches and mirrored walls that create a sense of infinite space. Ahead, a large glass door frames a courtyard, which is surrounded by small cloister walkways.

At the heart of this courtyard is a sunken reflection pool, with low-hanging sculptural lights carefully suspended above. Brooks explains that the pool was inspired by Venice, and she initially wanted the water to rise and sink like the changing tide. In the end, it sits peacefully still. But there are still overt references to the Floating City: Receding steps, just like the ones along Venice's canals, descend into the water, and small enclaves filled with greenery are reminiscent of canal algae.

Brooks looked to the building’s context and used red brick throughout to pay homage to London’s St Pancras station. The Canadian-British architect also was inspired by the arched buildings of Paris and Rome, where she studied for four months in 1985. It's all typical of her style, which blurs the boundaries between period, places and materials. ‘We can draw on memory which in turn enriches a pragmatic approach to a place,’ Brooks explains.

The building is placed within a six-sided block, with two towers of 12 and 16 storeys. The first two floors of both buildings are devoted to commercial, social and service spaces, while the remaining levels comprise homes and apartments.

There are plenty of perks to be had at Cadence. The apartments are spacious. ('Residents love it because they get morning sun, midday sun and afternoon sun. It's filled with light,’ says Brooks), plus the building sits on top of the Thameslink line.

The latter proved crucial to the design of the towers. ‘There are two tunnels that go under the building, and so that determines the geometry and the alignment of this building,’ the architect explains. ‘It had to be designed with isolators and very special consideration of the structure to come down on either side of the tunnels’.

While Cadence has a made-in-place feel, nearly 85 per cent of the buildings are made from prefabricated components – including the world's first prefab lift system. ABA, working closely with contractor Laing O'Rourke, leaned into the innovative construction method.

‘Everything you see in the building has been manufactured off-site: the columns, the beams, the slabs, the lift shafts, the facade panels and the bathroom pods,' Brooks says. ‘Everything came in and was lifted into place, which made it very clean and practically very little waste.’

Construction moved quickly, but there was an unexpected setback: a bird’s nest was found on the site. ‘It was on top of one of the cores, so the construction had to stop until the eggs had hatched. It was a protected species, a redstart. It was a three-month delay,’ Brooks says.

Of the 163 residential units, 60 are affordable rentals acquired on behalf of the CBRE UK Affordable Housing Fund. These are offered at discounted market rents, with priority given to individuals and families from the Camden community. The market-rate one-bed homes were listed or resold from £585,000 to £860,000, while larger residences are listed between £1.9 million to £2.4 million or more (Penthouses, for instance, are listed for upwards of £15 million).

The mix feels reflective of Cadence's blend of styles and ideas – playful and robust, solid yet soft. Above all, the project is a welcome addition to the ever-evolving King's Cross neighbourhood.

Sydney’s dining scene has a new grand dame. Vito’s, an ambitious Italian-American restaurant from hospitality group Sunday Co., has opened inside the heritage-listed Burns Philp Building on Bridge Street, bringing the glamour of mid-century New York to the city.

Designed by Craig Madgwick of Design Madgwick, the 170-seat restaurant has been years in the making. Its aim? To feel like a longstanding New York institution – and one that will go the distance in Sydney. The space takes full advantage of the building’s heritage architecture, with striking six-foot chandeliers hanging from the 21-foot ceilings.

Guests are greeted by a lavish mosaic entranceway, finished with 24k gold-leaf tiling. Inside, red velvet, ox-blood leather, brass and marble recall the opulent Italian-American dining rooms of old New York. Booths, raised carpeted alcoves and a mezzanine overlook the central dining floor, where much of the design has been realised by local artisans. The joinery was made in regional New South Wales, and custom Queensland Maple tabletops are finished with American Maple burl veneer and brass inlay.

Founded by Brett Sergeant, James Wicks and Iris Kleimann in 2023, Sunday Co.'s Sydney portfolio already includes the lauded Whalebridge in Circular Quay and George Street's lively Morrison’s Oyster Bar and Grill. But nothing quite matches the scale of Vito's $8 million renovation.

In the kitchen, executive chef Michael Fox, formerly chef de cuisine at Carbone in Hong Kong, leads a menu developed with group culinary director David Clarke. Handmade pastas, wood-fired grills and classic Italian-American dishes are the focus, with highlights including a signature 10-layer lasagne, conchiglie with crab and green garlic butter, and a 1kg Prime Angus porterhouse served with Marsala sauce.

Seafood features prominently, from scampi and scallop crudo with orange and capers to wild-caught Skull Island tiger prawns, King George whiting and John Dory. Classic desserts by Lauren Eldridge include ricotta and pistachio cannoli and a Tricoloure Bombe Alaska.

The drinks offering is equally considered, with a 400-label wine list curated by group head sommelier Antoine Heurtier, alongside a classic cocktail programme. From 10.30pm, the restaurant shifts into late-night mode, serving an 18-inch New York-style pizza and a bar menu.

'We set out to create a restaurant that feels like it’s always been here, and the Bridge Street site was a major part of that,' explains Sergeant.

'After 18 months of planning, designing and building, opening the doors is an incredibly exciting moment for us. Vito’s is the most ambitious thing we have done as a group. We want people to walk through those doors and know they are here to have fun and a memorable experience.'

Vito’s is open seven days a week for lunch and dinner, from 12pm until late, with walk-ins welcome.

Vito’s, 11 Bridge Street, Sydney. Book now.

When Egyptian designer Aya Moug was seeking a way to reconnect with her roots through her practice, she turned to papyrus: a sedge harvested along the shores of the Nile and used in ancient Egypt to make one of the world’s earliest writing surfaces spanning back to 2,900 BC. On digging deeper, she discovered that Egyptians used the plant to make everything from baskets and sandals to boats.

Moug, who will exhibit her new Ankh furniture collection made from the plant at Design Doha (from 5 November 2026), was studying for an MA in Industrial Design at London’s Central Saint Martins at the time. She was struck by how little attention it received from contemporary designers. 'Papyrus shares the same biochemical make-up as wood, which makes it inherently strong, and the plant’s natural sap acts as a glue,' explains the Dubai-based designer. 'It also filters pollutants from water as it grows. But today, it is mostly used to make souvenirs for tourists. So I thought: why not bring this slice of Egyptian history back to life in a modern way?'

After two years of research and prototyping, Moug created Byblos, a durable, clay-like biomaterial made from papyrus fibres. It can be shaped by hand or cast to create ultra-strong objects. She launched her first furniture collection, Shen, at the 2023 Downtown Design Dubai: a monochrome series of tables with glossy, swirling surfaces that recall the veins of marble. Custom commissions followed, including pieces for the UAE royal family, museums and restaurants in the region.

Moug’s more recent collections draw on ancient Egyptian forms. The console and stool from the Mooy collection, for example, have striking zig-zag profiles, referencing the hieroglyph for water and the twists and turns of the Nile.

Her Ze+MET collection, meanwhile, has an animalistic quality, nodding to ancient chairs with legs shaped like cat limbs. It combines Byblos with wood and animal hair, which she used for fringes.

Her sophisticated range of finishing techniques and textures come together in Ankh, including hand and machine carving and polishing. The ankh is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol associated with life and eternal existence. 'I am bringing a historic material and symbolic language back to life through contemporary design and craftsmanship,' she explains.

The Ankh II coffee table, for example, takes cues from ancient stones. Each hand-crafted boulder that makes up its surface is carved with a symbol associated with rebirth, strength, power or life. Meanwhile, the Ankh I sideboard’s curved door is 'a symbolic doorway between ancient history and a new era,' as she puts it.

Papyrus is a fast-growing species that can be harvested multiple times a year without damaging the plant, making it a more renewable alternative to wood. But the plant has largely disappeared from its historical habitats in Egypt, including the Nile Delta, due to agricultural expansion, intensive water management, and urbanisation. The designer is making the case for its wider cultivation. 'Papyrus is not only one of the most efficient natural pollution filters, but is also among the cheapest methods for treating wastewater,' she says. 'But its cultivation and development requires investment.'

To help spur this on, Moug’s sustainable surface design company Papyri is exploring new applications for Byblos across architecture and interiors. It has developed an off-white wall surface with a rich, rippling pattern. She adds: 'My dream is to develop products and surfaces that can be used in buildings across the world.'

The Ankh series will be on view as part of Design Doha, 5 November 2026 - 31 January 2027

ayamoug.com

Have you always dreamt of living in an icon of brutalist architecture? The forthcoming Torre Velasca Residences in Milan can offer a vision of just that, thanks to an exclusive new group of luxury homes that are soon coming to market.

Occupying the top eight floors of the legendary high-rise, first designed by BBPR in 1958, the 72 new residences, which have launched their first phase this autumn, have been curated to perfection by Matteo Thun & Partners.

Explore the new Torre Velasca Residences by Matteo Thun & Partners

Thun's design draws on the tower's prominent position in the Milanese skyline and its architectural avant-garde spirit. The interiors, as a result, are elegant and nod to 20th-century modernism, yet still remain perfectly tuned to 21st-century needs and contemporary mod-cons. And while the project comprises levels 19 and 26 (the rest of the building is a hotel operated by METT Hotels & Resorts), the design scope also included a rethink of some of the communal areas, such as the main reception, the welcome lobby at the rear of the ground floor, and the corridors.

Says Thun on his approach in working with such a historically significant location: 'Reinterpretation is our key methodology when engaging with a legacy. At Torre Velasca, we allowed the masters and the building itself to speak, imagining a way of living within it that could accompany the building a little further into the future, adding a new chapter to its history.'

'In our design, we did not seek contrast with the existing building; instead, we started building our colour codes from the iconic pink plaster and the green and blue tiles of Torre Velasca. Where we felt the architecture had already achieved a sense of completeness, such as at the loggias and the rooftop that have an almost sacred quality, we chose not to intervene further. Sometimes designing also means recognising when there is no need to add anything,' he adds.

'The interiors look to Milanese design from the 1950s through the 1980s, where we collaborated with some of Milan's iconic companies, such as Molteni, Oluce, Cassina and Dedar, who had shaped the city’s identity as an international design capital. Different eras and locally rooted realities come together in a shared narrative of evolution and continuity: the ability to change over time while maintaining an intact sense of identity.'

To match the existing tower and the new interiors' vision and refinement, the residences will now be operated by Sunset Hospitality, which will offer high-quality resident services that will ensure frictionless living.

Thun concludes: 'Although the project focused on interior design, Torre Velasca first and foremost challenged us to think and work as architects. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this experience was precisely this: every time we crossed the building’s threshold, we discovered something new. It was, in every sense, a lesson in architecture.'

'Working within its walls meant constantly engaging with composition, construction details, and the relationship between the building and the city. At Torre Velasca, domestic space and urban space cannot be conceived as separate entities, but rather as parts of a single, deeply interconnected system,' the architect continues.

'In this sense, the project became a journey of discovery, in which the building itself became our first teacher,' Thun says. 'And perhaps this is the most important lesson it has left us with: in attempting to intervene in a work of architecture so rich in meaning, we received far more than we were able to give back.'

The original Land Rover Defender has become a quintessential symbol of British ruggedness. For decades, the ultimate mud-buster has conquered everything from the Scottish Highlands to the school run.

Robust and virtually unstoppable, Defender has seen off challenges from Japanese, Korean and American competitors - none quite able to match the Land Rover’s unique heritage and all-round desirability. Until now, perhaps, because a new wave of automotive invaders has landed on British shores and they are all Defender doppelgangers.

The middle-class’ must-have 4x4 remains a clear market leader but Land Rover’s ubiquitous Waitrose-wagon is coming under increased pressure from the Far East. Boxy, unapologetically brutalist and packed with cutting-edge tech, China’s premium off-roaders are flooding in, with the Defender squarely in their sights.

While traditionalists might scoff at the imitation, British buyers facing a cost-of-living crisis are taking notice. The Jaecoo 7 has proved motorists have no issue buying Chinese, if the price is right. The Range Rover-styled 7 is currently the second best-selling car in the UK this year.

So, is Land Rover really facing a last-ditch battle to save its iconic model? Leading the charge is the Yangwang U8. The ultra-luxury sub-brand of automotive giant BYD, YangWang’s towering plug-in hybrid was created by former Lamborghini designer, Wolfgang Egger, and looks like a Defender that went to a cyberpunk gym. The 3.4-ton U8 doesn’t just mirror the iconic silhouette of a Defender, it also offers a unique party trick.

Like the Mercedes G 580, the YangWang uses four independent electric motors to perform 360-degree tank turns on the spot. It can also float on water during a flash flood. Priced from £120,000, the U8 is a rarity in that it actually costs more than the average Land Rover. However, there are plenty of cut-price challengers.

The BYD Ti7 doesn’t just ape a Defender – it could be a sibling. With a boxy frame, the seven-seater has brick-shaped aesthetics and starts at under £48,000. The cheapest Land Rover five-door model is £64,000. Debuting BYD’s DM-p plug-in hybrid system, the Ti7 offers a massive 408bhp and a sports-car-like 0-62mph dash in 4.8 seconds. Expect a class-leading 74-mile EV range too.

Another BYD offering is the Denza Boa 5, also designed by Wolfgang Egger. Loaded with luxury and tech, the 5 sits on an old-school, ladder frame chassis yet, thanks to a hybrid drivetrain, can manage 537bhp. A more serious off-roader than some Chinese rivals, the range starts at £69,000.

Jetour is a sub-brand of Chery Automotive and the T2 is a mid-size SUV expected on UK shores in 2027. While diesel continues to fall out of favour, this 1.5-litre turbodiesel is expected to cost as little as £41,000. Shaped by ex-Porsche designer, Hakan Saracoglu, the Jetour T2 has undoubted kerbside appeal.

Another choice Chery is iCAUR V27, a brazen Defender double with a punchy hybrid set-up. Due on sale early in 2027 for around £46,000, V27 will launch the iCAUR brand here and a host of new models. Interestingly, the marque is known as iCAR in China but faced a name change abroad to avoid a copyright dispute with Apple.

Sales of the BAIC Xingtan 5X have only just started in China but it must surely be destined for the UK. Designed by Anthony Lo, who trained at the Royal College of Arts before working at Lotus, Saab and Ford, the 5X has a range of powertrain options and is, quite possibly, more Defender than a Defender. There’s also the BAW Beijing BJ212, which went on display at this year’s Paris Motor Show.

Finally, if you can’t beat them, join them. Perhaps realising the writing is on the wall, Jaguar Land Rover has teamed up with Chery to build the Freelander 8. Replaced by Discovery Sport in 2015, the original Freelander fell foul of JLR’s revised model line-up.

While JLR still own the Freelander name and led the new 8’s design, Chery provided the body platform and engineering. Rather than a mid-size SUV, the next generation Freelander is a full-size, luxury six-seater, driven by a massive 808bhp plug-in hybrid engine.

Revealed for the first time at a summit in China last month (OCT), the full-fat Freelander is likely to cost from £40,000 but could prove a conundrum for British drivers. Is it a proper Freelander, is it a Chinese budget buy? As long as it’s better than the original, I doubt few will care.

Jaecoo.co.uk / YangwangAuto.com / BYD.com / Denza.com / JetourGlobal.com / iCAURS.co.uk / Xingtan5x.BeijingAuto.com.cn / BAWauto.com / Freelander-EV.com

Blue Crow Media cements its reputation as one of the leading purveyors of guidebooks to contemporary architecture with a new publication, Concrete New York. It joins their burgeoning library of brutalist celebration, a series that has already taken in London, Berlin, Paris and a more generalist guide to Asia.

New York’s concrete legacy doesn’t immediately spring to mind; it’s a city of history, verticality, innovation and architectural drama. It’s true that the rough-hewn textures of brutalism are largely absent from the five boroughs, but concrete, in all its forms, is one of the drivers of the city’s skyline.

As ever, Blue Crow Media’s approach mixes the well-known with more off-the-beaten track examples. The cover features Frank Lloyd Wright’s instantly recognisable Guggenheim, but author Allison C. Meier has taken a more eclectic path through the city’s architectural history, taking in everything from Pier Luigi Nervi’s muscular George Washington Bridge Bus Station (1960-63) to the ribbon wall of the Tribeca Synagogue (William N.Breger Associates, 1965-67), which offers a proto-Zaha relationship between building and street.

Throughout the book there is photography by Jason R. Woods, rendering these disparate but dramatic structures in elegant black and white. All in all, there are more than 50 featured buildings, ranging from the familiar and the friendly to the faintly sinister. It also serves as an excellent companion to the publisher’s earlier Concrete New York Map.

Alongside classic works by Wright, Saarinen and Marcel Breuer, Concrete New York continues right up to date with works by Studio Gang, David Adjaye and Steven Holl, providing an all-round introduction to New York’s concrete architecture old and new.

Concrete New York, £24, BlueCrowMedia.com, @BlueCrowMaps

The book is also available as part of a three-book Architectural City Guides set, £56

I'm a storyteller,' says the American artist Karon Davis. ‘I grew up in a family of showpeople, in sweaty rehearsal halls and in the wings, watching my father perform. It's an element that is definitely embedded in my work, and it is coming through now that I'm older. This act of performing and entertaining and razzle-dazzle – it was all around me.'

Born in Reno, Nevada, to Tony award-winning performer Ben Vereen and ballerina Nancy Bruner, Davis studied film, theatre and dance before turning to art. Her distinctive practice, of creating plaster casts of family, friends and occasionally herself, is rooted in this background of storytelling and performance. Frozen in action, Davis' sculptures ask viewers to fill in the gaps from the fragments of narrative she presents, in a smart uniting of the theatrical and artistic strands that run through her DNA.

‘Growing up, I got to run around casinos in my patent leather shoes and see so many interesting performers,' she says. ‘I think that bleeds into my work because when I make the sculptures now, I approach them as an actor. My studying of theatre makes me ask, who is this character? What are they doing? Where are they going? So I don't look at them as bodies. I look at them as people.'

After graduating from film school, Davis decided to leave the industry – ‘I got ripped off a lot in Hollywood,' she says – and retreated into the studio with the support of her late husband, the painter Noah Davis. She began to consider the role of the body from her perspective as a trained dancer, imagining how it would be to preserve it, freezing it in time and returning to it later; ideas she considered alongside her long-running fascination with ancient Egypt and the intricate wrappings of mummies.

For a dancer, the body is a complex tool, a subject Davis explored in her 2023 show ‘Beauty Must Suffer' at New York's Salon 94. She captured Black ballet dancers moving through the stages of their performance, their figures coated in white plaster, highlighting the lack of Black representation in the industry. The punishing consequences of the discipline on the contorted bodies is clear. ‘Let's talk about the violence dancers do against their own bodies,' says Davis. ‘Pushing it past its limits, under the guise of the illusion of grace and beauty, to entertain others. There's an idea of the body being this vessel of joy for others, but you are also your own person – dancers live to dance. We live to perform, and it is a joy. But you have to sacrifice so much. In the exhibition, I challenged myself to make a ballet without movement. How can I tell a story without anybody moving? How can we get people's imaginations to take the next steps?'

Davis hopes her work will contribute to a more comprehensive picture than the one she is currently seeing. ‘Wishful Thinking', her upcoming show at Salon 94, will focus on the absence of the Black figure in the art history canon. ‘I want to make work that I feel is missing in the world, and in the museums,' she says. ‘I don't see myself in there, so I'm creating sculptures that I selfishly want to see when I walk into a museum. In the ballet work, we all love Degas. Where is Misty [Copeland]? Where is Carmen de Lavallade? Where are my heroes? Now I'm venturing into this world with the nude sculptures because I think we need some whimsy and magic and mythology – it's time to go there.'

‘Not My Circus', opening at Seattle Art Museum next month, is a meditation on what it means to perform, through the lens of the circus. A complex metaphor, it comprises a disturbing, seductive blend of power, pleasure and control. ‘Because of my theatrical background, I love the circus. I wanted to create a world that was chaotic, but also mesmerising and alluring; led by the ringmaster, this powerful man in the middle of it all who is controlling it.' Her ringmaster, one hand a gaslight, the other holding a whip, is a manipulative source of chaos. We are invited to read our own interpretation into his character, deciding who he is for us.

In a gilded cage, one of the largest pieces Davis has made so far, reclines a figure, half woman, half lion. On second glance, however, we see the bars of the cage are bent. She can leave at any time, a fact obvious to everyone – except her. ‘I think that a lot of people have felt that, where they're in a relationship or situation that is not good for them. They've been gaslit so much that, although they are a courageous lion, they have become this cowardly lion. But they need to tap into the lion within so they can go through those bars. They can leave. They have a choice.'

We can see ourselves in the figures that populate Davis' circus. Through the magic and the artifice, the artist has a sharp eye for illuminating what is real. She is committed to depicting the reality of the body, lovingly drawing its curves and lines in her carefully sculpted plaster casts. ‘I don't see Black bodies being celebrated, and I want to celebrate our bodies. I want to celebrate the curves and the realness of women. This Eurocentric view of what beauty is has to go away. You need to normalise everyone's bodies, and I hope with this show I do that.'

For Davis, the exhibition offers a moment to reflect on her development as an artist. ‘My studio is expanding and I'm taking more control of the process,' she says. ‘I'm thinking bigger, beyond the galleries and the museums. I want to do outdoor work and I want to go large, expanding my practice and showing people things they haven't seen. I'm on a roll – let's do this. It's giving me more confidence to express myself and not hide anymore.'

‘Wishful Thinking' will be on show from 5 November-19 December at Salon 94, New York; ‘Not My Circus' will be on show from 15 November-4 July, at Seattle Art Museum, Seattle

A version of this article appears in the November 2026 Art Issue of Wallpaper*, available from 8 October in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

This hempcrete structure may be small, but its architects are hoping its impact will far outweigh its physical size. The project, titled Biobuilding, was created by the emerging architecture studio Lúdika, based in Reykjavik, Iceland, and founded by Anna Karlsdóttir and Jan Dobrowolski.

The architects' goal? To showcase how site-specific and less conventional building methods and biomaterials can offer better results than the industry's more typical contemporary responses to construction. In the past, the country has regularly used locally sourced materials, for instance in the traditional Icelandic turf houses, so there is a precedent to build on.

Step inside this hempcrete experiment in Iceland

'Biobuilding began when we moved from London to Iceland and found a construction industry built on concrete and imports. We set out to learn what it takes to build here with natural, locally available materials,' the architecture duo explain.

'Around 80 per cent of buildings here are concrete, and almost all building materials are imported. An opportunity arrived at the same time. Industrial hemp cultivation had been legalised earlier that year, and the first growing trials were successful.'

Karlsdóttir and Dobrowolski started looking at hempcrete – a biocomposite based around the hemp plant – as a construction material and realised that they could make the most out of industrial hemp grown at the island nation's Sandhóll. They used a family-owned plot in a verdant part of Grímsnes to self-initiate a small building project that would serve as a 'demonstrator' for their experiments.

The result is Biobuilding, which they composed together with a team of growers, researchers, engineers and craftspeople. A group of German journeymen craftsmen, passing by on their traditional travels, helped them build it.

Physical feasibility and building completion were not the only goal here. The architects also wanted to follow and study the building's life post-delivery, to assess and monitor its performance and behaviour.

They did this for two years, conducting a life cycle assessment to show 'what is possible, and also what stands in the way: current regulations and certification rules are prohibitive and policies need to change,' they say. 'To us the building is also a sáluhús, a house for the soul.'

Beyond the hempcrete core, the building uses more locally sourced and specially fabricated components. A collaboration with textile designer Alberte Bojesen resulted in sheets for the internal window screens made of Icelandic seaweed. Glulam beams help support the building, and foundation footings were prefabricated off-site. Solid timber joinery, lime plaster, limewash and wool are included in the build.

'For the design, we took cue from Japanese teahouses: small, humble and connected to the land. From inside, the views are framed rather than open: low towards the mossy ground and the mountains beyond in one direction and opening up towards a wooded area in the other. Three principles guided it: a light touch on the site, natural and locally sourced materials as far as practical, and honest, unfussy craftsmanship,' the architects explain.

Biobuilding is set to serve as a valuable case study in working with hempcrete in Iceland and beyond, the architects feel. They will continue to monitor temperature and relative humidity in the small cabin in order to further determine adjustments, challenges and opportunities. Their findings are being set out in a final report for Askur, Iceland's Housing and Construction Research Fund.

ludika.is

The ’Column’ lava lamp that Dutch-New Zealand designer Sabine Marcelis made for Mathmos stands almost 3m tall, its milky wax drifting inside a cylinder of frosted glass. At her first meeting with Mathmos, the British company behind the original lava lamp, she pictured a room full of outsized ones, as she told Wallpaper* last year. Eight now stand between mirrored walls in ‘Mathmos Lava Columns’, an installation made for her solo exhibition, ‘Light and Color’ at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, their reflections running on without end.

Sabine Marcelis, ‘Light and Color’ at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich

Curated by Damian Fopp, ‘Light and Color’ is the first museum exhibition dedicated to Marcelis, named Wallpaper* Designer of the Year in 2020. It continues a line of solo shows the museum has devoted to designers such as Konstantin Grcic (‘This Side Up’, 2007), Jasper Morrison (‘Thingness’, 2016) and Formafantasma (‘Cambio’, 2021-22). Fifteen years in, ‘it is the right moment to look at the practice as a whole’, Fopp tells Wallpaper*.

He places her in the first generation of designers to grow up with social media, speaking directly to their audience, ‘whether that is fans, producers, brands or even museums’, with less need for ‘intermediaries such as magazines or gallery representation’. ‘At the same time, her work with light, colour and reflection is widely known through images, but it has to be experienced in person,’ he says, adding that the show is a chance ‘to understand the material research behind it’.

Marcelis chose each work featured for how it handles light and colour, setting chronology aside. ‘It was very confronting to go through everything and define which projects would make the cut,’ she tells Wallpaper*. The curved-glass chaise longues of ‘No Fear of Glass’, made for her 2019 solo show at the Barcelona Pavilion, were due to travel afterwards, ‘but, Covid’, so Zurich is only their second showing. ‘They were incredibly difficult to produce and I’m curious if now, seven years later, new possibilities exist for them.’

Moving liquid has been part of her work since ‘House Wine’, her graduation project at Design Academy Eindhoven, a study of home winemaking and its rising bubbles. ‘I basically try to persuade any commissioned project to let me create a fountain or some other moving liquid sculpture,’ she says, finding the motion hypnotic, ‘like watching fire’. Knowing exactly how lava lamps work ‘maybe has taken away that unknown magic for sure’, she concedes, ‘but it’s also given me lots of inspiration and energy to take it somewhere further’.

‘Varmblixt’, the orange glass donut lamp she designed for Ikea in 2023, is, she says, the company’s best-selling lamp, and the one design of hers she sees in other people’s homes, on Instagram or at her children’s friends’ houses, hacks included, ‘not all as successful as others’. In Zurich, 125 of the original orange lamps line a mirrored wall graded in colour, which turns them into an 11m walk-through tunnel made with Ikea Switzerland.

‘We did not want the show to be objects on pedestals and leave it at that,’ says Fopp, who planned both mirrored rooms with Marcelis, turning two of her lamps into ‘total spaces’. ‘Multiplying a single object carries a lot of visual potential, and Sabine and her team made the most of it.’ Inside the tunnel’s ‘enveloping field of orange light’, he says, ‘the lamps stay recognisable, but the experience goes far beyond the individual object’.

For him, the lava lamp room recalls the Infinity Mirror Rooms of the late Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, which brought her work to a very broad audience. ‘I think these rooms can do something similar for Sabine. She already manages to interest people who usually do not care about design.’

In ‘Sunbeam Captured’, made in collaboration with the Dutch artist Boris Acket, lights trace the sun’s path over rippling water and her blue-to-orange mirror to recreate a sunbeam in a rain puddle. Lately, the most ordinary light to stop her was a full moon on an evening bike ride. ‘The clouds passing in front and filtering the bright glow of the moon is so beautiful.’

Sabine Marcelis' material and colour exploration

In resin, a good green is so difficult that Marcelis mostly avoids it, and the studio’s new 99 per cent bio-based resin has a base so red it narrows her palette. In glass, she is still chasing ‘a milky white gradient that doesn’t look gross’.

The archive she left out of Zurich is in her studio’s material library in Rotterdam, where she still has the samples from her first post-student venture into resin, in 2012. Those on show were all made new, ‘because I wanted them to be perfect’. ‘I’m the opposite to a hoarder in my personal life, but when it comes to colour-creating, there is something sacred about any experiment,’ she says, afraid she might not be able to recreate one.

The larger glass samples reminded Fopp of Ambiente spaziale: Utopie, Lucio Fontana and Nanda Vigo’s environment for the 1964 Milan Triennale. Marcelis, he says, ‘although she is very contemporary, is part of a long line of artists and designers who have been interested in light, colour and how the two shape space’.

Christian Brändle, the museum’s director, tells Wallpaper* that Marcelis ‘does not always begin with a specific object in mind’. Treating design as ‘fundamental research, embracing experimentation, testing and uncertainty’ lets her develop work ‘that might never have emerged through more conventional design processes’. He hopes students at the Zurich University of the Arts, of which the museum is part, take from her ‘a willingness to take risks and a deep curiosity about materials, production processes and our surroundings – particularly the interplay between light and different materials’.

Making a Show, the accompanying book from Apartamento, photographed by Mattia Balsamini, shares the changes a cast-resin ‘Candy Cube’ goes through before it is polished, steps Marcelis likens to the winemaker’s in her graduation project, and the ‘many hands and brains involved in bringing projects to life – it’s not just me, it’s a whole ecosystem’.

Her redesign of the VitraHaus Loft in 2024 drew on her family home, a former paper factory in Rotterdam’s Coolhaven, where she has lived at times with ‘Candy Cubes’, a ‘Voie’ light, a ‘Tall Stripe’ mirror, ‘Lokum’ tables, a ‘Boa’ pouf and ‘Varmblixt’, none of them destroyed by her children, ‘or vice versa’. In a home she calls ‘not the most conventional’, she checks their light temperature and proportions. ‘I’m currently living with a lava column and love the soft glow it casts on our home at night – it’s the only light we have on in the evenings really.’

‘Light and Color’ runs at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Toni-Areal, from 30 October 2026 to 4 April 2027. ‘Making a Show’ is published by Apartamento with the museum. museum-gestaltung.ch

Craig Ellwood (1922 to 1992) was a charismatic and self-made architectural superstar, adept at whipping up mid-century modern confections throughout the hills and canyons of California for a coterie stylish, artistic, and creative clients.

Born in Texas as Jon Nelson Burke, Ellwood never formally qualified as an architect yet, remarkably, his name is now attached to some of the most iconic houses of the last century, including Case Study House #22, the Stahl House, the meticulous precision of Case Study House #16, the Salzman House, as well as houses 17B and 18.

Although the 1950 Ellwood-Zimmerman House in Brentwood was needlessly demolished in 2024, there are a still a notable number of surviving projects that bear his signature style, including the 1976 campus for the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, designed with James Tyler, and the renewed and restored Moore House, also from 1965.

Now Ellwood fans have another opportunity to buy into the legend, this time with slightly less of the cultural burden borne by the Stahl House. The Kubly House is located in Pasadena and has a close connection to ArtCenter. Completed in 1965 for the princely sum of $45,000, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house covers a modest 2,277 sq ft.

The clients were Don and Sally Kubly, both ArtCenter alumni and educators; Don went on to become its second president. The process of building the house kickstarted the creative partnership that eventually led to Ellwood’s involvement on the new campus buildings a decade later.

The structure is simplicity itself, a glass and timber box with a clear Miesian inspiration (allegedly sketched on a napkin by Ellwood during a client lunch). All utility spaces sit within the glazed envelope, with a galley kitchen at the heart of the property, flanked by a living room and dining/family room. The corners of the rectangular plan are given over to bedrooms, with the primary ensuite bedroom on one side and two children’s bedrooms on the other, sharing a bathroom.

Steps and terraces, aligned with the centre of the house, lead down to the landscaped 0.6-acre garden and pool. The post and beam pavilion is raised up on short pilotis above the gently curving site, with mature trees along the perimeter providing framed views from every room.

The Kubly family retained the house until 2022. The subsequent owners undertook a sympathetic restoration of what is believed to be the architect’s only residential project in Pasadena. This included updating all the house’s major systems and restoring the surfaces, structure and glazing, readying the Kubly House for the next phase of its history.

The Kubly House, 215 La Vereda Road, Pasadena, for sale via Chris Suarez and Kimberly Benz of Suarez + Benz at Compass, TheKublyHouse.com, priced at $3,250,000

Parisian brand Delsey has launched in newest range of luxury cases, Alu'r, joining the ranks of high-end aluminium carry-on and check-in luggage. This is Delsey’s first aluminium collection and launches in its 80th year. The collection kicks off with two sizes, a 55cm carry-on case and a 76cm large spinner check-in case.

In addition to the familiar silver finish of classic era aluminium luggage, the two suitcases are also available in four other colours, Pop Orange, Vibrant Pink, Pine Green and Deep Black. All models feature leather handles and the high-grade aluminium has been given a brushed, textured finish inspired by the weave pattern of carbon fibre and setting it apart from its rivals.

Practicality is paired with durability. The larger of the two bags weighs in at 6.8kg with an internal capacity of 102 litres. The carry-on bag weighs 4.2kg and has an internal volume of 35.6 litres. Both feature reinforced corners and along with dual TSA-compatible combination locks, smooth shock-absorbing double wheels and a telescopic handle that can be finely adjusted across a variety of heights.

The interior is defined by a number of different compartments, as well as a dedicated spot to slot the Bluetooth tracker of your choice. According to Delsey’s Global Brand Director Coralie Lindvay, ‘As we mark our 80th year, the landmark launch of our aluminium collection signals the future direction of Delsey, pushing the boundaries of innovation and of the travel experience while staying true to the heritage that has defined us from the beginning.’

While Delsey certainly isn’t the first manufacturer to move into the familiar, evocative and patina-bearing aluminium luggage sector (check out Carl Friedrik’s new Check-In collection), the company brings a fresh take on texture and a bold selection of colours.

Alu’r aluminium luggage by Delsey Paris, £425 for the 55cm carry-on case, £595 for the 76cm large spinner check-in case, Delsey.com, @DelseyOfficial

‘It's unusual for me to be in a space like this. Art and photography, in the UK anyway, have had a checkered relationship, so I wasn't expecting to be here.’ Sat below a Roger Hilton painting in the Bechstein room at Kettle’s Yard, the photographer Sunil Gupta reflects on how his stunning new retrospective came to be in the exhibition gallery of the Cambridge institution, best known as the former abode of Jim and Helen Ede, and for their vast collection of 20th-century art that remains in situ.

‘The more I got to know about Jim Ede, it seemed appropriate. There was obviously something queer going on here.’ Indeed, ‘Life With a Camera, 1970 – Now’ (on display at Kettle's Yard through 31 January 2027, before travelling to Ikon Gallery in Birmingham and Leeds Art Gallery) is an apt fit for the space: a great chunk of Gupta’s work is made in the home, while the notion of community has been at the centre of his practice for the past five decades, tethering it to the spirit of Kettle’s Yard.

Arranged chronologically, with curation by Andrew Nairne and Guy Haywood with Susie Biller, the new show opens with Friends and Lovers: Coming Out In Montréal. A largely domestic series displayed on a shelf characterised by Nairne as a mantelpiece (the descriptor gently underscoring the intimacy tied into the show’s moniker), the pictures were made in the early 1970s and highlight Gupta’s friends and family, as well as his introduction to the gay liberation movement.

Similarly domestic but more overtly posed, nearby is Lovers: Ten years On, in which lesbian and gay couples appear in their respective homes, positioned mostly in front of posters and paintings that speak to their wider interests. Gupta had followed his partner Rudi from Canada (he appears frequently in the earlier series) to the States, and then the UK, and the work, made in London in the mid-1980s, was a response to the break-up of their relationship.

‘I was interested in homosexual relationships from the beginning, and they seem to mostly be domestic,’ he observes. ‘Unless it’s a demonstration, there's very little queer public life. I haven't seen it since Christopher Street [in New York] in 1976, when there was a very visible, middle-of-the-day presence on the streets. In London it was all indoors.’

Perhaps his most recognisable work, the Christopher Street series was made during a semester studying under Lissette Model at the New School for Social Research in New York, and was conceived as a kind of social anthropology, documenting men as they strode around the New York neighbourhood synonymous with gay life, after Stonewall and before Aids. The images now read as both cool and celebratory – nostalgic too – and at Kettle’s Yard are strikingly placed so as to be the first thing visitors see, hung close together on a red-pink wall (upstairs, contact sheets from the series are laid out in a vitrine against the same bright shade).

As per the foundations of Gupta’s practice, his own identities feed much of the show’s content – being gay, Indian, and HIV positive – and subsequently there are a number of self-portraits, while other projects emerge from questions relevant to his circumstances (the photographer’s voice, additionally, guides visitors through via wall panels).

Significantly larger than ‘From Here to Eternity’, his 2020 survey at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, ‘Life With a Camera’ includes more than 140 works. ‘That show was following a photography thread and highlighting not just the queer stuff, but my history with race,’ says Gupta, a founding member of Autograph (Association of Black Photographers), which was established in an era when Black was used more broadly as a political signifier against the racist landscape of 1980s Britain. ‘Here, I think Andrew Nairne wanted to maybe try to liberate me from the sociology of the work.

‘It's fun to see what gets emphasised,’ he adds. ‘Nobody's ever shown the pictures of the children with HIV, for example. Most people just want me to be Black and gay.’ Made in New Delhi in 2005, where Gupta was living until 2012 (and where he met his husband, Charan Singh, with whom he now lives in London and collaborates often), A Time to Care was made with the Naz Foundation, which ran a care home for children navigating life after diagnosis. The pictures, of flip-flopped feet and anonymised toddlers in arms, are far removed from the photographer’s series Homelands, exploring his own relationship to the virus, which the exhibition includes in the same room. Marrying images made in the UK, India, US and Canada, here, Gupta juxtaposes his undressed body with fields of green, describing them as ‘benign pictures of landscapes through which a terrifying virus was spreading’.

Further context is provided upstairs, where the themes and scope of Gupta’s work are examined through a different lens: newspaper clippings insert his pictures into Aids narratives, exhibition posters highlight the organisations he’s worked with, a table full of books, amongst them the exhibition catalogue and new Trolley Books title I Call You My Love, speak to his prolific output.

There are framed photographs also, like the Helmut Lang A/W 2020 campaign revisiting Christopher Street (creative director Thomas Cawson had been inspired by the original series), and a portrait of Gupta and Singh, shot recently in the house at Kettle’s Yard for Lovers, Revisited. Building on the series he made 40 years ago, the picture is part of a larger body of work, now international but still centered around people he knows personally, exploring what queer couples look like today. ‘We appear wherever the work takes us,’ says Gupta, ‘and it takes us to a lot of places.’ In each instance, the camera claims its presence, as ‘Life With a Camera’ boldly asserts.

‘Sunil Gupta: Life with a Camera, 1970 – Now’ is at Kettle's Yard until 31 January 2027

Elliott Kaye worked at kitchens that take themselves very seriously – Lyle’s, The French House, Leroy – before making his name with Norman’s café in north London. This reimagining of the greasy spoon turned a workaday stretch of Archway A-road into a destination for the fashion crowd – Burberry even took it over during London Fashion Week. Following the closure of Norman’s, Kaye is hoping to put another scruffy street on the food map, this time on the Hackney-Homerton border. Marrion’s, his first solo venture, is a local that is part cocktail bar, part wine bar and part bistro.

Wallpaper* dines at Marrion’s, London

The mood: Drinks, dinner or both

Kaye designed the interiors himself, with the Big Apple as his starting point. ‘We were drawn to the simplicity and intimacy of New York neighbourhood bars and diners, particularly the idea of a place where the distinction between drinking and dining is deliberately blurred,’ he says. ‘We wanted Marrion’s to feel as though it had always been part of the neighbourhood rather than like a newly opened restaurant trying to look new.’

The initial impression is beguilingly understated – red-topped two-seat tables on dark timber legs, cream walls and a pale tiled floor, plus standing tables fixed to the wall for drinkers – but it takes work to appear this effortless. The furniture was designed and made by Oscar Oliver Studio, down to the curved black bar, which doubles as an eating counter.

If the room is inspired by the US, the Marrion’s logo looks closer to home, borrowing from the lettering of Watney’s, the London brewer whose Red Barrel bitter was a pub staple in the 1960s and 70s. It all sounds too cool for school – staff are kitted out in uniforms from Danish brand Another Aspect – but the welcome couldn’t be any friendlier, including for dogs. The only art is a framed print of Vincenzo Campi’s ‘The Ricotta Eaters’, a 16th-century scene of grinning diners digging into a mound of fresh cheese – a reminder that a good night out has always been more about the company than the cooking.

The food: Old favourites, no fuss

Like the room, the cooking makes a virtue of simplicity. The menu is as short as the drinks list, and Kaye cooks it himself in a tiny kitchen at the back. Start with a glass of red vermouth served with a chunky wedge of lemon and an olive, alongside a bowl of fried olives in breadcrumbs speared with cocktail sticks.

The prawn cocktail is served New York-style, with five pink tails balanced on the rim of a martini glass above a dipping sauce flushed with the heat of horseradish and Tabasco. Devilled crab rarebit comes on a slice of toasted sourdough, cut down the middle so it’s easy to share, while the pork schnitzel Holstein is classically topped with fried egg, capers and long slivers of anchovies. Finish with banoffee pie under a swirl of cocoa-dusted whipped cream, as sweet as the intentions behind this place.

None of this is beyond the skill of a talented home cook, but that isn’t really the point. Marrion’s is a chilled-out, low-key hangout, the sort of place where you end up chatting to the next table or whoever is sitting beside you at the bar, and prices won’t break the bank. Most of the wine is natural, and there’s a monthly changing house martini among the cocktails. Sunday brunch is on the way, too, promising anchovy soldiers to dip into boiled eggs.

Marrion’s is located at 177 Morning Ln, London E9 6LH, United Kingdom

Dutch artist and designer Sabine Marcelis is known for her warm and wonderful colour palette, applied to her renowned furniture and object designs, such as her ‘Varmblixt’ lamp collection for Ikea, her inflatable sunset-coloured maze at Coachella, and, in collaboration with Mathmos, her limited-edition takes on the lava lamp.

Discover Sabine Marcelis’ latest lava lamp collaboration

Mathmos is the original manufacturer of the lava lamp – or ‘Astro’ lamp – and has worked with Marcelis three times already, creating a yellow lamp in 2023, a burgundy version in 2024 and a subtle green take alongside the tallest-ever version in 2025.

This collaborative streak continues in her first solo exhibition, ‘Light and Color’. As part of the show, Mathmos presents ‘Mathmos Lava Columns’, an immersive installation showcasing the giant 296cm Mathmos X Studio Sabine Marcelis ‘Column’ lava lamps.

Currently, the ‘Column’ lamp is available in three lava colourways; but for the exhibition, a bubblegum-pink version has been created. The British manufacturer and Studio Sabine Marcelis will launch a coordinating new limited-edition ‘Astro’ lava lamp in the same hue in November, with a run of 1,000 lamps worldwide.

Now open at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich (30 October 2026 – 4 April 2027), 'Light and Color' is completely immersive and looks at the designer’s focus on transparency, reflection, opacity, and translucency. In a flurry of colour, Marcelis brings together furniture, lighting, mirrors and large-scale spatial installations from across her practice to explore the sensual experience of light and materiality.

‘What I wanted to create was not a retrospective in the traditional sense but a series of spatial experiences that show how light and colour behave across different scales and materials,’ shares Marcelis. ‘Some works are presented individually so you can really focus on their material and optical properties. Others are arranged as full room-sized installations where light and colour permeate the entire space.’

Among the displays, the towering ‘Column’ lava lamps, surrounded by mirrors, give the illusion of a lava lamp world – a chance to immerse yourself in a hotly hued piece of nostalgia, for those who recall lava lamps from their 1960s debut or subsequent revivals over the decades.

‘I always wanted to design a giant lava lamp; that was the thought I had in my very first meeting with Mathmos,’ shares the Dutch designer. ‘The lava lamp is one of the only objects that has light, colour and translucency all in one. It does what I try to do with resin and glass, but it adds the dimension of time and movement. Light, colour, movement and reflection all working together in a single space. The columns are constantly moving, the blobs rising, merging and descending, forever evolving.’

The new limited edition lamp is available at mathmos.com. Sabine Marcelis’ solo exhibition ‘Light and Color’ is on show at Museum für Gestaltung Zürich from 30 October 2026 to 4 April 2027

A new collection from Parisian fashion house Berluti sees the tale of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince translated onto its signature leather goods for modern-day travellers.

Working with Saint-Exupéry’s sketchbooks as well as the author’s finished watercolour illustrations found in the book, the team at Berluti have reimagined them, both onto and into, the house’s emblematic Venezia full-grain leather. By treating the leather as a canvas, they were able to bring pages to life in a novel manner; this includes the spectrum of signature treatments the maison is known and loved for, like patina, engraving, tattooing and some new techniques, among them watercolour and leather marquetry.

The story behind Berluti’s ‘The Little Prince’ collection

Lasers are used to engrave like handwriting, lifting quotes, sketches and parts of manuscripts from Saint-Exupéry’s work. The patina is applied to paint the leather, delicately, layer after layer, creating that sublime and subtle movement of tone and shade deep within the surface of the leather that is synonymous with Berluti.

Adding for the first time brush work to Berluti’s vocabulary, atop already patinated leather, offers an opportunity to emulate the artist’s own watercolours. Tattooing augments the laser, where motifs are traced deep into the surface of the leather. And finally marquetry, a technique first developed during the Italian renaissance, adds contrast and further depth to the finished pieces.

Take the ‘Trois Nuits’ 72-hour bag, which sees the individual pattern pieces assembled and worked together flat from left to right, like a polyptych, with a mountain landscape (and the titular prince on the highest peak) first in patina, then watercolour and, finally, details of ridges added with tattooing.

My personal favourite is the ‘Makore Compact’ wallet, which represents the tale of the snake that swallowed the elephant. When it’s folded, you perceive a rich patina in a shade of garnet and the snake hollowed out in laser; seeing just half the design, it reads like an abstract modern artwork. Only when the wallet is opened out, so you see front and back covers as one work, can you read the full drawing and marvel at the fantastical idea of a giant elephant inside a snake.

This project showcases the skills of the embellishment department at Manifattura Berluti in Fererra, Italy, a state-of-the-art building that opened in 2015, designed by Barthelemy & Griño Architects. It's here the team, many trained at the nearby L’Académie du savoir-faire in Ferrara (established in the 14th century, naturally), applies their well-honed skills to the leather.

The collection comprises seven bags, eight wallets and card holders, one shoe and four cashmere scarves, launching worldwide at Berluti stores and online from 30 October 2026.

berluti.com

How can seating help shape relations between people? This question was on the minds of Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien of London design studio Doshi Levien as they were creating 'Session', a collection of furniture for German manufacturer Brunner Group.

Comprising 23 elements that can be combined into several configurations, the designers conceived the collection as a series of components that can be separated, replaced and repaired, and the fabric easily removed.

Creating ‘Session’: Doshi Levien and Brunner

'In our design process, we wanted to bring together the softness and tactility of hospitality environments with the performance and flexibility required in the workplace,' explain the duo. 'The collection is designed to support different ways of sitting and spending time, from relaxed and informal use to more upright working and conversation.'

The collection is indeed informed by the new and changing needs of contemporary offices and other workspaces. Since its founding in 1977, family-owned Brunner has been a leading manufacturer in the genre, its products made in Germany with functionality in mind.

'One of Brunner’s particular strengths is their ability to marry the craft of upholstery and the shaping of soft form with highly engineered technical solutions,' explain the designers. 'Throughout the development, we have tried to balance softness with architectural coherence. This combination has been central to the development of “Session”.'

The collection is 'inspired by improvisation': the name itself brings to mind the casualness of a jam session, or an informal gathering. And this is the spirit of the designs, which include armchairs, sofas, curved elements, ottomans and daybeds that can be variously combined to help shape relationships and possibilities within a space.

'We were also interested in how the furniture could work at different scales: individual pieces work independently, while larger configurations begin to define areas within an open interior, creating different degrees of intimacy, enclosure and interaction,' they say.

Alongside smaller elements, a series of L-shaped designs further contribute to the interior architecture of an office space. They can be combined with integrated surfaces and swivelling writing tables to encourage connection, collaboration, but also relaxation.

'The L-shaped section also became a graphic element within the collection, creating a visual link between the softer components,' note Doshi and Levien. 'It gave us the opportunity to introduce a contrast of materials, bringing wood, leather and textile together within the same piece.'

Have you ever wondered where creatives live? Artists’ Modernist Houses, a new book by publisher Batsford, looks at just that, taking readers on a fascinating journey across scales and territories in the midcentury movement and looking at homes 'which are or have been lived in by artists'.

The book, authored by Wallpaper* contributor – and former staffer – Harriet Thorpe, compiles 50 examples. The projects include residences not only commissioned by artists, but also, on occasion, co-designed by them, exploring how art and the owners' creative spirit help form space and the entire living experience.

Discover a treasure trove in ‘Artists’ Modernist Houses’

Projects span the globe, being built anywhere between the mid- to end of the 20th century – always in the progressive, for the time, modernist architecture style. Examples span from André Wogenscky and Marta Pan's home outside Paris to Barbara Hepworth’s studio and Georgia O’Keeffe’s ranch in New Mexico, the Bauhaus Masters’ Houses in Germany, and the studio and houses of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera in Mexico City.

'I’ve always loved visiting artists’ house museums, where the aura of the artist remains, absorbed through their personal objects [such as] notebooks, sketches and books, [and] their daily views and working processes. I feel like in those kinds of rooms you can really start to understand an artist on a deeper level,’ Thorpe says.

The author says: 'Working on this book made me think about exactly why I love to get lost in those domestic worlds. My mother loves art, particularly the Impressionists and early abstract art, artists like Mary Cassatt, Modigliani, and Gabriele Munter – so paintings, in the form of postcards, books and exhibitions, were very present in my childhood.

'I went on to study art history and then developed a closer interest in the 20th century and domestic space while writing as a journalist about architecture. I realised that artists’ houses brought together all of these parts of me through a kind of journey into experiencing someone else’s life.'

Thorpe's investigations and analyses go beyond 'just' looking at the case studies – rich, varied and visually captivating as they are. Artists' Modernist Houses also includes a series of essays that lets readers dive deeper into what it means to have art in the home, how architecture enters into dialogue with art, and museums within homes, particularly artists' homes.

Meanwhile, luxurious photography, a mix of newly captured and archival imagery, adds a sense of expansiveness to each case study, transporting the reader into the beautiful dwellings.

'During the process, I felt a growing nostalgia for a “modern” way of life. These houses were imagined as personal vessels for thinking and creating; many of them feel like private worlds, where objects and resources were well-made and treasured. Today we live faster, with far more connection and convenience, yet it comes at a mental and spatial cost on the atmospheres of our homes and what they mean to us,' says Thorpe.

'While writing the book, I did lose some of this nostalgia, particularly reflecting on the social challenges that women and people of colour faced and fought to break in the 20th century; and on the changing meaning of home during and in the aftermath of two world wars. Yet even in the face of these challenges, artists continued to carve out their ideas and philosophies into space and living in radical ways, which really inspired me.'

She adds, of the sense of discovery that working on this book afforded: 'I think what I discovered is the relationship between modern art and modern architecture in the 20th century. Modern art seemed to pave the way through theory and movements, then modern architecture had the task of translating this thinking into three dimensions. Art and architecture had moments of deep reciprocity, which can be seen in like-minded collaborations or echoing aesthetics, yet also developed on their own independent trajectories too.

'In the book, some artists gave an architect carte blanche, trusting their total interpretation of their artistic way of life; others collaborated with an architect sharing influences; while some artists used architecture as their medium, creating living sculptures; and others took on the formal role of the architect themselves. Every space reflects radical ways of thinking about how we can live creatively in the world, and the extraordinary ideas that can emerge when the two disciplines meet.'

'Artists’ Modernist Houses', Batsford, £30, published by batsfordbooks.com, also available from Waterstones

‘The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host,’ American designer Charles Eames once said.

Appropriately, a new cultural centre in Novato, California devoted to the legacies of Charles Eames and his wife and creative partner, Ray Eames, will soon be hosting droves of eager guests looking to immerse themselves in the design duo’s pioneering ethos.

Called The Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity, the new 88.5-acre cultural campus and museum in Marin County, will be a sprawling new destination for art, ideas and nature. Global architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron will be leading the architecture, which will convert a vacant midcentury warehouse into a future-looking cultural institution.

The project will be primarily an adaptive reuse one. The site is defined by an eye-catching midcentury warehouse designed by Polish architect Jan Lubicz-Nycz with celebrated modernist architect John Savage Bolles for the McGraw-Hill publishing company in 1965. Defined by an origami-like concrete roof that, from afar, resembles white mountain peaks, the striking building eventually became a warehouse for Birkenstock, who left the campus in 2020.

Herzog & de Meuron, working alongside San Francisco firm EHDD, will work to preserve the original 185,000 sq ft structure, while transforming it into contemporary exhibition space, with warm, timbre-clad spaces and column-free galleries, with amenities that include a café, museum shop, theatre and maker spaces. A neighbouring former office building on the site will host retreats, talks and other programming. Visitors can expect to encounter design rarities from the Eames archive, in addition to contemporary art exhibitions.

Renowned landscape firm Field Operations, meanwhile, will transform the site with gardens, groves, play spaces and water features, with plantings like herbs, olive trees and other plantings that typify the Northern California landscape.

The project is expected to break ground in 2028, and will open to the public in 2030, Institute officials anticipate.

Llisa Demetrios, a granddaughter of Charles and Ray Eames and a co-founder of the Institute, sees this as a major milestone in the continuation of her family’s legacy. ‘For my grandparents, design was always grounded in curiosity and intention — looking closely, asking questions, embracing constraints, and finding beauty in the practical and the functional. The Museum carries that spirit forward,’ she said in a statement.

‘I hope our Museum campus feels vibrant with that same sense of potential and that people leave feeling inspired not just by what they’ve seen, but by what they might make or discover themselves,’ Demetrios added.

Now that the iPhone Duo is finally out in the wild, we take a look at some of the accessories that have accompanied Apple’s first foray into the folding form factor. From cases and stands to apps that take advantage of the twin screen device, read on to find out how to make the most of the current flagship device.

Apple iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand

First up, what does Apple itself offer in the way of accessories for its new flagship? Accompanying the launch is this Folio made from TechWoven and fitted with magnets to let the Duo slot perfectly into place, as well as compatibility with MagSafe charging. Available in Navy Blue and Taupe, the case includes a kickstand for hands-free viewing.

Apple iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand, £129, Apple.com

Bionic iPhone Duo Charger

Coming soon from French accessory wizards Bionic Labs, their take on a charger dock for the Duo. Characteristically clean and minimal, the stand is made from anodised aluminium and polished stainless steel and includes a slot on the base for an Apple Pencil. Available in black or silver, the stand also includes an adjustable arm to transform the Duo into a desktop companion when it’s not in your pocket.

iPhone Duo Charger, €229, BionicParis.com

Moft Cases

Moft has launched two dedicated accessories for iPhone Duo, starting with its Snap Fold, a wallet and stand combo that clips magnetically to the rear of the phone and works when the Duo is both folded and unfolded. Black and white are available now, with Khaki Green and Terracotta colours coming soon.

It’s joined by the slimline Dynamic Folio, the latest in Moft’s range of Origami-inspired creased cases. Not only does the Folio offer a screen protector, but the ingenious design flips and folds in a number of ways to offer several viewing angles and also doubles up as a grip.

Snap Fold for iPhone Duo, £39, Moft.com
Dynamic Folio for iPhone Duo, £54, Moft.com

Mous Limitless Case

For a company that prides itself on drop protection, the inherent fragility of a folding phone will always be a bit more of a challenge. Mous’s Limitless Case reckons its up to the job with reinforced shock-absorbing corners, a soft microfibre inner lining and a hardshell made from TPU/polycarbonate.

A range of finishes include ultra-strong Aramid fibre, leather, fabric and even walnut offset the chunky styling and give butter-fingered owners a bit of style along with the security.

Mous Limitless Case, £84.99, UK.Mous.co

Torro Leather Wallet

A traditional accessory for a forward-thinking piece of technology, Torro has turned its tried and tested leatherworking skills to create this bespoke case for the iPhone Duo. Not only does it double up as a regular wallet, with card slots on the left, but there’s also a built-in stand that’ll accommodate the Duo in both open and closed positions. Magnetic clips keep the phone safely shut when stowed and there’s also full MagSafe charge compatibility.

Torro iPhone Duo Leather Wallet Case with Stand & MagSafe Charging, £39.99, Torro.co.uk

Better Mobile Xperience SolidSafe Duo

Not a case, but a powerbank, the new SolidSafe Duo from BMW (Better Mobile Xperience) marks the arrival of the company’s semi-solid-state cell battery technology for the iPhone Duo. Combining a custom-made 5,000mAh battery with an integrated 360-degree rotating ring stand (which works in all orientations), the SolidSafe Duo can charge wireless at up to 15W and at 20W over a wire connection (a USB-C lanyard cable is supplied).

BMX SolidSafe Duo, £79.99, HeyBMX.com

Tiny Computers

A playful use of the Duo’s twin screens, Tiny Computers is an app that promises ten ‘retro computers you can play’, a miniature computer museum that incorporates hardware and software recreations of classic laptop machines. These include the original Macintosh, Amiga 500, and the iMac GT, alongside a host of early Windows machines and even the Commodore 64. Strictly for entertainment only (although as the developer notes, ‘occasionally, even Windows crashes).

Tiny Computers, available via the App Store, $3.99, Apps.Apple.com

Long before travel became her profession, Nuria Val spent family holidays in a caravan called Rápido (meaning ‘fast’ in Spanish), whose flowered curtains she still remembers. Modelling took the Barcelona-born photographer abroad at 17, and she began capturing the places where she worked, developing an interest in the natural world that would eventually lead her into beauty. Trips to Lanzarote, Iceland and Japan helped inspire Rowse, the plant-based skincare brand she co-founded with Gabriela Salord in 2018. She is now preparing to open Vila Oliveta, a hotel and artists’ residence in southern Catalonia, with her husband and their daughter Oli.

As she prepares to host guests, Val is also making plans for Peru following a recent trip to Norway. Her cameras are invariably packed, sometimes alongside a garment she hopes to photograph if the right setting presents itself, although she admits she is trying to resist recording everything. What stays with her, she says, is how a place felt: ‘Pictures are how I try to get the feeling back.’ In this edition of Wallpaper’s In Transit, Val discusses childhood caravan holidays, her affection for sleeper trains and the beauty essentials she applies in the back of a taxi.

How Nuria Val travels

Wallpaper*: What’s your earliest travel memory?

Nuria Val: My family had a caravan called Rápido, with beautiful floral curtains. I think I was around three. I remember those trips with my older brother and sister as something magical.

W*: What role does travel play in your life now, personally and through work?

NV: Mostly work. That’s something I’d love to change in the coming years.

W*: What attracts you to a destination?

NV: Nature.

W*: Do you pack for who you are, or who you think you’ll become on that trip?

NV: A mix. I pack depending on how I feel at that moment, so it’s part who I am, part who I’d like to be when I get there.

W*: What’s the most unnecessary thing you always bring ‘just in case’, and the most essential?

NV: The essential: my cameras. The ‘just in case’: there’s always one piece I’ve already pictured in a photograph, and I pack it, hoping to find the right spot for it.

W*: Do you remember places more by how they looked or how they felt?

NV: How they felt, which is strange for a photographer. The pictures are how I try to get the feeling back.

W*: Do you tend to capture moments when you travel, or let them stay unrecorded?

NV: Lately, I’m trying to be more present instead of capturing everything. Not easy for a photographer.

W*: How do you look after yourself while travelling back-to-back?

NV: Water, less coffee than I’d like, and a walk on arrival to reset. Skin-wise, I keep it simple: the same few products wherever I am, so my skin doesn’t notice the change of country.

W*: What’s one beauty essential you always travel with?

NV: The Rowse All Day serum with niacinamide and Rowse Summer Mist. Planes dry everything out, and these keep my skin calm and even through long days and different climates.

W*: What’s your go-to beauty hack while on the go?

NV: The Rowse Lip and Cheek Balm in Peach Blush. One product for lips and cheeks, applied with my fingers in a taxi.

According to Nuria...

Journey or destination? ‘Journey. The destination is usually what I’m photographing. The journey is where magic and unexpected things happen.’

Window or aisle? ‘Window. Professional habit. I look at the light on the clouds and think about how I’d expose it.’

Early flight or last flight of the day? ‘Always early. Arriving with a full day ahead feels like stealing one.’

Fold or roll? ‘Roll. Linen creases either way, so I’ve made peace with it.’

Plan everything or arrive and figure it out? ‘Plan the logistics, leave the days open. The best pictures rarely happen on schedule. My magic moments are always sunrise and sunset.’

Who’s always on your playlist? ‘Frank Ocean.’

Last place you travelled to, and where next? ‘Norway. Next is Peru.’

Kiss, marry, ghost: plane, train or car? ‘Marry the train, kiss the car, ghost the plane. A sleeper train is the only way to travel where the landscape arrives slowly enough to understand it.’

rowse.co

Los Angeles was awarded the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics back in September 2017, which will make it only the third city to have hosted the games three times (after London and Paris, which was the last Olympic city in 2024). LA last hosted back in 1984 (and before that 1932); in theory the city is well versed in the art of the spectacle. A little bit more of the aesthetic and artistic approach to the games was unveiled today, as the slogan – ‘Stars Align’ – and a short brand film and logo were revealed.

It’s no exaggeration to say that Olympic design is freighted with cultural significance and expectation. London 2012 famously fell foul of the taste police, while Rio 2016 was a little cartoonish and Tokyo 2020 (held the following year due to the pandemic) felt understandably muted. Paris 2024, overseeing by director of design Joachim Roncin, raised the bar, walking a stylish tightrope between bold graphics and cultural sensitivities.

Ric Edwards, VP of Brand Design and Look for LA 2028, has described the brand as ‘platform of infinite expression to reflect the diversity of LA stories’. One of the key jumping off points for the ‘Look of the Games’ was the colourful floral display put on by Southern Californian superblooms, when the desert bursts into life. Colour is therefore a key part of the identity, which is further broken down into 13 patterns, or ‘blooms’, each tied in to an integral community and cultural component of the city.

On top of this, there are four unique typefaces developed for the identity, each one taken from elements of urban typographic design like the strip mall and hand painted signage. For the first time, the LA28 Olympic emblem emblem will be a dynamic one, cycling through the first dynamic Olympic emblem, with the ‘L’, ‘2’ and ‘8’ represented by three different typefaces and the ‘A’ cycling through graphical representations drawn from the cityscape.

There’ll be naysayers, inevitably, but it’s a valid attempt at creating a visual identity that embraces the massive scale and complexity of LA, one of America’s most diverse cities. It also acknowledges the huge contribution made by the Games workers, both during the events themselves and the period leading up to the opening ceremony. ‘No one makes the Games alone.

It's an athlete's years of early mornings, a volunteer's first shift, a small business getting ready for the world, a fan's voice in the stands. Each of those matters on its own,’ says LA28’s Chief Marketing Officer Alex Merchán, ‘'Stars Align' is what happens when they all come together at the same moment, and that's where the extraordinary comes from.’

The ‘Stars Align’ reveal film is soundtracked by the Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Can’t Stop’, a rather obvious choice given the sheer scope of options that must have been available. Nevertheless, it’ll certainly help with brand recognition. As the Games draw closer, expect to see the LA28 burst forth just like those desert superblooms, garlanding the city in a colourful celebration of the competition to come.

LA28.org, @LA28, Olympics.com

Technical-wear brand Ten c – a playful acronym for ‘the emperor’s new clothes’ – was founded by Alessandro Pungetti and Paul Harvey in 2010 after stints at C.P. Company and Stone Island (Harvey has since stepped away from the brand; Pungetti remains as head designer).

And, like those behemoths of Italian streetwear, Ten c is rooted in the pursuit of a modular, utilitarian wardrobe (garments draw on the tenets of traditional outdoor attire and military-wear) enlivened by high-tech fabric manipulation and finishes (Ten c’s signature is Original Japanese Jersey [OJJ], a polyester-nylon interlock jersey designed to mould and shape to the body through wear, not unlike raw denim). ‘You just have to feel a Ten c garment and you know,’ Harvey once said.

Fabric first: Ten c x Comoli has arrived

A new collaboration, released this week, sees Ten c meet its match with a capsule collection designed alongside Japanese brand Comoli, founded by Keijiro Komori in Tokyo in 2011. Like Ten c, Komori is obsessive about fabrics, though he largely avoids technical-wear in favour of the highest quality natural fibres, from silk and cotton to wool flannel, one of Comoli’s signature fabrics.

Flannel features as part of the new collaboration, combined in the eight-piece collection with Ten c’s Original Japanese Jersey for subtle contrasts in texture, something highlighted by the collection’s all-back colour palette. Much of the collection is also reversible, though rather than different colours or prints on each side, the juxtaposition of textures is instead used to define the interior and exteriors of garments.

In terms of design, pieces have a sporty, outdoor feel, from a technical field jackets with quilted liner to a reversible track jacket, track pant and elongated hooded parka-style coat. A lack of adornment chimes with Komori’s understated, poetic approach to clothing, which seeks to hone the quotidien wardrobe in fabrics and cuts which will shape to the body through time, like the perfect vintage garment (decoration is largely absent from his collections, which seek to slot congruously into a wearer’s existing wardrobe, rather than stand out).

Ten c say it is about designing with ‘intention’. ‘It has been an honour to work together on this project,’ Enzo Fusco, president of FGF Industry, the parent company of Ten c, tells Wallpaper*. ‘The partnership was born not out of contrast, but from shared values: understated design, quality fabrics and a timeless approach to clothing.’

‘[We are] two distinct brands,’ he continues. ‘Each remaining true to their own identity, [but we] have come together to create pieces that reflect the values of both, moving beyond fleeting trends and allowing the product to speak for itself. The collection perfectly embodies the shared philosophy behind the collaboration: intention comes first, design follows.’

Ten c x Comoli is available in Ten c’s online store and selected retailers.

tenc.com

The work of Dutch designer Aldo Bakker defies convention: eschewing the immediate, traditional functionality of design objects, his pieces are sculptural in scope and largely abstract. In a new solo exhibition, Bakker returns to Amsterdam's Looiersgracht 60 (the setting for his 2015 show, Containing Content) to present a new body of work titled Strangely Familiar (on view until 23 December 2026).

'In Strangely Familiar, objects enter fully into their own terms, liberating themselves entirely from questions of functionality and conditions of legitimacy,' reads a text introducing the works. 'Scale becomes a means of release. In a carefully balanced performance, forces of line, mass, colour and texture gradually assert themselves into being with greater autonomy, eventually entering into dialogue with their environment.'

On the occasion of the exhibition opening, Nick Vinson spoke to Bakker about his relationship with materials and how his forms are conceived

Strangely Familiar: an interview with Aldo Bakker

Nick Vinson: What was the starting point for the show?

Aldo Bakker: As this is a multidisciplinary space, I had the freedom to select a body of work and to do the scenography as I have in mind. So I can make a artistic statement.

NV: The show is curated by Soraya Notoadikusumo and Nadine Snijders – what kind of dialog did you have, and how did that shape the show?

AB: We know each other quite well, as we did our first show together 10 years ago. And that was Containing Content, where only five pouring vessels were presented in this space in such a way that the sculptural side of those objects was already present.

And this time, 10 years later, I had this big wish to emphasise the sculpture side of the oeuvre. And with the galleries we are working with, it was always a choice. It's either pieces need a function, and if they do not have a function, we should go towards the art rules. Well, it is my big wish that the works are staying together, as they are, they complement each other. And there's not so much of a division of the sculpture works or the functional works: they blend, they merge. It's more about ambiguity in this sense.

NV: Aluminium, plaster, urushi, grey quartzite, belge noir, Humber brown limestone – how essential is material to you?

AB: It becomes essential along the way, as it becomes an intensive dialogue. I decide on a material, but this doesn't mean that this particular creation stays in that material.

For example for the 6prts bench, right from the start, I had this particular material in mind, the Grey Quartzite. Because it almost doesn't have veins. It's a very quiet, monotone kind of thing.

NV: Can you elaborate on the choice of stone? You seem to favour heavy mass.

AB: Grey Quartzite, I believe it fits very well, for Six Parts. I like to see the different components that were needed to make this composition; if this was a very rich, decorative kind of stone, it would stand in the way.

NV: The stone pieces in particular have a very tactile quality can you talk about the finishes.

AB: All the pieces are finished by hand, with very fine pieces of stone with diamond inside. You need the diamond, because the surface is very hard.

NV: Convex meets concave, right angles meeting curves – how do you create these extraordinary shapes? Do you draw, or do you model first?

AB: I keep them in my mind for a very long time, and then I started imagining them. And when that feeling becomes solid, trustworthy, then I start to draw it. And that's only the front view side view, top view; and that is the moment where I confront myself with that image that I had in my mind all the time. And then I also see the difficulties, and sometimes I discover that it's not finished yet, or it is not good at all.

NV: Looking at Sitting Table, it’s a challenge to understand the origins of your forms. I look at it from the back, it's completely flat, and then from the top it has a 90 degree angle. And then if I was to try to understand how that arrived, I wouldn't even really understand how to begin.

AB: The logic of this piece is that it has an outside and an inside. The outside has three different platforms. The top, which is not a circle, but a kind of regular form, and the bottom which is an elongated form and is separating in two parts. On the inside, it all comes together every time at a single point.

NV: What was the first one made of?

AB: Wood, and you could see the joints, that was called Anura. That was for Wallpaper * Handmade in 2012, that was the first one, the original.

NV: You collaborate with makers, who you always credit. How does working with them affect the process and final result?

AB: I think, uh, the longest working relation here is with Frans Ottink, who made the plaster version of Grin. I think we have worked together for 15 or 20 years. We did many pieces together, so when I give him the drawing, he immediately knows what's important, what cannot change, or what is maybe possible to change

It's the same with Pier Luigi Testi for the stone, and Sergej Kirilove for the Urushi. With Testi, we went to visit him two weeks ago, and he told us that he learned a lot from the collaboration with me. And this is essential, otherwise it doesn't work, because I'm asking a lot.

NV: Your works are often interlocking elements of the same material, why does this appeal to you

AB: With 6prts, it's a reaction to architecture, where you have examples of beautiful stones being composed, but then there's some kind of a material in between to make them connect, like cheating. Well, it doesn't work, because that material in between, it is of a lesser quality, it doesn't endure as the stone does. And so at the beginning it's all neat and in place, but over time, you see that the differences are too big.

And that has become my challenge. How can I make a composition where all the forms are done in such a way that nothing else is needed anymore? And it took a little while to get there, but this, this is purely what it is.

NV: This is the first time I have seen you work in textile. Tell me about the work in silk, and how you achieved a micro embroidery in split threads

AB: It was an invitation from Neooold a collective started by a former student in China. His name is Min, and he came in contact with one of the biggest silk suppliers we have in the world. They work in the classical and traditional way of embroidery, but what is different is that normally, you apply this on a canvas with a bird or a flower, and then the rest is not embroidery. In this case, everything is embroidered, so the whole piece is embroidery.

Strangely Familiar by Aldo Bakker is on view at until 23 December 2026 at Looiersgracht 60, 1016 VT Amsterdam

Short-term aid cycles have long been the traditional way to address human displacement. However, this is not necessarily a long-term, sustainable solution, as the global population of refugees is projected to reach 1.2 billion by 2050. In response to this urgent issue, today (29 October 2026), a group of global architects, humanitarian leaders, and financial strategists has announced the launch of ‘Refugee Cities’, a decadal infrastructure project designed to provide permits and a self-sustaining ‘city’ design, funded by institutional investment rather than relying on finite philanthropy.

Discover BIG's 'Refugee Cities' project

Architecture juggernaut BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) partnered with to.org, a platform that delivers infrastructure projects within refugee settlements, including the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre in Uganda, to work together on the project and redefine the economics of human displacement.

'By scaling our previous work into a permanent urban ecosystem, and working alongside Bjarke Ingels Group, our philanthropic supporters and our investment partners, we are shifting the global paradigm from temporary relief to long-term economic empowerment. We are showing the world that refugees and vulnerable people deserve beautiful buildings that win prizes, that could be anywhere in the world. If you bring infrastructure and a platform to talent, talent can thrive,' shares Nachson Mimran, co-founder of to.org

The collaboration aims to rethink refugee settlements and turn them into urban economic hubs. So far, the first building prototype comprises a modular structure designed as a ‘single-family base unit’.

‘If the average stay in refugee camps is around two decades, then the term temporary cannot be said to suffice. If we start thinking of cities rather than camps, then charity becomes investments into the future, and if companies can be incentivised to locate their production in refugee cities, then the refugees can be given economic opportunities that they currently long for. We have attempted to design a scalable, phaseable, modular blueprint for a new way to accommodate the global flow of refugees,’ says Bjarke Ingels, founder and creative director of BIG.

The city is focused on ten design principles. Its foundation is the family unit, clustering homes into neighbourhoods, which evolve into districts that can eventually expand over time. At the core will be shared infrastructure, logistics, and production facilities, such as a food market, a co-working centre, an arts and crafts hall, a football field, technical workshops, a fitness rooftop, a healing garden, a health centre, and training spaces to support the city as it evolves.

The project’s financial modelling is designed to acquire land and develop infrastructure that helps provide sustainable commercial returns over several decades. Named ‘Opportunity Zones,’ these buildings will span manufacturing and agriculture. The project also requires host-nation governments willing to grant regulatory flexibility and legal work rights to refugees.

The first phase of the plan begins immediately, starting with the construction of a single-family base prototype, which will be located at the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre and will present a tangible look at the project's long-term durability. To launch full-scale execution, there is an active call for both host governments to designate land and regulatory zones, and funders to commit early-stage capital.

What does it mean to be a witch today? Photographer Harley Weir and fashion designer Dilara Findikoglu considered the question on a journey through Romania, travelling across eight cities and villages in five days in a bid to document real witches.

‘We photographed real witches, and powerful women on a journey across Romania,’ says Weir. ‘For centuries, the witch has been used as a symbol of evil. But maybe she was never scary because she was evil, maybe she was scary because she was free. Across history, women who were outspoken, independent, sexual, knowledgeable, or simply unwilling to conform have been treated as dangerous. The witch became a name for the woman who could not, or would not, be controlled.’

Weir photographed women in traditional dress alongside those dressed in Findikoglu’s designs, in a linking of the traditional and contemporary. ‘The body as a place of rebellion, desire and self-expression,’ adds Weir. ‘The clothes feel protective and provocative at once, allowing these women to inhabit the witch not as a caricature of evil, but as a symbol of power, freedom and refusal.’

For Findikoglu, the project has been a chance to rediscover her own Eastern European roots, and enjoy the beauty of the Romanian landscape. ‘The word witch has long been used to marginalise a form of power and wisdom associated with women,’ she says. ‘By linking the feminine relationship with nature and the unseen, society transformed what it could not understand into something to fear. For centuries, patriarchal thinking has placed logic, reason and control above intuition, emotion and instinct. Yet these are equally valuable forms of knowledge, each essential to our understanding of existence.’

The resulting works are the subject of a new photo book published by IDEA. ‘Through this book, we wanted to explore and celebrate the beauty of this often overlooked wisdom,’ says Findikoglu. ‘To question the boundaries between the rational and the unseen, and to recognise the power that exists beyond what we have been taught to understand as truth.’

Harley Weir & Dilara Findikoglu’s Witch is released on 31 October 2026, published by IDEA

When Zaha Hadid died, back on a spring day in 2016, the architecture world froze in shock. It was unexpected – the legendary Iraq-born British architect was only 65 and was in Miami when she passed following a short illness. It took the industry a while to digest the news, and her absence was felt for years; which is why now, a decade later and in the year that would have marked her 76th birthday, it feels fitting and indeed necessary to celebrate Zaha Hadid's enduring legacy and incomparable impact.

Celebrating with the Zaha Hadid Foundation

Marking the occasion, the Zaha Hadid Foundation, which the architect set up in 2013, is announcing an exciting new chapter in its life with the reopening of a newly refurbished building at 10 Bowling Green Lane (the original Hadid office headquarters) in London's Clerkenwell this week, and a series of events and shows that aim to showcase the breadth and visionary and lasting nature of the architect's work.

The new Zaha Hadid Foundation hub

The handsome old brick Victorian school building on 10 Bowling Green Lane is part of Hadid's story, housing her office for 30 years (ZHA relocated in 2021 to another location, not too far away), and has been intrinsically connected to her memory. It is now part of the Zaha Hadid Foundation and has just been refurbished by London-based Studio KA to become a hub of architectural showcases and debate for the local and global community.

The space, which soft-launched with a preview today (29 October 2026) ahead of the public opening on 3 November 2026, includes galleries, a learning space, a lecture hall and a collection display. More spaces reserved for the foundation's use will become a hub for exhibitions, talks, workshops and even creative residencies in the future.

Meanwhile, the building will remain the home of Zaha Hadid Design, and will naturally feature furniture and objects designed by Zaha and her studio. Surfaces throughout have been updated, while original features such as a fireplace and doorways have been restored.

The three opening showcases span the architect's work and reveal its breadth. The first, 'Zaha Hadid: Architecture of Performance', is the foundation’s first collection-based exhibition dedicated to stage and set designs and is curated by Catherine Howe, with Libby Sellers as guest curator.

The second event is titled 'The Rebar Beneath', and it's a special commission by artist LionHeart. Inspired by the archive, it brings together film, poetry, performance and spatial installation. Thirdly is another special commission, by Pulitzer Prize-winning illustrator Mona Chalabi. 'The Completely Exhausting Inexhaustibility of Zaha Hadid' offers a 'playful approach to data visualisation' by creating a timeline of the architect's influence.

The symposium: ‘89° of Zaha Hadid’

A two-day symposium, ‘89° of Zaha Hadid’, on 30 and 31 October 2026 (the latter being Zaha’s birthday) will bring another dimension to this moment's celebration. Organised by the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the Architectural Association and the Serpentine, the event will take place across all three partner venues, spreading across London for all to enjoy.

A star-studded list of speakers – some 40 in total – includes architectural photographer Hélène Binet, architects Nigel Coates, Sir Peter Cook and Rem Koolhaas, Vitra’s chairman emeritus Rolf Fehlbaum, Walbrook owner and chair Hayat Palumbo, and artist and OMA co-founder Madelon Vriesendorp. Topics range from Hadid's early life in Baghdad and her studies to her professional career, influence, body of work and vision for the future.

The Zaha Hadid Foundation's director, Aric Chen, told us about Hadid's forward-thinking attitude when we toured the archives for our October 2026 issue: ‘Zaha was immersed in the present – she didn't think she was futuristic. She was about invention and imagination, re-envisioning spatiality and the ways we live and operate in the here and now.'

A fresh identity

London-based agency Made by ON worked on a complete refresh of the Zaha Hadid Foundation's new website design. This is perfectly complemented by a new visual identity crafted by Amsterdam-based studio Experimental Jetset. It was born from the development of a dynamic system, or 'visual language,' as the studio puts it.

Inspired by Hadid's knack for experimentation and pioneering, uncompromising attitude, the foundation's fresh look is not logo-based, as is often the way. Instead, it centres its new identity on a 'flexible typographic system, perpetually mutated by a distorting grid, that evolves and transforms across the foundation’s programmes and communications,' the ZHF explains.

It is perfectly fitting to the late architect's life work and overall approach to architecture. 'It was Zaha’s wish for the foundation to preserve her legacy while carrying her ideas forward: advancing education, supporting future generations and contributing to the wider field of architecture,' says Rana Hadid, chair of the trustees of the Zaha Hadid Foundation.

'At the heart of that mission is her extraordinary archive, a profound record of her work, imagination and intellectual life. This next step will allow us to safeguard that archive, open it to wider audiences, and create new opportunities for learning, scholarship and creative discovery, ensuring that Zaha’s ideas continue to inspire generations to come.'

The Zaha Hadid Foundation exhibition space at the former headquarters on 10 Bowling Green Lane opens to the public on 3 November 2026

The symposium '89° of Zaha Hadid' runs on 30 and 31 October, presented in partnership with the Serpentine and the Architectural Association

zhfoundation.com

Artist and designer Fernando Mastrangelo’s practice has always been responsive to the sociopolitical landscape. Rising sea levels and melting glaciers, for example, were the visual impetus for a series of rugs with oozing motifs a decade ago. More recently, he was inspired by Greenland, after the US government announced its intention to take over the country. 'I’ve always made work about landscapes in different ways,' Mastrangelo, who is based in New York's Hudson Valley, tells Wallpaper.*

The designer wanted his next body of work to interrogate what makes a territory contested, and, by extension, makes it become an embodiment of human greed. The result is now on view at New York's Cristina Grajales Gallery as part of a new exhibition called Territories. The show features furniture pieces and paintings with images of lands currently affected by political tension. Mastrangelo overlays tables, tubular lamps and mirrored paintings with lush panoramas of the natural world, a move that asks viewers to contemplate the emotional and natural character of socially turbulent land. Both utopian and immediate, the landscapes in the artist’s handling appear disarmingly beautiful and beg for closer inspection. Besides their invitation to discuss why these lands are subject to invasion, the works hint at an intricate production process.

Mastrangelo pulls imagery from broad sources, including Shutterstock, Pinterest and and Google search. He then designs a three-dimensional rendering of the subject, whether a horizon or a mountaintop. The furniture pieces, such as a duo of side tables and a large dinner table, are created using Formica wood moulds. Mastrangelo fills these forms with hand-dyed sand and powdered glass to echo the 3D source imagery. 'I drizzle sand into the mould little by little through a half-inch sliver,' he explains. 'I can’t really see what I am actually creating.'

A stick helps him pack his effervescent material tightly into the mould which then gets removed to reveal arresting harmonies of colour, texture and depth.

Mastrangelo pays particular attention to the pieces’ legs to convey visual continuity and sculptural volume. He also notes a 'self-referential' approach in the show which marks a return to production after a brief professional break following a decade of intense output. Besides sand’s textural similarity to his previous favorite material, salt, the legs’ cylinder silhouettes pay tribute to his widely-celebrated drum-shaped side tables which he debuted in 2016.

The paintings, some of which feature mirrored surfaces, result from a flat technique in which Mastrangelo constantly pours sand and glass into a mould while keeping an eye on the digital rendering. The images vary in colour spectrum and political tension, including a mountainous landscape in Kashmir or a sunset colouring the snow tops of The Golan Heights in Syria.

A standout is a towering two-door cabinet blanketed by the view of a fiery dusk in Nagorno-Karabakh, a contested mountainous region in Azerbaijan. Mastrangelo embarked on creating his first wardrobe upon Grajales’s suggestion to push his process to a grander scale. Dressing the furniture’s white oak base entirely with sand and glass, the artist alchemises craftsmanship with a painterly visual command and delivers a poetic idea of function.

Mastrangelo hopes his way of storytelling through furniture and art resonates with their end-user. 'It would be my ideal that people absorb the work and carry on the stories of these places to others who interact with the pieces,' he says.

Fernando Mastrangelo: Territories is open at Cristina Grajales Gallery through 12, February 2027

A couple of decades ago, in a world before pandemics and video calls, the now achingly Gen X phrase ‘road warrior’ was coined to apply to the new breed of perpetually mobile workers. Enabled and emboldened by tech – both in terms of gadgets and the soaring scope of the industry itself – road warriors saw themselves at the vanguard of the new post-office landscape.

The pandemic put paid to any lingering glamour and the vast majority of modern remote workers have swapped the road for the kitchen table, with the occasional coffee shop if funds allow. But the idea of being rootless and restless, whilst remained tethered to co-workers and a career is still an attractive one, even if it often comes out of necessity rather than desire.

We’ve scoured the stores to find the best tech accessories for keeping up to date and on the ball when you’re out and about, whether it’s the perennial problem of having enough battery life on hand, or the myriad promises of AI-powered productivity boosts. Here’s our guide to gear for running an office on the move.

Acer Swift Blade 14

One of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market, the new Acer Swift Blade 14 weighs in at just 799 grams. With a 14” OLED screen, 50Wh battery and Intel Core Series 3 processors (up to the Core 7 processor 350), along with 512GB of storage and 12GB of memory, the Swift Blade 14 is our choice of ultra-lite, providing you’re able to live with one of the two finishes, Marshmallow White and Marshmallow Blue.

There’s also four-speaker audio, three USB-C connectors and an easily switchable webcam. The 14’s overall thickness of just 12.9 mm makes this an easy addition to the smallest of bags.

Acer Swift Blade 14, from £1,049.99, Store.Acer.com

Krafted Edge

Pairing well with the Swift Blade 14 is the Krafted Edge, an ultra-slim laptop powerbank designed to slot beneath the device itself. Just 12mm thick, the Edge has 20,000mAh capability, enough for up to three full laptop charges or four phone charges. Charging the Edge itself should take around two hours and there are two USB-C slots and two USB-A slots for simultaneous device charging.

The battery itself is modular and replaceable, while the casing combines an aluminium alloy base with a top panel made from OBP-certified ocean-plastic (i.e. waste that would otherwise have been ‘Ocean Bound Plastic’). The design cleverly incorporates a braided USB-C cable that slots into one end of the case so you’re never without a means of charging. Perfectly shaped to slot into a laptop sleeve alongside your computer, you won’t even know that it’s there.

Krafted Edge power bank, £149.99, Kraftedtech.com

Lexar Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD

The new Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD from Lexar is designed to bulk up the data capability of your smartphone. Described as the world's thinnest portable SSD, this pocketable storage measures just 8cm by 4.8cm by 3.8mm – it’s only 1 mm thick at some points). Available in 512GB and 1TB sizes, it weighs in at 26.5g and there’s a magnetic sleeve accessory for clipping it to the back of your phone.

Lexar Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD, available soon, Lexar.com

Timekettle LiveTalk

Timekettle have a pair of AI-equipped earbuds out in the wild, the W4 Plus and the LiveTalk. The former more focused on translation, while the LiveTalk is the choice for everyday translation and conversation summaries. Like all products of this ilk – and there are now a lot of them – there’s a certain amount of commitment required to get the best performance. LiveTalk consists of a pair of 6.9g open-ear earbuds that offer real-time AI translation, along with with AI-powered conversation summaries.

They do work, after a fashion, although the system struggles to keep up with the speed of casual conversation and works best when translating a piece of recorded speech. The sci-fi dreams of genuine real-time, UN-grade machine-driven simultaneous translation are not here yet, but they will be. LiveTalk can be used via your phone’s microphone or by joining in on a phone call.

Battery life is an impressive 35 hours (with the relatively hefty case) and as always there’s a subscription service for heavy users who need more than the basic 200 free minutes a month. Occasional travellers will find the LiveTalk’s arsenal of 54 languages (all European languages along with including Chinese, Japanese and Hindi and many more) spans most of the globe.

Timekettle LiveTalk AI Translation Earbuds, $109, Timekettle.co

Flowtica Folio

Adopting a new workflow doesn’t always feel intuitive, plus there’s the very real danger of switching over to a system or technology that flails, fails or gradually fades into obsolescence. That’s why we’re only giving a cautious nod to the new Flowtica Folio, a luxury notebook folder designed to be used with the Flowtica Scribe AI note-taking pen. We can already sense your hesitation.

Essentially, the Scribe is another form factor for the increasingly common AI-driven Dictaphone model, a pen that contains a microphone, 32GB of onboard storage and the ability to export recordings to the Flowtica app, where they’re automatically transcribed.

There’s no additional trickery, save for a button that adds a bookmarklet into the recording when you want something highlighted. The Folio simply acts as a smart way of combining the pen with your favourite notebook. In this age of E-ink tablets and hyper-capable smartphones, Flowtica’s set-up feels like a step too far, and having a relatively discrete recording device in meetings, etc., is a potential legal red flag.

The company’s newest product, the Verso, is a more practical piece of portable technology. Superficially similar in function – it’s an AI notetaker – the Verso clips on the back of a Smartphone and has its own E-ink touchscreen, so memos and notes can be read straight away. Orders are open now.

Flowtica Scribe Field Kit (Pen + Folio Notebook), £144, Flowtica.ai
Flowtica Verso E-ink AI notetaker, more information at Flowtica.ai

Anker Universal Charger

If you’re the kind of person who can keep hold of a travel adaptor for more than one trip, it’s worth splashing out on a quality unit that does it all. That’s certainly the case for Anker’s newest 4-in-1 universal charger, a hefty but compact travel accessory with inbuilt UK, US, and EU plugs - Type G, Type A and Type C, for those keeping track. With enough sockets to charge up to four devices at once – and 100W power for laptops – it’s a one-plug solution to almost every travel and remote working use case.

Anker Universal Charger, £69.99, Anker.com

Clicks Power Keyboard

The Power Keyboard from Clicks is a really truly tiny, tiny keyboard. Those with long memories will remember the Blackberry, once heralded as the ultimate device (peak road warrior, in fact), but somewhat elevated in status by the passing of time. The Blackberry had a physical keyboard, you see, something that Steve Jobs’s new-fangled touchscreen couldn’t hope to surpass.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a modern human being who isn’t well-versed in high-speed smartphone text input, and even harder pressed to find someone who still uses their Blackberry. Clicks reckon there’s enough enthusiasm out there for their Power Keyboard, however, a battery pack combined with a slide out keyboard that adds power, bulk and the delight of tapping away on tiny little keys. The large fingered need not apply.

Clicks Power Keyboard, £109, Clicks.tech

ProtoArc XK01 Foldable Keyboard

Another way of transforming a tablet or smartphone into something a little more practical is a folding keyboard. We particularly like ProtoArc’s tri-fold XK01 unit, which offers a full-size 105-key layout, including a host of multimedia keys and a number pad, and an onboard battery for up to 120 days of standby power. The company also offers a version with an onboard trackpad.

ProtoArc XK01 Foldable Keyboard, £44.99, ProtoArc.com

Developed by Lebond, an independent watchmaker based in Switzerland that realises designs by leading architects, Sir Norman Foster has made his first foray into creating timepieces.

‘What is particularly interesting about a watch is that you wear it, you travel with it and it becomes part of your everyday life,’ says Foster. ‘The opportunity to reconsider something so familiar as a complete object made the challenge especially interesting.’

The result, which Foster conceived in partnership with the Design & Innovation Unit of the Norman Foster Foundation, is a duo of automatic, mechanical timepieces. One case is matte black, the other micro-sanded matte metallic; both are made from Grade 5 titanium and feature integrated straps. Grade 5 titanium is a material Foster selected with everyday use in mind. ‘The choice of titanium came from performance,’ the Pritzker Prize-winning architect and urbanist explains. ‘Grade 5 titanium has an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio, as well as excellent resistance to corrosion and wear. For something that is worn continuously on the wrist, that combination of strength, lightness and durability is particularly valuable. ‘

The choice of material echoes Foster’s overall, cross-genre approach. ‘I have always been interested in materials that perform rather than materials that are simply decorative,’ he says. ‘Grade 5 titanium allowed us to reduce weight without compromising strength, while giving the case a very precise and refined character. The material is therefore integral to both how the watch performs and how it feels.’

Aviation has long been an interest of Foster's and the two Lebond watches feature details that nod to airborne travel. Bidirectional, rotating 12-hour bezels allow a second time zone to be read using the main hour hand. On the dial, typography is clear and restrained. Hands are coated in Super-LumiNova for legibility.

‘I have always been interested in the relationship between design, engineering and precision, and a watch brings all of those things together in a very small and personal object,’ says Foster. ‘What is particularly interesting about a watch is that you wear it, you travel with it and it becomes part of your everyday life. The opportunity to reconsider something so familiar made the challenge especially interesting.’

The Lebond Norman Foster, in black and titanium, are available to buy now from lebond.com at €3500.

At Pierre Wine Bar on Rome’s Via della Frezza, the current wine list spans over a thousand references, amassed through decades of family collecting and accompanied by a menu that finds room for buttered tagliolini, prawn-stuffed eggs and pork ribs with miso. Milanese studio NM3 has furnished this generous undertaking in pale stone and stainless steel, fitting a counter, tables and bench seating into a compact interior whose original floor remains intact.

Pierre Wine Bar, Rome

Founded by Delfino Sisto Legnani, Nicolò Ornaghi and Francesco Zorzi, NM3 is known for its exacting metalwork; here, the stonework is equally alluring. Bush-hammering gives its surface a fine, uneven grain, while rounded edges soften the substantial counter and furniture, repeating the same tactile finish wherever guests hunker down with a glass.

Custom stainless-steel shelving accommodates storage, its fabrication establishing a visual affinity with the open kitchen, which remains visible from the dining area through glass and mirrors. Reflections lengthen views through the room, allowing the preparation and serving of food to remain part of the evening.

Above the counter, NMLL pendants developed with LedLinear illuminate the working surface and ceiling simultaneously, providing light for service while diffusing a gentler wash overhead. Guests can sit down to house-made focaccia and Ca’Lumaco’s Mora Romagnola prosciutto, aged for six years, or order from a menu that includes onion tatin with goat’s cheese and thyme, and confit salt cod with sweet potato, chimichurri and broccoli rabe.

The cellar has substantial French holdings spanning Champagne, Burgundy, Jura and the Loire alongside Italian bottles, with Champagne selections ranging from Clandestin’s Les Grandes Lignes 2016 to Salon 1995 and Krug 1988. Most bottles are also available to take home.

Pierre Wine Bar is located at Via della Frezza, 55, 00186 Roma, Italy

The Norwegian philosophy of ‘friluftsliv’ – popularised by the playwright Henrik Ibsen in the 1850s – posits that life is better lived outdoors, whatever the weather (it is a belief which requires dedication even in the most frigid days of winter).

Such is the inspiration behind the second collaboration between Danish textiles brand Tekla – known for its colourful bed linen and pyjamas – and Japanese fashion label, Auralee. Drawing on the unique charm of a Scandinavian winter, it follows a debut collaboration which was inspired by the Japanese art of Onsen bathing – specifically, during the country’s cool winter months.

The story behind Tekla’s second collaboration with Auralee

‘I visited Tokyo four and a half years ago, where a mutual friend introduced me to Ryota [Iwai, Auralee’s founder],’ Kristoffer Juhl, co-founder and managing director of Tekla, tells Wallpaper* of how the collaboration first came about. ‘We’d come to admire Auralee and realised the feeling was mutual, rooted in shared values of respect for raw materials, a focus on craft, and prioritising quality.’

The new collection, which is released today, channels a feeling of envelopment: there is cosy knitwear (ribbed cardigans and sweaters in a mix of super-fine wool and cashmere, with matching neckwarmers and gloves), two-tone slippers (crafted from panels of beige and pale green shaggy shearling), and of course pyjama sets, here in soft checkered flannel (like much of Tekla’s sleepwear, its composite parts are designed to also be worn out of bed and onto the street). A sense of play, meanwhile, is captured in vivid blue knee-high cotton socks (a nod, perhaps, to another Scandinavian export, Pippi Longstocking).

‘Growing up in Scandinavia, spending time outdoors in winter was a natural part of everyday life,’ says Charlie Hedin, Tekla’s founder and creative director. ‘The warmth of returning home is something that has always concerned Tekla, as we seek to create home clothing and use materials that inspire this comfort. I’m grateful to continue exploring with Auralee, whose expertise echoes this sentiment.’

Rounding out the collection is a series of home textiles, including signature percale bedding in an earthy new ‘soil brown’ colourway (pillow shams and duvet covers come in 200-thread-count organic cotton with a crisp hand-feel), and a series of lambswool blankets in stripes reflective of ‘Auralee’s signature pale and muted tones’. Each is woven in Lithuania, before being brushed for softness and finished with homespun whipstitched edges.

Iwai, who founded Auralee in 2015, has steadily ushered the Tokyo-based label to international success with collections which elevate the basic tenets of a quotidien wardrobe through superlative fabrications and an always-astute use of colour. The brand now shows twice-yearly in Paris during the city’s menswear fashion week, though its offering spans genders.

‘Some people put a lot of pressure onto their clothing, perhaps hoping to make a huge statement but I’m more interested in how smaller changes can highlight something about the wearer,’ Iwai told Wallpaper’s Dal Chodha in 2024, just prior to the brand’s tenth anniversary. ‘I think there are some things in life that we can't change, but I think we can soften them with our clothes. Wearing certain things can help you to feel more at ease.’

The collaboration with Tekla felt natural, says Iwai, built on a shared philosophy of creating garments that not only look good, but feel good, too. ‘This partnership grew completely naturally out of a close friendship,’ Iwai tells Wallpaper*. ‘Something Charlie said in a past interview really stuck with me – he talked about “that sense of warmth and protection you feel when wrapped in a favourite blanket”. I felt a deep connection to that idea.’

The collection is available from today (28 October 2026) at Tekla’s stores, Auralee Tokyo, teklafabrics.com, auralee.jp and selected retailers.

Shop the story

It was 1963 when construction finished on Jens and Wenche Selmer's Oslo home. Wielding a considered yet very simple material palette, the celebrated Norwegian architects crafted their house to embody the restrained aesthetic that Wenche, in particular, had become known for.

The house, known as Trosterudstien 1, went on to win the Sundt Prize for outstanding architecture three years later, and is, to this day, regarded as one of Norway’s finest post-war homes. Yet for photographer and editor Marte Garmann – the Selmers' granddaughter – Trosterudstien 1 is not just a landmark building but a backdrop to some of her most treasured childhood memories. Her new book, Own House, aims to give an insight into these moments and what it was like to grow up in an architecturally significant property.

Explore ‘Own House’ and discover the home of Wenche Selmer

'It was a very special place because every detail was thought out,' says Garmann. 'I have many memories of being there, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, playing with wooden blocks, and eating homemade bread on the kitchen table.'

The 160-page book begins with a short essay by Garmann, which is then followed by a series of photos that she took in 2024 just before the family home was sold to private owners; the entire shoot had to be done in just 48 hours. 'It was good to have a limited time frame. Then I had to be absolutely present and capture the different lighting changes throughout the day in every room,' explains Garmann. 'As a photographer, I always work with what I have in front of me.'

The images allow readers to get a broad sense of the home, showing off its open layout and the way in which its rooms are arranged to seamlessly merge together. But it also provides a look at its charming details, from its quarry-tile flooring and concealed storage to its abundance of brass wall hooks, which the Selmers used for everything from hanging Christmas decorations to drying rolls of film.

Other pieces of media are dotted throughout the book, including the Selmers’ pencil drawings of Trosterudstien 1’s pine-lined interiors, a letter about the house that the couple penned in 1966, and some words from Garmann’s aunt Elisabeth, who recalls key points like watching her father, Jens, manually survey the house, and attending the topping-out ceremony with all the craftsmen.

Own House offers an intimate look into the past of Trosterudstien 1, but in no way is it overly nostalgic or sentimental; instead, it depicts the home in a warm, yet honest light. 'There is not much editing and retouching. I want it to be the way it is,' concludes Garmann. 'And for me, that was the perfect way to say goodbye to the house. Witnessing every detail, and then letting it pass on.'

'Eget hus / Own House', Jøss Bokstudio, NOK469 (£38), shop.joss.no

'This is a man who is almost perfectly visual,' said the writer and painter Etel Adnan of her friend Robert Wilson. The world-renowned artist and theatremaker, who died last year at the age of 83, was a designer at heart. He thought by drawing, painted with light, and sculpted time and space with silence. Yet Wilson was also a Texas-born teller of tales. He overcame a childhood stutter to hone a speaking voice that shared the captivating, expansive, and finely calibrated character of his work for the stage. It gave him one more way to move freely between the ordinary and the fantastic, clarity and mystery. Within a five-minute conversation, he could go from pensive silence to imitating the warbly drawl of his maternal grandmother (whom he cast in several of his early productions) to reciting a Hamlet soliloquy, all with a shimmering coherence.

Wilson’s dreamlike certainty and disarming charisma take on a new form in his highly anticipated memoir, out on 3 November 2026, from Penguin Press. Written with Keith McDermott, The Space Behind the Face unfolds in stories arrayed according to the three traditional ways that artists construct space: portrait, still life, and landscape.

'If I hold my hand in front of my face, I can say it is a portrait,' Wilson once explained. 'If I see my hand at a distance, I can say it is part of a still life, and if I see it from across the street, I can say that it is part of a landscape.' This trio of perspectives is also at play in works such as Einstein on the Beach, the landmark opera he created in 1976 with Philip Glass. It grounds the book in a freewheeling chronology, illuminating people, motifs, and themes independently while allowing them to recur and recombine.

Wilson described the highly visual nature of his work for the theatre as a means of making it accessible on its surface, 'so that someone formally educated or someone from the moon can come into the theatre and appreciate something'. This approach is transposed from the stage to the page through sprightly stories in unvarnished prose. What emerges is signature Wilson, at once vividly personal and starkly pure.

Most striking is how Wilson’s superpower of isolating essences carries through to the written word. His encounters with cultural figures ranging from Philip Johnson and Finn Juhl (in whom a 21-year-old Wilson recognised a fellow lover of chairs) to Marlene Dietrich and Lady Gaga are concentrated into radiant details, as is a brush with former US President George HW Bush – craving ice cream, reading Vogue, and clad in red pyjamas on an overnight flight to Paris.

The reader is invited to follow along as Wilson discerns virtues and collects elements that he would make his own. Sibyl Moholy-Nagy and Agnes Martin introduce him to the wonders of counterpoint. From John Cage he gets a 'sense of spontaneous possibility'. A stint with Paolo Soleri shows him the power of thinking big and the skill of 'involving large groups of people in creating one’s vision'.

He admires Yvonne Rainer’s 'simple movements carried out with an integrity that elevated them beyond the mundane', appreciates Christophe de Menil’s eye for colour (she will not abide an 'Air France-stewardess blue'), and learns from Lou Reed to appreciate and inhabit 'the loudness of sound'.

Tasked with eliciting, assembling, and helping to articulate some eight decades of Wilson tales was actor and writer Keith McDermott, a native of Houston, Texas who performed in five Wilson productions and authored a superb novel, Acqua Calda (2005), that is the ultimate roman à Bob. Wallpaper* spoke to him in New York ahead of the book's publication.

Wallpaper*: When did you first encounter the work of Robert Wilson, better known simply as Bob?

Keith McDermott: In 1974, I saw A Letter to Queen Victoria, and it changed my life. I was a commercial actor who would go and see anything. Somebody gave me a ticket, and I thought oh, it’s a boring history play, but I’ll go see it anyway. Before the play started, two people – it was Andy De Groat and Julia Busto – were on either side of the stage, just turning slowly in place. It was fascinating. They had a very non-performative attitude. It looked like they would be doing it, if there was an audience there or not. As the house lights began to lower, they started going faster and faster, and they raised their hands and their palms were red as if pressed in turmeric. It was just this blur, and then the curtain went up.

Scenes, some of them excruciatingly slow but very beautifully lit, unfolded, and I was so moved. I thought, 'How can this be, with no plot?' Bob, the director, was in it, and his grandmother played Queen Victoria, and then Christopher Knowles came out, this obviously neurodivergent teenager, and completely broke the fourth wall. It was amazing. I left the theatre feeling like I had fallen in love. And I really wanted to work with him.

W*: And you later met Bob when you were starring in Equus on Broadway, opposite Richard Burton?

KMD: Yes. Bob came to see the play. I think I remember him saying that Burton should spend more of his time looking away from the audience instead of to the audience. [Laughs] Then I saw Einstein on the Beach when it was at the Metropolitan Opera House [in November 1976]. Everybody in the art world was waiting outside. It went up late. They had to take out a Lohengrin set and bring in Bob’s set. The audience was filled with first-time opera-goers, people under 50. It stank of pot. The idea then, when he was doing these longer plays, is that you could walk in and out. It was a great experience.

I finished doing Equus and went to LA, and he came to LA to do Patio [the 1977 play I Was Sitting on My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating]. I went with him to San Francisco and appeared in ten minutes of it. And then I worked for him in plays in a million different ways.

W*: As an actor, how did you find the process of working with Bob?

KMD: The first play I did with him was Edison, and at that time I had done all commercial theatre. The lines were non-sequiturs – 'I’m not real', 'Your hair smells like lemon daisies'. – and they were very hard to learn. I was trying to figure out the work and how to do it, and I made the terrible mistake of saying, 'How am I doing, Bob? Am I doing what you want?' It was just horrifying to him. He didn’t ever give any notes like that. He would say, 'Your finger has to be here, in the light.' Just technical stuff like that. And then I began to love it. It was like being able to switch channels. It was very freeing.

W*: What was the process of making this book like?

KMD: When we started it, I was thinking chronologically. Well, that wouldn’t work with Bob. In our discussions, he just wouldn’t stay on subject, and I cringed whenever I heard my own voice on the tapes, interrupting and saying, 'But don’t forget…' I realised that as Texans, we’re storytellers. We’re loquacious. He often went into Texas twang mode when telling some of these stories.

Bob was so busy that I thought to get any time with him, that’s going to be my real project. So, I was surprised by his generosity of letting me into everything completely, especially once we said, let’s do it in stories. Then I just was with him everywhere.

W*: When Bob told a story, it felt like you were the first person he was telling the story to, even if he had been telling it for decades. Was that your experience, too?

KMD: Yes, and in writing the book, I would find other elements to the story. For example, I knew the story of him choreographing a performance with the iron lung patients at Goldwater Memorial Hospital, but I hadn’t heard that he had gone to a concert of Otis Redding’s and managed to get Otis Redding to come to the hospital to sing during the performance! That was a new element.

He had an arc to stories, and he had a last line that would punch it. And some stories felt new because he would cry every time. The book has a story about Jessye Norman that would always move him to tears.

W*: Were there aspects of Bob’s life that he was reticent to discuss for the book?

KMD: Bob was talking about his first trip to Europe, as a college student, and he said, 'I was going through Barcelona, and I spent a couple of nights with this bullfighter,' and then went on. I said, 'Whoa, what do you mean you spent a couple of nights with this bullfighter? You can’t just say that. How did that happen? What was it like? Our readers will want to know!' It became a running thing. When we’d be working at the Watermill Center and staying there, I would cook meatloaf, which Bob loved. And my line became, 'No matador, no meatloaf.'

I don’t know if it’s true, but he said he saw that the matador didn’t kill the bull, and he was so impressed that he went and talked to him. It was hard to get those stories.

W*: The book opens with an author’s note in which you introduce Bob through a series of his staccato messages to you – charming email requests-cum-directives. How did you decide to do that?

KMD: It was so classic Bob, asking me to do everything. First, he gives me the wonderful gift and opportunity to work with him on this book, and then it’s immediately, 'Can you pick up my hair tonic?' And everything is crucial. An emergency.

W*: How did the book’s title come about?

KMD: There was no talking about it. He just picked it. It was the very first meeting we had, and while we were talking, he’s drawing. He’s drawing a picture of a face – the oval part, neck, shoulders, he’s drawing, and then he just said, 'The space behind the face.' He often told us as actors, 'Don’t forget the space behind your face,' and then he had a speech about how that’s where your power is and how it’s like a bow and arrow.

And the title just stuck. That’s how he worked. We all talk about trusting your instincts, and he trusted them absolutely. Even when his instincts were so out of proportion with what anybody thought was possible, he would stick to those first things. He’d say, 'We can do that.'

The Space Behind the Face: Life Stories by Robert Wilson and Keith McDermott, is published by Penguin Press on 3 November 2026. Preorder now

Like Wallpaper*, Paris’ MEP (Maison Européenne de la Photographie) is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, with ‘Penn & Fashion’, a standout tribute to Irving Penn that retraces his mastery of fashion photography from 1947 to 2008.

Penn is one of MEP’s foundational figures. It began acquiring one hundred of his prints in the early 1990s, with an additional 198 donated in 2023 by the photographer’s son Tom Penn. Irving Penn visited the site of the museum in 1993, while it was under construction. The gallery bearing his name was inaugurated at its opening in 1996.

‘Penn & Fashion’ (showing until 17 January 2027) is comprised of works from MEP’s permanent collection, and exceptional loans from the Irving Penn Foundation, the Nicola Erni Collection, and the Miyake Issey Foundation.

Penn (1917-2009) transformed fashion photography with his Vogue magazine collaboration spanning almost seven decades, the longest in the magazine’s history.

Born in 1917 in Plainfield, New Jersey to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents, Penn studied at the Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Arts. He studied graphic design under Alexey Brodovitch and became his assistant at Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1943, he was hired by Vogue’s art director, Alexander Liberman, to develop cover concepts for the magazine’s photographers. Impressed by the clarity of his vision and 'a mind, and an eye that knew what it wanted to see', Liberman urged Penn to take the photographs himself.

The exhibition unfolds chronologically. By the late 1940s, Penn had become Vogue’s preeminent photographer. He helped define the relaunch of haute couture with the revolution announced by Christian Dior’s ‘New Look’. He worked with the era’s most famous models – Jean Patchett, Dovima, Dorian Leigh, Suzy Parker, and Lisa Fonssagrives, the world’s first supermodel.

In 1948, Liberman sent Penn on his first outdoor fashion shoot on location, in Lima, Peru. ‘Flying Down to Lima’, featuring Jean Patchett as a tourist discovering the city, appeared in the February 1949 edition of Vogue. It was a huge success.

After the shoot, instead of returning directly to New York, Penn headed south-east to Cuzco, the former Inca capital, where he rented a studio lit by natural light from a local photographer, and shot portraits of the Quechua people in their traditional dress. He used a theatre curtain as a neutral backdrop, and shot 2,000 portraits of the Quechua, who lined up outside the studio for three days.

It proved a decisive moment in Penn’s career. It confirmed his preference for the controlled environment of the studio over the distractions and unpredictability of outdoor shoots. The neutral backdrop distilled the image to its essentials. Each image was composed after a deep preliminary reflection, where he could focus on his subject, resulting in timeless compositions.

Penn first met Swedish artist, dancer and model Lisa Fonssagrives in 1947, during a Vogue group portrait of the 12 most photographed models in the United States. She became Penn’s ultimate muse, the subject of his greatest photographs. His portrait of Fonssagrives in a harlequin dress for Vogue’s ‘The Black and White Idea’ issue in April 1950 encapsulates his mastery of composition and contrast.

They married the same year, their son, Tom, was born in 1952. 'That image of my mother in the harlequin dress was very rewarding. He was so in love with her, it came through so beautifully in that particular image,' said Tom Penn.

The 1960s was a time of major change in fashion. Diana Vreeland became Vogue’s editor-in-chief in 1963, ready-to-wear replaced couture, and a new generation of photographers joined the magazine. Penn remained imperturbably faithful to his method of working. He photographed Birgitta af Klercker in a swimsuit, Marisa Berenson in Emanuel Ungaro’s metal wedding dress, André Courrèges’ futuristic designs, with a new generation of models that included Verushka, Lauren Hutton and Naomi Sims.

Practically, Penn had a great deal of leeway in selecting the designers and models featured in Vogue. In the 1970s, he shot Ungaro and Courrèges, in the 1980s, Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.

He shot the magazine’s beauty pages in colour, wittily surreal images that sometimes verged on the grotesque. Liberman called them ‘stoppers’: images so arresting that they stopped the reader from turning the page.

During the last three decades of his career, secure in his stature at Vogue, Penn became increasingly selective in the designers he chose to photograph. At the age of 90, he photographed John Galliano for Christian Dior, Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel, and Christian Lacroix, capturing their extravagantly theatrical haute couture in breathtaking images.

He consistently applied his emphasis on the silhouette, volume and texture.

His collaboration with Japanese designer Issey Miyake was unusual. Penn never attended Miyake’s runway shows, Miyake never attended Penn’s shoots. Miyake would send his creations to New York and then receive the transparencies in Tokyo. Miyake’s sculptural garments perfectly complemented Penn’s minimalist style. It worked for them both. 'Penn’s photographs allow me to see my own designs,' Miyake remarked.

'My father was the living example of dignity in the pursuit of one's work, to find the path of something that one wanted to do in life, and to do it as the best one could. He had a way of noticing details others overlooked,' said Tom Penn. 'I try to honour that in the way we care for his work and how we carry it forward, not by holding it still, but by letting it live.'

Penn & Fashion at MEP, Paris, until 17 January 2027

The arrival of Aston Martin’s new Valhalla Spider is not exactly a stunning revelation – an open-topped variant of the marque’s first production mid-engined supercar was always on the cards. A strictly limited-edition production run like the Valhalla Coupe, the Spider adds a layer of visceral intensity for the driver whilst also making them much more visible to the world at large, which may of course be an integral part of the ownership experience.

Importantly for stats trackers, Valhalla Spider loses none of the headline figures that accompanied the Coupe; you can hit the 217mph maximum speed (that’s 350km/h) with the roof on or off. The powertrain is also as before, 1,079PS generated by a combination of the 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 and three electric motors (the Coupe was Aston's first hybrid). The Spider does get a little bit more aero trickery and some re-balanced ESP to improve the downforce and driving balance, but otherwise it’s business as usual.

The Spider’s weather protection is multi-faceted. The standard fitting is a black fabric roof that can be easily and swiftly removed and stowed on board; the process is equally easy to reverse once the inevitable raincloud appears. This option, however, is a little bit like a toupée in that it can’t quite be relied upon when the performance ante is upped; top speed is limited to 124mph (200km/h).

That would normally be enough for most of us, but if you don’t want to feel held back while also not being exposed to the elements, then you’ll have to splash out for the optional carbon fibre hard-top, which allows you to unlock the Valhalla Spider's full performance potential.

The addition of a clip-on wind deflector is also deemed essential, most especially in the way that it channels air around the rear ‘snorkel’ air intake (which in turn is taller on the Spider variant). All this top swapping feels like an elaborate compromise but it's hardly something that’ll trouble the lives of potential Spider owners.

The Coupe’s full suite of active aerodynamics is also present and correct, constantly adjusting the balance of airflow for maximum grip and handling balance. Other enhancements include the addition of the carbon fibre Touring Seat as standard, offering marginally more comfort that the original seat set-up (these can be swapped out for the carbon fibre seats at no cost should you desire).

The Valhalla Spider is not for shrinking violets, with the Q by Aston Martin service ready and waiting to be deployed to rustle up bespoke colour and trim for practically every available surface; the two-tone silver and gold elements shown here are a case in point. No-one buys a supercar for privacy reasons, so you can safely assume that those who buy a drop-top supercar are making a play for attention.

Flip up the Valhalla’s carbon fibre dihedral doors – unchanged from the Coupe – fire up the V8 and there’s little to no chance of ever effecting a subtle getaway. This is a performance machine that gives a performance all of the time, with the combined skills of Aston Martin’s design and engineering team coming together to ensure that form, function and thrills are not compromised in any way.

‘Valhalla Spider… preserves the aesthetic beauty and dynamic bandwidth of Valhalla Coupe while introducing the expanded opportunities for enjoyment and engagement that can only be found in an open-cockpit supercar,’ says Aston’s CEO Adrian Hallmark, ‘High speed or low speed. Rain or shine. Roof on or roof off. Road or track. Valhalla Spider ticks every box.’ Prospective owners eager for the attention will have to wait until Q3 2027 for first deliveries.

Aston Martin Valhalla Spider, price tbc (but likely to be more than the £850,000 Valhalla Coupe), AstonMartin.com, @AstonMartin

Hong Kong's cocktail scene is getting a new addition this November, as Lorenzo Antinori and Justin Shun Wah, the duo behind acclaimed drinking spot Bar Leone, join forces with Rosewood Hong Kong to open Bar Camillo. Taking its cues from the Italian salotto, or living room, the new bar will combine mid-century interiors with a cocktail menu rooted in Italian drinking traditions.

Opening on 25 November, Bar Camillo marks a collaboration between two of the city's most celebrated hospitality names. Bar Leone has topped The World's 50 Best Bars list for two consecutive years, while Rosewood Hong Kong, overlooking Victoria Harbour in Tsim Sha Tsui, has similarly held the top spot in The World's 50 Best Hotels rankings.

The interiors draw on the warmth and informality of an Italian home, something Rome-born Antinori knows all too well. Expect glossy wood veneers, polished metal, mirrored walls and a retro palette of alpine green, gold and cream. The seating arrangement moves from a long, sociable banquette beside the bar to more secluded corners, while an outdoor terrace offers spectacular views across the city.

'At Bar Camillo, we want to strip away the formality found in a traditional hotel bar,' says Antinori, whose previous roles include leading the drinks programmes at London's Dandelyan and Hong Kong's Argo. 'We want to offer a setting where guests can enjoy complex drinks without feeling stuffy, where the design and exceptional service prioritises something that is both vibrant and convivial.'

Cocktails will rotate seasonally, with four menus introduced throughout the year. Each will take inspiration from a particular moment in Italian popular culture, incorporating references to the music, art and drinking habits of its chosen period. The drinks themselves will range from aperitivi and interpretations of established classics to more playful house creations.

The Negroni gets special attention. Guests can choose their preferred spirit, garnish and flavour profile – with floral, savoury and rich variations. The drink will then be prepared tableside from a Negroni trolley.

The bar takes its name from Camillo, a fictional, playful bartender whose personality informs the atmosphere and service. For Antinori, the idea is rooted in the Italian tradition of padroni di casa, or hosts of the home, where bartenders take an active role in shaping the evening.

With just 50 seats across its indoor and outdoor spaces, Bar Camillo will be an intimate addition to Rosewood Hong Kong's food and drink offering, bringing Antinori's particular take on Italian cocktail culture to the waterfront hotel.

'Bar Camillo is bringing the energy and vibes of a standalone bar into The World’s Best Hotel,' says Antinori. 'Here, everything is deliberately relaxed yet celebratory while capturing the quality reminiscent of hanging out at the home of a close friend – just with the absolute best of service. The space itself is built to feel like a ‘cool house party’: eclectic and, most importantly, fun.'

Bar Camillo opens 25 November 2026 at Rosewood Hong Kong, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong.

‘One of the first things I do is go to the hotel shop, and buy everything,’ says the British fashion designer Kim Jones, who – having held roles at Louis Vuitton, Fendi and Dior Men – is well-versed in the business of travel. And, indeed, in the collection of rare and obscure objects: his west London address houses first-edition books and century-spanning artworks; when we meet, in Tokyo, he has spent the day trawling the city’s second-hand shops for research garments to take back to his London studio (he has just announced the launch of an eponymous label, Kim Jones, which will begin with an A/W 2027 collection next year).

We are in the 33rd-floor lobby of Aman Tokyo, the hotel group’s vertiginous outpost in the city, which occupies the upper six floors of the Otemachi Tower in the Chiyoda business neighbourhood (the impressive view stretches across Tokyo, from the imperial gardens at the hotel’s base to the Tokyo Tower in the south, and even – on a clear day – the snow-capped peak of Mount Fuji on the horizon). Jones is what is colloquially known as an ‘Aman junkie’, the name given to those who have visited more than five of Aman’s 36 properties, though he has far overshot this milestone; by his estimate, he has visited ‘about 30’, and is in the top-two worldwide customers.

The story behind Kim Jones’ collaboration with Aman Essentials

‘Every detail is considered and already done before you get there,’ he says of Aman, which was founded by hotelier Adrian Zecha in 1988 as a riposte to the gaudy excesses of other luxury resorts of the era. In the decades since – now led by owner and CEO Vladislav Doronin – Aman, which began with the Ed Tuttle-designed Amanpuri in Phuket, Thailand, has honed a vision of serene minimalism (linear planes of limestone and marble; floor-to-ceiling glass; meditative gardens and pools) and arresting locations (several are in, or in close proximity to, Unesco heritage sites; the Tokyo outpost is a rare city-centre Aman). The name ‘Aman’ itself is derived from the Sanskrit word for ‘peace’.

‘Every Aman that I stay at, I know the people that work there – some of them for ten, 15 years,’ Jones continues. ‘So it’s just like coming home. I have the same room, I have the same set-up, and I can relax. And they are all so beautiful in different ways – here, [in Tokyo], you are looking out to concrete and glass; in Aman-i-Khás a tiger can walk past your tent.’ (The latter is located in Ranthambore National Park in Rajasthan, India and comprises a series of Mughal-inspired canvas tents for guests.)

So when Kristina Romanova, the CEO and creative director of Aman Essentials, the hotel’s lifestyle arm, which spans clothing, leather goods, fragrance and beauty products, approached Jones about a collaboration, it took little soul-searching. ‘We met at a masked ball in Venice, in around 2018,’ says Jones. ‘Kristina knew how much I loved the Aman, so I think she just asked me, and I said yes. It took about a year and a half to get to the point we are now.’ (The collection has now launched in selected Aman outposts and online, as well as at a handful Dover Street Market locations, including Ginza, Tokyo.)

‘It was the first collaboration of this magnitude that we had undertaken,’ adds Romanova. ‘When we started thinking about collaborating with a designer, we were just like: it’s got to be Kim.’

And, while hotel merch is certainly having a moment, Aman x Kim Jones goes far beyond the gift-shop branded caps and tote bags that have become increasingly ubiquitous among the style set. ‘There’s the whole merch aspect of Aman that people love,’ says Jones, referring to collectibles like the leather luggage tag you receive after your stay (they are unique to each property, and have become a subtle status symbol for those in the know). ‘But I was really thinking about what you wear at the Aman – you know, the things that you might have left behind when you packed in a rush, or what you might want when you’ve been at the resort for a while.

‘I always end up going to the shop and buying stuff, and then just wearing it the whole time,’ he continues. ‘So it all just felt very organic, and real.’

So what are Jones’ travel essentials? There are those items one might expect to be able to purchase at a hotel store: pyjama sets (here constructed from silk in mineral-blue stripes or a deep ‘kombu’ green), swimwear (bikinis edged in woven cord; board-style shorts; sleek swimming costumes with visible zip fastenings), and slippers (ultra-padded with a fleece interior and toggle fastenings). But there are also garments made for traversing a new destination: a series of ‘technical tailoring’ captures Jones’ knack for pragmatic luxury (think: tailored abaca city shorts; zip-up Harrington-style jackets), while activewear comprises base-layer tanks, leggings and bralettes. Completing the line-up is a draped silk dress, should one be without an outfit for an evening at the hotel bar.

‘There’s a functional utilitarianism to the clothes, but there’s also something sexy to the silk story. I was thinking about the Aman couple, and obviously we have one part of the ultimate Aman couple here,’ Jones says, gesturing to Romanova (she is the partner of owner and CEO Vladislav Doronin). ‘I was talking to Vlad, and I was talking to you, and thinking about how we could make [these pieces] become reality.’

‘It’s got to be versatile, functional, but it has to have this understated elegance, and I think that’s what Kim is very well known for,’ says Romanova. ‘He is the master of that.’

The accompanying campaign was photographed in Aman Tokyo and across the city, with the launch marked by a sprawling eight-course dinner in the hotel’s restaurant (local attendees included rapper Verbal and designer Yoon; international guests were shuttled in by Japan Airlines’ luxurious new flagship vessel, the Airbus A350-1000). ‘I’ve been staying here since before it was open, it just feels like being in the future,’ says Jones about the choice of location. ‘Then you go up to the rooms, and they are so beautiful and spacious. And the baths – [I love] getting in that bath and just staring out at all of the lights.’

‘Tokyo was our first urban destination for Aman, and it was the first place I stayed in the city,’ adds Romanova. ‘I came for the opening, and it was such a defining moment for my personal taste to experience Japan and all the attention to detail. Everything has its purpose, and I think it really defined the way that I look at things.’

Aman Essentials launched in 2022, after an initial beauty line revealed a desire among guests for items they could take home with them to remember their stay (or, indeed, for those yet to spend a night but simply wishing to indulge in the lifestyle). ‘When we were going through options for names, we were like: what do we call it? It had to capture that essence of what we represent, and it’s really the essentials on your trip, or on your holidays, and this [is the thinking] behind every product,’ says Romanova. ‘Like, what do I need during my stay? Whether it’s a piece of clothing, pyjamas, a hat, a perfume, or a face mask, we are basically building that perfect traveller’s wardrobe.’

The collection is available at selected Aman resorts, and on Aman’s website, and selected Dover Street Market locations.

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Brooklyn’s historic Dime Savings Bank, the landmarked building that now provides the base of the borough’s first and only supertall skyscraper, is all about Beaux-Arts grandeur, from its 40-foot-tall central rotunda, to the towering Corinthian columns that encircle an imposing bronze clock. This fall, the elaborate building is setting the stage not for commerce, but for a quiet celebration of Mesoamerican aesthetics, owing to a new collection of artisan-made rugs from Mexico City-based artist and architect Lucas Cantú.

The group of four rug designs, called Laberintos (Spanish for ‘labyrinth’ or ‘maze’), was created in partnership with specialised producer Radnor Made. Cantú, who runs the multidisciplinary design studio Tezontle, looked to Pre-Columbian stone construction in creating the textiles, a move that evokes the imprint of ancient urban centres, specifically the ancient city of Teotihuacán.

‘Lucas has been obsessed with ruins since childhood,’ explains Susan Clark, founder of nomadic gallery Radnor and its offshoot Radnor Made. ‘As a kid, he spent hours drawing mazes and these rug designs are drafted extrapolations of those labyrinthic compositions. They depict how rooms intersect in these dense cities; how one often cuts through narrow passageways to get to wider streets.’

Showcasing Cantu’s creations inside the century-old vault felt appropriate. Though the space has remained in relatively good condition since it shuttered a decade ago, there are signs of wear and tear: cracks in fluted marble panels and chips in the plaster reliefs that line the coffered ceilings. What connects the architecture and rugs is a perceptible sense of weighty history and well-worn materiality; the evidence of long, loving use.

‘Archaeological sites are fragments of what once was; the missing pieces are left to our imagination,’ Cantú explains. ‘In their incompleteness, they become almost abstract forms that invite new ways of seeing.’

Though major fashion houses have requested to stage events at the bank, Clark – who also maintains a temporary showroom in a penthouse on the 92nd floor of the adjacent SHoP-designed skyscraper – is the first to show in the 100,000 sq ft bank portion. Silverstein Properties, the developer of both buildings, asked her if she wanted things repaired before opening the show – on view now until the end of the year – but she said no. Her aim was to amplify the rawness of this relationship.

To emphasize that quality, the four artistic compositions – some more zoomed out and impressionistic than others – are composed like line drawings that evoke millennia-old stone walls viewed from above, with hand-knotted Tibetan wool making up the ground and cut pile Chinese silk. The latter material’s tonal shift and luminescence is matched by the gilded motifs that top the bank’s columns.

Crafted across Nepal through GoodWeave guild artisans, Laberintos comprises four distinct numbered iterations. Each has a sculptural quality that, in the context of this exhibit, is showcased from both sides. The collection’s interplay of 2D and 3D topographical representation is cleverly expressed in a comprehensive range of earth tones, like creme, olive and taupe.

This fresh, thoughtfully-conceived and precision-crafted offering joins a raft of more pictorial carpets turning the floor – a room's fifth wall – into another opportunity for presenting art. Cantú’s contribution, developed in close collaboration with Clark, is less frivolously whimsical or overly nostalgic than some of the other capsule collections that have been recently released; The rugs anchor space with a sense of timeless permanence, hinting at what might have stood in the same place centuries, even millennia, before.

Laberintos is on view by appointment through 31 December at 9 DeKalb Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201, USA

Few Venetian hotels have enjoyed the social life of the Danieli, which has welcomed the glitterati to its palazzi on the Riva degli Schiavoni since 1822. Maria Callas met Aristotle Onassis at a party here in 1957, and Eleonora Duse and Gabriele D’Annunzio’s affair began within its rooms decades earlier. Reopened as a Four Seasons hotel in July 2026, the address received the discerning attention of Pierre-Yves Rochon (also responsible for the refreshed interiors of the Four Seasons Hotel George V in Paris), whose renovation preserves its gilded ceilings and Murano chandeliers while introducing the pale blues and greens of the lagoon outside.

Check-in now takes place in the Sala delle Maschere, a former events room where restored panelling and a frieze of theatrical masks surround paintings of carnival festivities and life along the Riva degli Schiavoni.

Wallpaper* checks in at Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel

What’s on your doorstep?

With the Doge’s Palace just across the Ponte della Paglia and Piazza San Marco a few moments away, the Danieli makes exploring Venice on foot wonderfully straightforward, allowing guests to slip out after breakfast or return between exhibitions without consulting a boat timetable. The Riva degli Schiavoni is busy, certainly, but the convenience is considerable, particularly compared with the lagoon’s island hotels, where a visit to this side of the city requires a crossing. Carlo Scarpa admirers are particularly well placed: his Negozio Olivetti is nearby on Piazza San Marco, while a walk inland towards Campo Santa Maria Formosa leads to the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, where his reworking of the palazzo’s ground floor and garden brings canal water into intricate arrangements of stone, concrete and mosaic.

Who is behind the design?

The Danieli occupies three interconnected palazzi, beginning with Palazzo Dandolo, built for the aristocratic Dandolo family and converted into a hotel by Giuseppe Dal Niel in 1822. Subsequent expansions incorporated Palazzo Casa Nuova, formerly the Venetian Republic’s Treasury, and the post-war Palazzo Danieli Excelsior. Under the supervision of the Soprintendenza, Italy’s heritage authority, Rochon’s studio adapted the buildings’ protected floor plans to accommodate dressing areas, enlarged bathrooms and additional suites. Palazzo Dandolo and Palazzo Casa Nuova have reopened with 120 rooms and suites between them, with the total due to reach 168 when Palazzo Danieli Excelsior’s restoration concludes in 2027.

‘We chose materials rooted in Venetian history and craft: Murano glass, terrazzo seminato alla veneziana, Italian marbles, Venetian mirror and woven damasks,’ says Rochon, explaining that each had to ‘extend the vocabulary of the palazzi and work with the light’. On entering Palazzo Dandolo, the eye is immediately drawn towards an azure ceiling patterned with gilded quatrefoils, its hand-painted decoration restored by specialist craftspeople who have also attended to the columns, stonework and floors below. The grand staircase continues the elaborate introduction, with gilded stuccowork and ornamental detailing accompanying the ascent.

The lobby lounge retains its pastel Murano chandeliers and restored roundel-glass windows, while a large painting of Venice now hangs at the entrance opposite a mirrored screen. The historic reception counter and key cabinet have also been relocated within the rearranged public rooms. Across the interiors, textiles from Rubelli and Dedar accompany bespoke furniture by Poliform, Medea and Salda, with mirrors and lighting by Arte Veneziana and Viamancinelli. The decorative collection includes intaglios, Venetian engravings and antiqued mirrors, drawing on the collecting habits of Grand Tour travellers.

The room to book

The renovation has increased the number of junior and one-bedroom suites, introducing generous living areas and dressing rooms while enlarging bathrooms wherever the historic fabric permitted. Several suites connect to adjoining bedrooms, allowing families or guests travelling together to expand their accommodation, with layouts that also provide space for dining and working.

A lagoon-view suite is the one to book for the prospect of San Giorgio Maggiore across the water, revealed by automated curtains. Rochon carries the lagoon’s pale blues and celadon greens into the furnishings, with Rubelli’s San Marco damask recoloured for the guestrooms and Venetian mirrors reflecting daylight through the interior. Marble bathrooms have walk-in showers and Jesurum toiletries developed by La Bottega, while selected Grand Lagoon-View Suites also include a separate bath – worth specifying when booking.

The former bistro on Palazzo Dandolo’s fourth floor has been converted into the 133 sq m Presidential Suite, where contemporary furniture and artwork mark a departure from the damasks and antiques elsewhere in the hotel. Arranged as a one-bedroom apartment, it has a living room with a dining table for six, a separate dressing area and a marble bathroom with a bath, walk-in shower and a wall of windows.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

At Terrazza Danieli, tables overlooking San Giorgio Maggiore are inevitably the attraction. ‘As soon as the weather allows, every guest wants to be on the terrace,’ says Rochon, who has dressed the outdoor space in terracotta tones to complement the historic façade. Inside, sky blue and muted gold replace the former dark finishes, while mirrors reflect the lagoon into the dining room, ensuring the view remains part of dinner even when the weather intervenes.

Executive chef Adriano Rausa, Roman-born with Sicilian roots, joined the reopening team from W Rome, having trained in kitchens alongside Oliver Glowig, Gennaro Esposito and Ciccio Sultano. His Italian cooking acquires its Venetian accent through suppliers such as Osti in Orto on Sant’Erasmo, the island long cultivated as Venice’s kitchen garden, while fish arrives daily from the Rialto market. Homemade mezze maniche comes with blue lobster, cherry tomatoes and lemon, and the Mediterranean catch of the day is served oven-baked or salt-crusted with seasonal Sant’Erasmo vegetables.

At Bar Dandolo, cocktail From Venice with Love pays tribute to the hotel’s appearance in the 1963 James Bond film From Russia with Love, directed by Terence Young. The Vesper variation combines Tanqueray No. Ten gin and Altamura vodka with Mancino Bianco Ambrato vermouth, Nardini Acqua di Cedro, fino sherry and Aphrodite bitters, batched in advance and served ice-cold from the freezer. A classic Negroni is also on the aperitivo menu.

Where to switch off

Ahead of the permanent spa’s opening, a temporary treatment room offers appointments including the 75-minute Glow Facial, which uses Mario Badescu skincare and begins with a deep cleanse before a sequence of lymphatic, sculpting and relaxing massage techniques. For bodies fatigued by Venice’s bridges, the 60-minute Su Misura Massage takes its name from the Italian tailoring term for ‘made to measure’, with a consultation informing a personalised combination of Swedish massage, deep-tissue work, aromatherapy and stretching. The completed spa will have three treatment rooms, including one for couples, alongside a sauna and hammam.

The verdict

Rochon’s renovation gives the Danieli an inviting freshness, though what stayed with us was how naturally life continued beneath the restored ceilings: throughout our visit, the lobby and bar were busy, and the warmth of the service encouraged us to settle in. For all its celebrated romances and illustrious guests, this remains a sociable Venetian address where an evening downstairs is part of the pleasure of staying. There is something romantic, too, in seeing a building so familiar on the city’s skyline prepared for another generation of arrivals, whose dinners, encounters and return visits will gradually become part of the Danieli’s history.

Danieli, Venezia, A Four Seasons Hotel is located at Riva degli Schiavoni 4196, Venice, Italy. Rooms from €2,300, including breakfast.

What does it mean to design a new Africa? Design Week Lagos 2026 explored the topic inside the Nigerian capital’s beret-shaped National Theatre, through a series of exhibitions, installations, launches, talks, showrooms, creative hubs, and design experiences, placing designers at the centre of a wider conversation about the continent’s creative and industrial possibilities.

Running from 18 to 25 October, the event was a reminder that Africa has always designed beautifully and intelligently. From furniture, product design and architecture to textiles and experimental objects, the work on display offered a compelling view of design as both cultural expression and material proposition.

Design Week Lagos 2026: making a new Africa

Under the theme Making a New Africa: From Material to Market, the latest edition of Africa’s leading design festival wasn’t tunnel-visioned about craft alone: it meditated on Africa’s design future and the fostering of manufacturing relationships.

'The next chapter of African design cannot be about visibility alone,' says Titi Ogufere, founder of Design Week Lagos. 'This edition asks what Africa will make next, how we will make it, and how design can become part of a much larger story of enterprise and industrial growth across the continent.'

The festival’s All Roads Lead to Lagos touring programme answered those questions, spotlighting a new generation of Nigerian designers, such as Nicole Adaora Enwonwu and Athanasius Johnson, following showcases in Milan and Paris. The programme also unveiled its first designer-manufacturer collaboration with Italian manufacturer Ombré.

Here, discover the work of seven designers to watch from Design Week Lagos 2026.

Le_Brimet

Le_Brimet’s ‘Mocho’ stool invites spatial attention, turning a seat into a study of mass, balance and negative space. Its four sculptural supports fold outward like a starfish, framing a circular opening beneath the seat; fine, repeated striations make the brown surface feel geological.

Le_Brimet’s Portuguese practice and African roots place the piece within Design Week Lagos’ diasporic understanding of African design, informing an exchange between places.

Ajayi Kehinde Gabriel

Ajayi Kehinde Gabriel’s ‘Ijapa’ chair, from Àjàyí Studio, gives furniture an animated presence. Mimicking the form of a tortoise, the chair’s saturated blue shell probes into an undulating seat, supported by thick, curved legs that make the structure appear playful and grounded.

A side stool echoes the chair’s tapered, sculptural language. Rather than relying on ornament, the design makes silhouette, proportion and colour do the expressive work, presenting contemporary Nigerian furniture as product design with the potential to move from striking exhibition object into everyday use.

Djakou Kassi Nathalie

Created by Cameroonian ceramicist and sculptor Djakou Kassi Nathalie, the ‘Mr and Mrs Karaktar’ chairs for Design Week Lagos are handcrafted from mahogany wood and showcase her signature dense, highly textured style featuring interlocking abstract faces and geometric tribal motifs.

James Brendan Udom

Created by Nigerian architect and designer James Brendan Udom, the ‘Okkyo’ lamp is a striking, anthropomorphic and sculptural lighting piece that is as whimsical as it is functional, demonstrating against the notion that African design objects have to look a certain way.

Nicole Adaora Enwonwu

Nicole Adaora Enwonwu’s ‘Ànyánwụ́’ lamp draws from Igbo cosmology, an exploration of light as a living, emotional force. Its sinuous, looping structure, rendered in warm terracotta with contrasting white detailing, creates a striking interplay of movement, materiality and light.

Athanasius Johnson

For Nigerian designer Athanasius Johnson, his ‘Apo’ lamp (part of a wider series) sits at the philosophical intersection of design and interior utility. Inspired by the structural strength of the arch, the lamp embodies community and interdependence. Its curved glass form connects two grounded points, symbolising how strength emerges through shared support. Within the ‘Apo’ collection, the lamp expresses a simple ethos: stability is collective, and light shines through connection.

Studio Contra

Within the perimeter of the National Theatre was ‘Bloom Against Violence’, a memorial pavilion designed by Lagos-based architectural firm Studio Contra. Serving as a poignant tribute to the children who have tragically lost their lives to violence across Nigeria, the choice of crimson is striking, a visceral reminder of the horrors of violence.

The floral-shaped installation also draws on the African courtyard and the architectural language of breeze-block screens, which isn’t only environmentally intelligent for ventilation, but creates a protective space for visitors for quiet grief and reflection.

This is a very handsome car indeed. From every angle, the ‘new’ Polestar 5 (we’ll tackle those quote marks in a minute) offers up exactly what one would expect from a flagship performance product, long, low, lithe and finely proportioned.

So why the ‘new’? Seasoned Polestar gazers will have been aware of the 5 for quite some time. The car itself has been in the works since the end of the last decade, previewed by the Precept Concept way back in 2020. Described by then CEO Thomas Ingenlath as embracing ‘a new interpretation of Scandinavian minimalism’, it was still a distant endpoint on a long wishlist.

A more production-polished preview of the 5 emerged in 2022 before the trail went cold for a couple of years and Polestar focused on its core offering – the 2, 3 and 4. The production-ready Polestar 5 didn’t arrive until the 2025 Munich Motor Show and now here we are, at the tail end of 2026, finally driving the finished car. Yet far from being out to seed and deserving of its pension before it was even launched, the Polestar 5 somehow manages to still look right on the money.

There are two things going on here. The first is the power of successful proportions – in particular, how much ‘easier’ it is to render a form that is low, lithe and suggestive of style, performance and elegance when you have a bit of space to play with. Polestar 5 is a big car, over 5m long and over 2m wide, giving the team’s designers (at that point led by Maximilian Missoni, before he transferred out to work at BMW and Alpina) room to lower the height and stretch out the roofline.

To the casual observer, the 5 looks a little bit like a Polestar 4 that’s been put on the rack, losing the earlier car’s upright stance and introducing more grace. And more pace. The blend of package and performance simply would haven’t been possible without a bespoke platform, and in this respect the Polestar 5 represents a vote of confidence in the brand’s longevity from its parent company Geely.

Both P4 and P5 share the absence of rear fenestration, a controversial deletion that is now also seen in the Jaguar Type 01. In packaging terms, it makes sense because it allows rear seat passengers to have more headroom and the boot to be more spacious. In technological terms, it shouldn’t matter because of the existence of high-definition rear-view cameras and screens to replace the view.

In psychological terms, however, there’s still a hit to take. It’s not that the cabin is darker – the swooping panoramic glass roof that stretches for over two metres right down to behind the rear passengers' necks lets in more light than you could conceivably need. What’s missing is a sense of all-round perception, particularly for passengers.

Perhaps it’s an evolutionary hangover, but no amount of sensors and screens can make up for the very human desire to simply turn around to see what’s behind you. And if you’re in any way longsighted, the digital rear-view mirror joins the rest of the digital cockpit as a hit-or-miss collection of frustratingly blurry details.

That’s the only real criticism to level at the Polestar 5, unless you’re absolutely allergic to touchscreen controls. If so, you will in no way be endeared to the huge 14.5-inch centre display panel controlling everything from the door mirrors to the glove box. This is the Polestar way, it must be said, and although animation speed and responsiveness are top-notch, so is the arrogance with which the company has stayed wedded to its anti-analogue approach.

Things are slightly mitigated by the addition of contextual steering wheel buttons, and more day-to-day familiarity will presumably start to build up the muscle memory. Yet as first impressions go, it’s not great.

Selecting drive and moving off gives the P5 a chance at redemption. Happily for the Polestar team, we can report that they’ve succeeded. In the anachronistically picturesque surroundings of Northumberland’s Alnwick Castle, we found a medieval landscape threaded with extremely good modern roads. Here the big four-door excelled as a performance car, with a superbly balanced ride and creamy acceleration.

The ‘standard’ twin engine model doesn't have the active MagnaRide damper system offered on the Performance variant. Joakim Rydholm, Polestar’s ebullient senior chassis development engineer, was on hand to extol the virtues of this system and its ability to swiftly cycle through driving modes – as well as cloak the Polestar 5’s hefty 2,500kg curb weight.

The Performance trim upsides – more power, swifter acceleration and that excellent suspension – are mitigated by dramatically less range (346 miles versus 421 miles). It’s worth repeating that the headline figures of a particular EV are rarely confined to the same model; the car with more power, bigger wheels and a sportier stance is very rarely the car with the longest range. Polestar 5 proves this point yet again.

In fact, the bits that are best about this car are shared between models, so it becomes even harder to recommend the Performance version. The interior is 4+1, rather than a full five-seater, although the rears can have massage function and there’s lots of leg room.

The front seats are from Recaro and the cabin materiality is excellently considered at every level, from the flax and resin-based materials Polestar has developed as a recyclable alternative to carbon fibre, to the use of technical-style colours and textures. Audio comes via a 21-speaker system from partner Bowers & Wilkins, which includes a dash-spanning soundbar, while traditionalists can opt for Bridge of Weir leather.

Another thing we admire is Polestar’s insistence on a very granular breakdown of the cradle-to-grave emissions of all its models, a lifecycle assessment that feels like it really should be something other manufacturers adopt (which would in turn make it a more useful set of metrics). By way of illustration, the team demonstrate that the cradle-to-gate (i.e. rolling out of the factory) figures of Polestar 2 were 26.1 tonnes of CO2. For the Polestar 5 – a larger, faster and more efficient car – the figure is 23.8 tonnes, so something is clearly working.

All in all, it adds up to an aesthetic that hovers between retro futurism and forward-thinking futurology. How well the current Polestar style will date is anyone’s guess, but our hunch is that in a decade or so they’ll experience a cliff-like drop in desirability, before swinging around to swiftly achieve classic status.

If you’re in the market for a svelte, swift and zero emission saloon car, there’s now more choice than ever, although it’s still hardly the most dynamic sector – saloons are still very much on the wane. That’s not to say that the choice is lacklustre. The Polestar 5 goes head-to-head with the Porsche Taycan and its sibling, the Audi e-tron GT. There’s also the slightly pricier Jaguar Type 01 to consider and – for a wildcard – the Lexus ES.

The latter eschews the outright speed and style of the others in favour of practicality (and a much more attractive sticker price) but probably doesn’t have the brand lustre to make it a true competitor. There’s also Bentley’s forthcoming Torcal to consider, although now we’re well and truly in the realm of crossovers.

It’s the Taycan that should be considered the 5’s natural rival. The e-tron GT, although wonderful, suffers even more than Porsche when it comes to depreciation and doesn’t have anything like the brand recognition of the Weissach-designed electric missile. Yet with just four models in play and annual sales (last year) of 60,000 units, Polestar is certainly on a lower rung than Porsche, let alone Audi (1,623,000 units across at least 14 models, all of which have numerous variations).

Despite the interface missteps and the unconventional window situation, Polestar has still managed to command significant brand loyalty in a very short space of time. New models, including the SUV variant of the Polestar 4 and 2027’s next generation Polestar 2 will give it even more of a boost, especially the compact Polestar 7, with its close mechanical relationship to the popular Volvo EX30.

Finally, there’s also the Polestar 6, a mooted but still not yet confirmed coupé/roadster variant. If it happens, the 6 promises to push the company even further into luxury territory, building on the desirability that oozes out of the Polestar 5.

Polestar 5, Dual Motor from £89,500, Performance from £104,900, Polestar.com, @Polestarcars

Nicola Turner’s expansive sculptures reach deep into the unconscious. The British artist creates repurposed horsehair installations which creep and tumble across gallery walls, floors and façades. ‘I Tear Secrets from Your Yielding Flesh’, her new exhibition at Annely Juda, sees giant dark tendrils crawling from the windows of the gallery’s Grade II-listed Georgian townhouse on Hanover Square. Inside, a series of smaller works leads up to a giant sculpture in the back room that hangs from an antique glass ceiling lantern.

The work is as emotionally confronting as it is beguiling, open enough for the viewer to project their own discomfort or intrigue onto its creeping forms. ‘I really try to let myself respond to the space while I’m there,’ she said, reflecting on the ambitious installation. ‘It is almost like a fight or a battle with my material. Then it sits and settles. I’m interested in the weight of the material, how it pulls, how it hangs and how it holds on. All of that helps to give an emotion to the piece.'

Numerous sculptures appear like living figures who teeter on pointed blades and shears. The artist describes herself as a ‘very anxious person’. The sharp points mirror her feeling that ‘I can’t let myself be held by the ground… like the tension is always in my shoulders’. Previous surgeries and medical interventions are reflected in the cutting and stitching of her work. Multiple women have contacted her after visiting her shows to share their own experiences of PTSD. ‘I don’t purposefully make work about female shame; however, the shapes that emerge morph into that,’ she says. ‘In putting material together, somehow the emotion from me or my tensions are encased in that material.’

The gutlike nature of the work calls to mind the body’s ‘second brain’, which contains a well of feeling. ‘Neuroscientists are now realising they have to go below the neck,’ she says. ‘Trauma can be passed through the gut into the next generation. I find [the latest research into this] completely fascinating.’ Turner encourages a physical, and not just thinking response to the work. ‘I’m interested in that unsettling feeling.’

The show also riffs on the building’s history. The Royal College of Chemistry rented the space from 1845, using the downstairs as a laboratory. A student working there discovered that a purple solution could be extracted from coal tar, before patenting the first aniline dye. ‘It revolutionised fashion,’ she says, as purple became available as a clothing colour for everyone, not just an expensive luxury for royalty. The building was later used by Reville and Rossiter, a couture house and dressmaker for the royal court. When Edward VII died in 1910, they dyed all of their stock black using a version of the aniline dye to accommodate the overwhelming public mourning.

Reville and Rossiter also made Bloomsbury writer Vita Sackville-West’s wedding dress. In 1918, five years after her marriage, Sackville-West penned an erotic poem to her lover Violet Trefusis. Turner used a passionate line from the poem as the show’s title, reflecting the stigma and covert nature of Sackville-West’s same sex relationship. She sees the building’s rich history and different narratives as encapsulating the secrets of both chemistry and couture, while also drawing upon the idea of shame.

Dress makers' scissors, vintage stockings and pins repeat in the work, inspired by the building’s history. ‘I gathered all this and then gave myself the freedom to just make,’ she says. ‘I reflected afterwards about how that relates to the history I had researched.’ The horsehair mattresses that are frequently reformed in her work are also embedded with the memory of their time on animals’ bodies and then as domestic furniture. There is a ‘slight whiff on the larger pieces’, she says, ‘a really visceral smell that you feel in your gut’.

The show seems to so adeptly express how it feels to suppress a trauma that can’t help but erupt. In a world that encourages us to push down and repress painful feelings, there is a sense of relief and liberation that comes with this. ‘I have this roar in my stomach,’ she says. ‘I feel like I’ve let it out a little bit.’

Nicola Turner at Annely Juda until 7 November 2026

This Brazilian house is a statement that only reveals itself upon closer inspection, so deeply is it set into its context. Casa Lilaya ‘is located in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, in a rural area close to the Chapada dos Veadeiros National Park, in Brazil,’ says Alan Chu, the architect behind it. ‘It sits near a river that runs through the site, immersed in the native vegetation of the Cerrado biome. The sky is vast, and the hills and plateaus fade into the horizon.’

The region is known for ecotourism, but perhaps not as you’d expect. Those interested in holistic living may have heard of the area's strong mystical connections, credited to the high concentration of crystals in the local soil.

Casa Lilaya sits low in a clearing and is accessed by a winding dirt road. It comprises a low, single-storey volume, with crisp lines that seamlessly extend into the landscape.

Inside Casa Lilaya, a minimalist Brazilian house

The client asked for a simple country retreat that was cost-efficient. The two-bedroom home is an example of elegant restraint; however, it was not conceived in pursuit of a specific aesthetic, as Chu explains.

‘It grew out of the experience I wanted to create. How can we perceive time, and how can we create a journey, within a simple building with a limited area? Dividing the plan into quadrants automatically creates four distinct dimensions; I would say at least four different moments in time, without using more area to achieve this. Each quadrant has its own orientation and its own views.’

Chu was careful to note that the region has a long dry season and a rainy one, so he felt it was important to lift the house off the ground to protect it from seasonal changes. It is reminiscent of similar Japanese house typologies.

A long wall extends out from the project's primary volume and acts as a welcoming 'arm' guiding guests towards the main entrance and into the home. It also provides a cosy seating area. This wall is 80cm thick and runs 31m, crossing the entire house. It takes on different functions along its length: seating, the kitchen counter, shelving, the entrance porch, and closets.

Chu, however, designs from the inside out, ‘but always with a sense of aesthetics and proportion’, he says. ‘The experience begins before arriving: a drive along a winding road through the vegetation, then the first glimpse of the house, a moment of mystery and approach. Inside, each room reveals a different landscape.

‘The walls that extend beyond the building create a sense of movement and freedom, and at the same time they give the house a longer, more horizontal, and elegant proportion. The monochromatic palette reduces noise and the amount of information. It is a way to quiet the mind and reinforce the presence of the natural landscape.’

Stepping inside is an invitation to relax. The material palette is minimalist and calming, comprising terracotta, cement, and solid-wood joinery. Large floor-to-ceiling windows open up to nature outside.

Chu concludes: ‘I like the harmony and coherence of the whole. Above all, I am glad to have designed a house that escapes the stereotype of the country cabin. It is hard to imagine it anywhere else. It was made to be there, and that is essential.’

chu.arq.br

There are trophy houses and then there are icons. California is liberally scattered with the former but also has more than its fair share of the latter. Now another example of a prototypical modernist residence has gone up for sale, a house that helped set the template for what was to come.

The Lovell Beach House was the first property commissioned by a far-sighted, forward-thinking couple, in more ways than one. Built for Leah and Philip Lovell, the house was designed exactly a century ago by the architect RM Schindler (1887-1953), with Richard Neutra, no less, working on the landscaping.

Philip M Lovell wrote for the Los Angeles Times. A committed naturopathic health advocate, as well as a vegetarian and a fanatic advocate of naturist sunbathing and avocados, although not necessarily at the same time, he wrote a column called ‘Care of the Body’. In many respects, he is the prototypical modern Californian, healthy, wealthy, and committed to natural wellness with a light side order of eccentricity.

Happily, his wife, Leah Press-Lovell, shared his enthusiasms. The couple had met through her work at a private progressive school in East Hollywood, on land owned by the heiress Aline Barnsdall, whose own residence was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1921: the Hollyhock House (now open to the public, and having survived recent threats of closure).

One of the architects working with Wright on the Hollyhock House was Rudolph Michael Schindler, a Vienna-born architect who had arrived in the US in 1914, having studied under such luminaries as Adolf Loos and Otto Wagner.

Although Schindler was to ultimately fall out spectacularly with Wright, as well as have a fractious relationship with Neutra, his fortuitous place in this creative and somewhat cultish milieu led to a connection with Lovell – both men’s wives taught together at the progressive kindergarten.

Together, the Lovells commissioned Schindler to design them a new house in Newport Beach, a shining piece of concrete and glass modernism that fulfilled their love of the open air, freedom, light and health.

The Lovell Beach House was completed in 1926 and appeared to tick all the boxes for the Lovell’s radical lifestyle, with sleeping porches on the first floor that could be opened up to the Pacific air and floor to ceiling glazing.

The Lovell’s unconventional living requirements allowed Schindler to experiment, using reinforced concrete – still a relatively new material, especially in private residences – to raise the house high up off its plot. This created spectacular ocean views from the terrace, while the thin but strong structure allowed for the ribbons of glazing that illuminate the double-height living space in the heart of the 2,741 sq ft house.

As originally conceived, the ground floor contained only a garage and an open area between the angular concrete pillars, with twin staircases leading off in two directions from a central plinth. The first floor contained the double height living room, alongside a dining area, kitchen and breakfast area.

Upstairs, four identical bedrooms were reached off a galleried landing, with an appropriately private roof deck on top. The chilly Pacific fogs quickly put paid to the open sleeping areas and the balconies were enclosed by the end of the decade.

Neutra’s contribution was the modest landscape plan, overlooked by a balcony reached from the sitting room, which in turn had the beach and ocean in the distance. Featuring a curvaceous raised flower bed and semi-naturalistic planting and seating, it’s enhanced by the house’s excellent position on the last building plot before the beach.

Remarkably, the Beach House has stayed in the Lovell family ever since, a focal place where key family gatherings and celebrations have been held over the past hundred years.

The last Lovell to live there, Philip and Leah’s daughter-in-law Barbara, died in 2025, prompting the family to finally sell a place that has been so integral to their life for so long. Over the decades, changes have been sparse and sympathetic, with almost all Schindler’s original built-in furnishings retained.

Philip and Leah went on to commission Richard Neutra to design their next house, the equally famous Lovell Health House, completed in 1929. Ultimately, they chose to spend more time at the beach residence, even though it was initially the Neutra building that won more plaudits and attention from the world’s architectural press.

Taking on such an icon – in such a prominent spot – is not for the faint-hearted. We reported recently on the struggle to sell the Stahl House (Craig Ellwood's Case Study House #22), another slice of American architectural history that comes with caveats as well as kudos.

Although the Lovell Beach House is a veritable antique by Californian standards, it’s still a monument to the kind of innovation and thinking that defines the state today.

Lovell Beach House, 1242 West Ocean Front, Newport Beach, California, is for sale at $18.8m, co-listed by Nate Cole of Modern California House and Todd Bousman of Bouhaus Properties, TheLovellBeachHouse.com

The early aughts were a time of technological friction. The World Wide Web was becoming part of everyday life, and people – now ‘users’ – were entering the greatest masquerade ball of the modern age. Meanwhile, reality shows were turning living-room televisions into a social panopticon.

Television presenter Chris Hansen occupied this awkward intersection. His To Catch a Predator segments, which began on NBC’s Dateline in 2004, turned anxieties surrounding internet chatrooms into compulsive viewing. Adults posing as children online invited suspected predators to suburban houses, where hidden cameras recorded their arrival, and Hansen then emerged to confront them. The programme combined investigative reporting with the suspense of a hidden-camera show, making its presenter a celebrity. The series ended in 2007 amid legal and ethical controversy following a suspect’s suicide.

A new film seeks to portray Hansen at the height of To Catch a Predator's popularity. Set in 2006, Primetime casts a bleary-eyed Robert Pattinson as Hansen, alongside Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers, Matthew Maher and Bokeem Woodbine. It marks the first narrative feature from Lance Oppenheim, who is also behind the acclaimed Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything (2026), co-directed with Nathan Fielder and due for release in the UK and Ireland on 20 November 2026.

Bad taste makes good cinema in ‘Primetime’

Written by Ajon Singh and inspired by true events, the A24 thriller follows Hansen as his journalistic ambitions become entangled with the demands of entertainment. It offers a disquieting portrait of a showman struggling to reconcile his public image, ego and increasingly distorted sense of morality.

Much of the film takes place in the suburban houses where Hansen and his crew stage their encounters. On the original programme, these were real homes temporarily fitted with hidden cameras, with adjoining rooms given over to producers watching the monitors. Visitors arrived expecting to meet someone they had spoken to online, while Hansen waited out of sight.

Recreating these borrowed interiors fell to production designer Alex DiGerlando, whose credits include Love Story (2026) and True Detective (2014-2015). He studied the original episodes, noting the furnishings left by homeowners and the awkward adjustments made for filming. ‘You can’t kind of lure a guy into a soundstage,’ he tells Wallpaper*.

The houses needed to remain convincing, even with a television operation installed inside them. His instruction to the art department welcomed their decorative peculiarities: ‘We should not be afraid of the ugly. We should embrace it.’

Working around New Orleans, the team found properties to stand in for California, Florida, Texas and the American northeast. DiGerlando asked location manager Tyler Hohmann to look for homes belonging to older residents, whose renovations might date from when their children were young. Original appliances spared the department the trouble of finding replacements, while wallpaper, shag carpet and architectural eccentricities supplied the texture and imperfection the team sought. ‘The Internet has sort of homogenised people’s tastes, and algorithms funnel everybody to the same places,’ he says.

Among those architectural discoveries was the grand staircase in the opening sting house, where the filmmakers imagined Hansen descending like Bela Lugosi’s Dracula (1931), an entrance absent from the script but consistent with their discussions of vampire lore and invitations across thresholds. ‘Chris is a vampire in his own way,’ DiGerlando says. ‘These things are his lifeblood.’

Larry Sultan’s 2004 photo series The Valley, which photographs adult-film productions at work in San Fernando Valley homes, offered DiGerlando, Oppenheim and cinematographer David Bolen another useful reference for the sting houses, where a television crew’s equipment had to coexist with the owners’ furnishings. ‘Both To Catch a Predator and adult films […] would move into a location that was chosen for whatever reason, and then would do slight modifications,’ says DiGerlando. Sultan’s photographs helped the team consider how much of a household would remain visible once a production had rearranged its rooms.

As he watched the original television episodes in preparation for the film, DiGerlando noticed that family photographs had been removed from the houses while ornaments and artworks remained, revealing something of the owners’ tastes without identifying them. ‘They do tell you a lot about the person who lives there,’ he says, recalling how he wondered whether seeing his own belongings amid ‘the kind of darkness that had been let in’ would change his feelings about his home. The team selected objects that suggested these absent occupants and borrowed details from the programme, including a ‘live, laugh, love’ mural above one kitchen.

Furniture rearranged for filming and an unusual abundance of lamps hinted at the television operation installed among these household possessions. The lamps illuminated the encounters without bringing conventional film lights into view. ‘We purposely would put too many lamps in a place,’ says DiGerlando, explaining that a visitor might notice the odd arrangement before recognising its purpose: ‘He’s not yet tipped into what’s going on.’

He also insisted that cables remain visible across the floors, observing that in most films, ‘all the cables that would make that work miraculously don’t exist’.

Bedrooms and dining rooms became control rooms, with banks of monitors occupying increasing amounts of space as the television operation grew. Recreating the stings required several cameras to record simultaneously, sometimes following an encounter through the house and outside to an arrest in a single take, which left few places for the film crew to hide. ‘Typically on a normal movie, the crew could just be in the next room over,’ DiGerlando says, but here the action could pass through that room too, so the team surveyed each property and mapped out areas where they could remain unseen.

For the motels where Hansen and his colleagues stayed between stings, the team drew on Alec Soth’s 2006 monograph Niagara, whose photographs of rooms around Niagara Falls offered a record of the period’s décor. Recreating it sometimes meant undoing recent renovations, as at the motel used for the Florida scenes, where photographs supplied by the manager helped the team restore earlier colours and patterns. Soth, an admirer of Oppenheim’s documentaries, later visited one of the sets to take photographs of his own.

The rooms’ period character also depended on the cameras recording them, with Oppenheim and Bolen using over ten formats, including digital video and hidden cameras associated with the original programme. DiGerlando remembers early digital photography being regarded as ‘both exciting, but ugly’, its imperfections now helping to evoke the era alongside the furnishings. Working with colourist Damien Vandercruyssen, the filmmakers also transferred digital cinema footage to 16mm and back, adding grain to the film’s varied image textures.

‘It didn’t seem like something that people would fetishise ever,’ DiGerlando says of early digital photography, whose glitches now strike him as ‘comforting or cosy in a weird way’.

He adds, ‘Nostalgia is a powerful force.’

‘Primetime’ opens in UK cinemas on 30 October 2026.