On our first visit to The Horses, the final details were being attended to. In serendipitous timing, the new pub’s sign – a Renaissance-style painting of, you guessed it, horses – had been brought out, ready for installation. ‘It’s perfect. This is my first time seeing the sign,’ exclaimed Phil Winser, co-founder of Public House Group, with James Gummer, the pair behind London’s ‘posh pub’ favourites including The Pelican (Notting Hill), The Hart (Marylebone) and The Hero (Maida Vale). Tucked down a side street, around a ten-minute walk from Farringdon station, the new pub retains the group’s elevated take on the traditional boozer, while incorporating an elegantly casual seafood restaurant upstairs that leans into the best of the British coast.

Wallpaper* dines at The Horses, London

The mood: a casually elegant ode to the sea

The interiors for The Horses were designed in-house and spearheaded by Winser himself. The team wanted to draw on the site’s history: it sits near the former Central Fish Market in Smithfield, Farringdon.

What makes The Horses so beautiful is its departure from seaside cliché, instead welcoming abstract references to the UK coastline. ‘The biggest challenge was weaving the seafood narrative into the design in a way that felt fresh and subtle, while still creating a sense of enchantment and immersion for guests,’ Winser tells Wallpaper*. ‘We spent a long time exploring familiar nautical references – light reflecting across the kitchen tiles recalls sunlight breaking on waves; delicate wool curtains reference fishing nets; and vintage motorboat ventilator covers have been cast in porcelain to create bespoke wall lights.’

The team succeeds in its restraint. Orange and yellow circular stained-glass panels divide the ground-floor dining areas, recalling washed-up sea glass. One of Winser’s favourite details is the cast-brass push plates on the doors.

‘It’s a tiny detail,’ he explains, ‘but one with a wonderful story: they are antiques salvaged from the SS Amerikanis, an old ocean liner. There’s something particularly poetic about these objects having travelled the seas and now finding a new home in a space dedicated to celebrating the produce of them.’ These details reward eagle-eyed diners – and those versed in maritime history.

The food: fresh, simple, and well executed

The dining experience shifts from floor to floor, each with its own distinct character. The pub has a warm, convivial feel, with tall panelling, upholstered ceiling panels and intimate nooks arranged around a central bar. Here, British beers are served alongside classic bar snacks, including pork pies and a scallop and bacon bap. The first floor is home to a classic oyster bar, with a large sharing table and counter seating overlooking the fish display, framed by timber cabinets.

Up another level sits the main dining room. A long, snaking banquette traces the room’s curve, while bar seating on the right follows its contours like a wave. Winser notes that the open kitchen is the focal point: ‘Low-level lighting creates a moody, theatrical atmosphere, and the bespoke wine fridges sit alongside diners, reinforcing the sense of being right at the heart of the action.’ Finally, beneath the eaves, the top floor has been designed to feel private, with a log burner and layers of soft upholstery creating a more intimate setting.

From the grill, order the Dover sole or monkfish, both well suited to the peppercorn sauce and herby garlic butter. Add a fresh salad, zingy tomatoes and, naturally, extra chips. We were advised to try the restaurant’s ‘lighter’ take on sticky toffee pudding. There was no need for a second look at the menu: a sumptuous caramel tart arrived with hints of almond and pear, alongside boozy Chantilly cream.

The Horses has an air of nostalgia, the sort of place where a smartphone feels out of place. It comes through in the setting, but also in the attentive service, which gives the experience its easy rhythm.

The Horses is located at Warner House, 43-49 Warner St, London EC1R 5ER, United Kingdom

Designed by architect Alex Michaelis, this spectacular Cornwall beach house is on the market for the first time since completion. Originally designed as the architect’s own family retreat, Little Cottage is located above Praa Sands, a justifiably famed Cornish beach on the UK’s south coast.

Tour the Cornwall beach house now for sale

The house presents an unsullied view of the English Channel and the Atlantic beyond; it’s right there at the end of the garden, with the sandy beach itself just steps away. Arranged over two levels, with a separate self-contained bedroom shack tucked away behind the house, Little Cottage is not the ersatz rural dwelling implied by its name. Instead, 2,422 sq ft of accommodation is contained within a sculptural white box that owes more to Le Corbusian modernism and noughties minimalism than conventional seaside architecture.

The coastal façade is an exercise in asymmetric reductivist design. The ground floor is given over to a 50ft-long living room and kitchen, with central sliding glass doors that open it out onto the lawn. On the west side, the principal bedroom suite is tucked away behind a private sitting room, while the east wing houses the entrance, hallway, with the cylindrical stair tower leading off to the right, illuminated by a circular skylight.

Upstairs, there are three more en-suite bedrooms, all of which have views across the water. Curved walls create a sculptural upper level, with access to a balcony one end of the bedroom corridor. Detailing is minimal throughout, with white walls, floors and ceiling paired with frameless glazing to bring in as much light as possible. The material palette includes French-plastered walls and limestone, with Corian worktops in the kitchen, mosaic clad bathrooms and wide cedar floorboards throughout.

The ground floor also hosts a cloakroom and utility room, along with a wet room with direct outside access and special provision for drying and storing wetsuits. The stair leads up to a light-filled landing and corridor, while two of the three upstairs bedrooms occupied the curved ends of the first floor; all have free-standing baths while the bedrooms have Juliet balconies.

In addition to the separate Shack, which could also double up as a studio space, the property has a pair of sheds/surf stores and a number of parking spaces, as well as the rights to a mooring at nearby Porthleven Harbour. Michaelis, who founded Michaelis Boyd with Tim Boyd in 1996, has created a rare piece of uncompromising contemporary seaside architecture, a house that is as aesthetically rigorous as it is warm, inviting and functional.

Little Cottage is for sale through Lillicrap Chilcott for £2.5m, Tel: +44 1872 273473, LillicrapChillcot.com

How do you create a fragrance brand that genuinely disrupts the beauty industry? It wasn’t even a question on Charlie Vickery’s mind when he started creating 12_things, but it's one he’s answered.

Following his role as managing director of the brand formerly known as Haeckels (now Dulcie), Vickery wasn’t looking to start his own brand. Yet, years spent reconfiguring the industry from the inside had primed him to question the status quo), and clearly, the status quo. So, when he started being served perfume brands on Instagram that each looked exactly the same, each pushing the same ingredients and generating generic, AI-sloppy content, he started to think: ‘Is there a way in which you can create a world unto itself that is two fingers up to the perfume industry?'

For Vickery, who lives in London, the answer was to create a fragrance that drew ingredients and inspiration not from gardens and beautiful lands, but instead, from the often unpleasant realities of everyday life, especially everyday life in a modern city with its industry, decay, and even, the ultimate taboo word in brand marketing, death. A way of, in his words, ‘creating beauty in the ugliness around you by looking at the materials that we typically ignore’.

12_things debuts that concept with its first launch, Inkskin, a fragrance inspired by the act of rewriting your story after a difficult ending, a kind of rebirth after a figurative death. It opens notes of metal (inspired by the smell of a morgue), before developing into paper accords (the idea of ‘writing yourself into existence again’) and rounding out with the smell of sweaty skin. Together, they create an olfactory narrative of coming back to yourself after an experience that seemed like it would un-do you.

While the storytelling aspect of the scent is interesting, what makes it most compelling is that, against all reason, it actually smells good, really good. The same is true for the other scents that will soon be added to the collection, including White Dust, a scent inspired by the remnants of a house after you move out, with notes of plastic, vapour and dust; and Infrastructure, an ode to the destruction of a city, with notes of concrete, rain-on-asphalt accord, charred cashmere, musk, and iris fraction. It even holds for Cold Storage, the most aggressive scent in the collection, which is inspired by the smell of preserving a dead body, with notes of cold metal, plastic, and ambergris, iodine, a salty skin accord – in Vickery’s words, ‘sounds minging, is beautiful’.

Beautiful, yes, and also, despite its sometimes macabre subject matter, ultimately hopeful in its message. ‘In the brand world, you're just expected to churn things out again and again,’ says Vickery. ‘So I was drawn to the idea that you could turn the ending into a celebration, turn destruction into beauty.’

That notion of turning destruction into beauty is not only present in the fragrances themselves, but the entire brand identity. 12 Things is not only an experiment in how to disrupt the fragrance industry, but how to disrupt the playbook for building any kind of brand in the Instagram-era.

Products come packed in deliberately photo-unfriendly grey, foam boxes or, for smaller sizes, plastic bags with printer paper that lists out the fragrance’s notes and makes it look more like a medical sample than a luxury perfume. To buy it, customers go to a website that looks like an early Y2K coding exercise gone awry, where they will find no products to purchase. Instead, they’ll find a phone number that they have to text in order to purchase – a way of combating the thoughtless click-to-instantly-own impulse that has become a feature of modern life. When the 12 Things physical retail space does come to London in October 2026, it will be ‘a store that destroys itself’, the details of which Vickery plans to unveil closer to the opening.

Altogether, it's an approach that doesn’t make things effortless for the customer, but then, that’s the point. ‘I think we've lost the world of retail to this sort of grey colourways and beautiful materials, but we're not really inviting the customer in,’ Vickery says. ‘I love this idea of discovery because not all things should be spoon-fed to your audience. You should breadcrumb it, and you should make them want more.

‘That will isolate 95 per cent of the population who just want stuff served to them on an ad, but that really small percentage who are interested in lore and world-building and stories and narratives need to be rewarded.’

12-things.com

Jeremy and Cath Brown founded Feldspar, the Devon-based design studio, to create pieces they needed for their own home. Working from their workshop, a 500-year-old cider farm, they focus on creating items of longevity in the form of dainty bone china tableware, elegant homewares, Feldspar's first furniture collection (which debuted in 2025 at London Design Festival), lambswool blankets, and more. Now, they have translated their simple, cosy, and playful dimpled aesthetic into a new lighting collection.

Discover Feldspar's first lighting collection

‘We always wanted to be able to create anything we needed for our home, and so we've been experimenting with larger-scale items for years now – last year's furniture collection included the very biggest things we can physically fit into our kilns, [such as] the “Merrivale” side-table base. With the pendants, the main challenge was to find the balance between casting them finely to ensure the light glowed through, and ensuring they are still structurally strong,’ Cath Brown tells Wallpaper*.

The collection comprises a series of four new pendants and two table lamps. What the founders loved about the fine bone china is that it seems white and opaque by day, but takes on a warming, paper-lantern glow during the evening.

The table lamps, the larger ‘Merrivale’ and smaller ‘Burra’, have a base made from fine bone china – thicker than the pendants for a sturdier result – with all made at Feldspar’s Devon studio. The table lamps’ shades come in pale-blue and grey linen, and are handmade by designer Eloise Scotland, based in Bath. Here, she uses traditional hand-stitching techniques. Clean lines are used for the construction, which means there are no requirements for any trim or tape around the edges.

Brown says, ‘The lampshades we designed with Eloise were inspired by the shape of a bowl of her Grandpa's, an avid ceramics collector, and each has a hidden cobalt-blue rib inside, a nod to the cobalt blue we use on our ceramics. The finishing touch is a hand-carved brass dimmer switch, tactile and unexpected.’

The pieces are elegant, but not serious, an important combination for creating a space that feels tasteful, yet lived in. ‘We took inspiration from the rooms in our home and were inspired by shapes we like from our existing collections,’ shares Brown. ‘Our kitchen has a high ceiling, so we wanted a taller pendant to sit within the space there.’ The result was ‘Big Slim’, a tall and elegant pendant to hang above a table. Another pendant in the series, meanwhile, ‘Big Bell’, has a shade that references the ‘Merrivale’ table and lamp base, ‘echoing the curves of that graceful bell shape’.

Feldspar is named after the abundant mineral found in granite that gives ceramics their strength. And strong they are, as the studio is all about designing everyday functional items that are also intended to be treasured – influenced by the longevity of pieces previous generations used to own. Brown concludes, ‘Our new range is what we call the 'staples' – classic pendants and lamps in a collection of different sizes, for all eventualities. We wanted to create truly bespoke and unique objects; each is beautifully hand-crafted.'

feldspar.studio

Hull, in Yorkshire, is a city shaped by water, industrial history and generations of seafaring. For London Design Festival 2026, internationally acclaimed sound artist Chris Watson draws upon this rich maritime heritage in Trent Falls. This immersive spatial installation takes listeners on a sonic journey along northern England’s Humber Estuary.

‘This is a sound voyage that moves with the tide, down the estuary and eventually out into the North Sea,’ explains Watson.

The journey begins at Goole Docks, where the rivers Trent and Ouse converge to form the Humber. Following the ebbing tide, the piece moves through the reeds of Faxfleet Nature Reserve before a freight train rattles past the former Oxmardyke signal box. According to Watson, this sequence draws on the railway and Charles Dickens’ mystery story, The Signal-Man. ‘These sounds connect the industrial landscape with the human story of the estuary.’

The soundscape then passes beneath the Humber Bridge, announced by the thunder of vehicles crossing its expansion joints. Later, it gathers the cries of a local fairground, cathedral bells and the roar of supporters at a Hull Kingston Rovers home game.

Further along the estuary, birds scour the mudflats while their calls mingle with the distant echoes of Saltend Chemicals Park. ‘The piece is a mix of wildlife and industrial sounds constantly interrupting one another,’ states Watson.

The journey eventually reaches Spurn Point, an extraordinary, remote spit of land extending into the North Sea. Here, the haunting calls of grey seals drift across the water alongside the rolling wash of the waves. ‘I regard my work as cinematic. I want it to fire people’s imagination,’ notes Watson.

Created from recordings gathered over nearly two years, Trent Falls compresses time and collapses distance, drawing geography, seasons and memory into a single continuous passage. Originally commissioned as part of Hull’s year as UK City of Culture (in 2017), the work extends beyond the city to capture the wider character of the Humber Estuary.

‘The piece is inspired by Hull, but it’s really about listening to the whole estuary and how it changes as you move through it,’ says Watson.

At its heart, Trent Falls is an invitation to slow down and hear both Hull and its surrounding areas. ‘With my installations, I give people the time to listen. I want them to turn their phones off and allow themselves to be taken somewhere else.’

This exploration of water, infrastructure and industry finds a fitting setting at Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. Built in 1890 and closed to the public for 13 years, the building is hosting its first cultural programme under the custodianship of the Glass Castle Foundation. Here, Trent Falls is presented through L-Acoustics’ immersive sound system as part of The Art of Sound programme for the London Design Festival.

Running until 15 September 2026, The Art of Sound also features work by Max Cooper, alongside Hollie Buhagiar’s Lengua Desollada and Helen Lyon’s A Decade Is a Long Time. Both works were created in collaboration with L-Acoustics and the Alliance for Women Film Composers.

Follow the latest from London Design Festival 2026 with our live blog.

Bloomsbury is one of London’s most studious neighbourhoods, with a rich history as the home of writers and thinkers. Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster belonged to the influential Bloomsbury Group, while Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens and Bob Marley all lived in the area at various points.

Russell Square feels like the perfect autumn day all year round. From the historic architecture of Gower Street to the secluded garden squares that offer an escape from the noise of London, its bookish atmosphere brings comfort to the city’s more introverted residents. The latest arrival in the neighbourhood is The Imperial Bloomsbury, a contemporary hotel set just behind Russell Square’s main thoroughfare.

Wallpaper* checks in at The Imperial Bloomsbury, London

What’s on your doorstep?

From the hotel, I recommend strolling to the British Museum. En route, stop at Momo’s Garden Café, a charming coffee stand in Gordon Square serving delicious cakes – its banana bread is particularly good – and a flat white that is actually a flat white. Turn onto Gower Street, admire the Gothic architecture and gargoyles perched above, then continue to Store Street, where you’ll find Treadwell’s, an atmospheric bookshop specialising in magic and witchcraft, before arriving at the museum. For an escape from the tourists, head behind the hotel to Fortitude Bakehouse, an excellent bakery tucked into the mews. From there, follow Marchmont Street past its cafés, restaurants and pubs towards the British Library and King’s Cross station.

Who’s behind the design?

The hotel first opened in 1905, in a building designed by Charles Fitzroy Doll. Architects at Cube Design retained its striking concrete façade while restoring many of its original features. The 357-room hotel now has reimagined interiors by Trevillion Interiors and Keane Brands, conceived as a tribute to the area’s creative spirit.

The building’s Edwardian character is balanced with modernist elements. As the designers at Keane tell Wallpaper*: ‘We avoided recreating a period interior. Instead, we treated the building’s history as a series of layers: its original Edwardian, neo-Gothic character and its later bold modernist architecture.’

They continue: ‘The existing concrete and geometric forms became a “Brutalist canvas”, softened with midcentury furniture, warm textures, seasonal colour and carefully integrated lighting. History therefore informed the design without dictating it. Architectural geometry is echoed subtly in patterns and detailing, while curated artwork and references to Bloomsbury bring a strong sense of place. The result is a contemporary space that respects the building’s past while giving it a fresh identity.’

The room to book

Although every room feels warm and inviting, The Hideaway is the one to book. Its small outdoor terrace features seating and a ‘hidden’ bathtub tucked beneath a pavilion – a playful take on the conventional hotel room. Keane explains that the team sought to soften the building’s concrete character through contrast, introducing natural timber, upholstery and textured fabrics.

‘Curved furniture and organic forms counterbalance the façade’s strong geometry, while planting and layered, golden lighting bring warmth and softness throughout,’ the designers say. ‘The concrete remains an important part of the building’s identity, but these richer, more human materials make the space feel welcoming rather than austere.’

Staying for drinks and dinner?

On the tenth floor, guests will find Arcus, a bar perched high above Bloomsbury. Hotel restaurants can sometimes feel barren, turning dinner into a transactional experience. Arcus is far from that. On our visit, the room was vibrant and busy, set against the London skyline with the BT Tower glowing in the distance. It is difficult for the panoramic view not to become part of the experience. The cocktail list is indulgent, combining original creations with familiar classics. The food menu is light, leaning towards snacks rather than full meals, which suits the setting. Both the steak and the lamb tacos were delicious.

Where to switch off

The gym is generously sized and even has an outdoor terrace where guests can cool down after a session. Fully equipped with Technogym machines, free weights and kettlebells, it is well suited to light resistance training, kettlebell workouts and bodyweight exercises. It is considerably larger than the average hotel gym, although you should not expect to be squatting any PBs.

The Bell Room and Terrace offers another place to unwind over board games, all-day grazing or an intimate conversation. Its name comes from the five bells on the adjoining terrace, which have been a feature of the hotel since it opened. Access is reserved for guests staying in the premium room categories: City, Horizon, Hideaway, Nest and Beacon.

The verdict

The Imperial feels like an escape within the city, which celebrates its context’s rich history while also feeling fresh and relevant.

The Imperial is located at 61, 66 Russell Sq, London WC1B 5BB, United Kingdom

A modern passive house has replaced a tired, existing bungalow in this idyllic spot in a Hertfordshire valley suburb. Welcome to Three Rivers Passive House, the newest residential offering by London-based Gbolade Design Studio.

Explore Three Rivers Passive House by Gbolade Design Studio

The project, a generously sized two-storey, 5005 sq ft home, is entirely newly built. It spans five bedrooms and a lush surrounding garden, which helps negotiate the site's slope - the entry is approached via a steep incline, which helps create an impressive moment as the residence reveals itself from the street.

A simple material palette of Belgian long-format bricks, glazing and smoke grey charred larch cladding makes for an elegant, geometric composition that cuts a contemporary figure among the greenery and surrounding, more conventional homes.

It is a special moment when the American Oak pivot front door, flanked by slender 4.5 m-tall glazing, opens to a striking double-height interior entry hall. This space anchors the home, flooded with light via a large circular rooflight above and leading to a central courtyard.

This is 'inspired by the practice’s West African heritage and the client’s desired way of living, which prioritises communal, interdependent and a fluidity of indoor-outdoor connection around multiple habitable spaces,' the architects at the dynamic studio, founded by Tara Gbolade and Lanre Gbolade, explain.

The ground floor has a flowing plan that contains the entrance hall, a gently sunken living space, dining and kitchen space, as well as a gym, a home office, a swimming pool, gym and sauna facilities. Bedrooms and further private areas are located upstairs. Meanwhile, conceived for multi-generational living, the property also includes a ground-floor private senior-living guest suite that can act as a fully independent living unit.

'The project really allowed us to bring a striking and bold vision to life, whilst achieving a home for our client with exceptional sustainable performance levels and regenerative credentials,' says Lanre Gbolade. 'The client’s understanding of the value of architecture, sustainable design and collaborative teamwork made this a genuinely pleasurable project to work on. As a practice, we prioritise a contextually responsive approach to all projects and ensure they give back more than they extract.'

And it is true. Gbolade Design Studio is a deft hand at incorporating environmentally friendly approaches in their designs - delicately and almost imperceptibly. Here, too, they crafted a home that meets RIBA 2030 Climate Challenge embodied carbon and operational energy targets, but is also Net-Zero.

Construction was carried out with off-site manufactured, low-carbon Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) and Glulam superstructure and complementary renewable technologies. The result is a high-performance yet low operational energy home through gestures such as the inclusion of Air Source Heat Pumps, PV panels and biodiversity enrichment through sedum roofs.

gboladedesignstudio.com

The 2026 London Open House Festival is upon us, with over 600 venues opening their doors to visitors from 12-20 September in one of the capital's biggest architectural celebrations. After the event's closing day (it used to last a weekend, then slowly grew to an entire week due to popular demand), things go quiet for a year, until the cycle restarts. And between festivals, not much happens, right? Wrong.

2026 London Open House and its lasting impact

We spoke to Manijeh Verghese, CEO of Open City, the charity that oversees the London Open House happenings – and everything that takes place behind the scenes in the run-up and after. She tells us that, while, of course, the public-facing, now-eight-day festival has a tremendous impact in terms of promoting architecture in the capital and raising awareness by connecting everyone with buildings they might not otherwise have been able to access, there are indeed many more ways the Open House initiative pays off.

'We strongly believe that the Open House Festival changes people’s relationship with specific places and neighbourhoods as well as with other Londoners,' Verghese says. 'In our surveys of visitors, contributors and volunteers after the festival, we often see people reflect on how the festival makes them feel a greater sense of belonging, or more connected to their local area as well as the city as a whole. We enjoy seeing how visitors become volunteers or even contributors over time, and therefore start to influence the many ways in which we can open up and share our city for collective enjoyment. Seventy per cent of visitors to the 2025 festival said that they were accessing all the spaces that they visited for the first time.'

The lasting, less-expected benefits of Open House London

Looking beyond the festival dates, there are lots of anecdotal stories about young people becoming inspired to enter the architecture profession, or members of the public who experience a space that they otherwise wouldn't have, which changes their world view. The idea of togetherness and learning about each other is arguably a great incentive to take part, too. Yet it is not just the visitors who get to feel a positive impact. Participating venues also have a strong benefit, Verghese explains.

'The Festival is a great way for contributors to experiment and pilot how to open up their spaces in new ways to new audiences. For example, this year, the Zaha Hadid Foundation is opening its archive in the old Design Museum building in Shad Thames to the public for the very first time,' she says. 'Similarly, the festival team engages diverse audiences to uphold our values to prioritise access and inclusion for all. Last year, the festival team asked our two young assistant curators – as alumni from the Open City Accelerate programme for 16-18-year-olds from underrepresented backgrounds – to assist us in visiting an important civic building to look at their festival offer in advance and to sense-check how it might be perceived by young people. We offer training focused on inclusion to all contributors to ensure they have the resources and skills to welcome visitors with different needs.'

Festival director Celia Mead also highlights that taking part is a way for organisations to actively demonstrate their civic conscience. The annual survey of the London Open House Festival has shown that among the participants' 'objectives for taking part', the aims of raising awareness, reaching new audiences, and discussing specific issues in architecture or the environment all ranked quite highly, at 63 per cent, 66 per cent and 21 per cent, respectively.

It pays to stick with it too, Verghese says. Long-standing participating venues at Open House London have learned about their own operations over the years at the festival. Feedback from contributors in surveys has helped venues figure out the best way to provide volunteer support, queue management, tours and how best to ensure comfort for visitors and users. Often, the festival becomes an incentive or testing ground for different types of programming within venues, too.

There are lots of stories of participants who feel passionate about the festival, and to unexpected results. 'A favourite story is that of Fabian Watkinson, a musician who has been opening his home in Highgate New Town since 2001,' continues Verghese. 'He thought he would do it for a few years and then everyone would have seen it, but it continues to be extremely popular each year, with his tours getting fully booked in a matter of minutes! Over the years, he has also become an expert on modernist social housing through his tours for Open House visitors and social tenants who are placed in the estate, to give them a sense of pride in their area.'

While you might not think the London Open House Festival is linked to planning decisions or policy changes, there are surprising and impactful benefits for the public in this realm too. Several multi-year partnerships with different London Boroughs through their involvement in the festival were aligned to help them deliver on their cultural strategies.

Verghese highlights: 'Haringey is a great example of a borough where we are not only working with them on the festival but also with a cohort as part of our tour guide training programme, The Golden Key Academy. They have created fully funded places for local people, often community leaders, to train as tour guides and tell new stories about the area. Called the Rebel Guides, they will launch their tours during this year’s festival and will then continue to deliver them next year when Haringey is the London Borough of Culture.'

So, what's in store at the 2026 London Open House Festival?

This year, the festival returns for its 35th edition with quite a few bangers for your to-visit list. The programme contains somewhere between 600 and 700 listings for venues far and wide across the capital. From a sneak peek into the rarely open Zaha Hadid Foundation archive (our October 2026 issue story took the deep dive) to celebrating 40 years since the launch of Richard Rogers Partnership's (and we do not take this word lightly) iconic high-tech architecture at Lloyd's of London in the City, several lesser-known gems and rarely open hits have joined the list of options.

You can tour 10 Downing Street and explore the Barbican Conservatory before it is updated by Harris Bugg Studio; and of course there is a wealth of private homes, innovative and everyday, but all exceptionally designed and worth a browse – whether you are seeking home-improvement inspiration or are simply archi-curious.

'What is great about the festival is that the monumental and civic sit alongside the social, domestic and everyday – reflecting the complex mix of spaces that make up cities. Visitors choose to navigate the programme in a variety of ways, whether that’s through our themed collections, their own unique interests, their immediate neighbourhood, a planned set of visits based on bookings, or [simply] what they can encounter that is available for drop-ins,' says Verghese.

'While the iconic spaces like Lloyds or Downing Street attract large numbers of visitors who want the chance to see inside, popular spaces include private homes, faith and community spaces, as well as open studios for practices where you get a chance to see inside [creatives'] processes and ways of working. New models of social or affordable housing or new ways of living and working together are increasing in popularity, with the festival an ideal way to share these innovative alternatives with a wide audience.'

Manijeh Verghese’s highlights for 2026

Manijeh Verghese picked three favourites from this year's programme. In her words...

Wapping Hydraulic Power Station

'Wapping Hydraulic Power Station is new to the programme this year and provides a rare opportunity to visit London’s last hydraulic power station to be decommissioned. Built in 1890, it has been closed for the last ten years but is now entering a new era under the custodianship of the Glass Castle Foundation, which is transforming it into a centre for experimental arts.'

Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores

'Punchdrunk Enrichment Stores is a unique and immersive theatre space in Wembley that works with families, schools and communities. Tours of the space will showcase the different objects that fill its shelves and discuss how these have been developed with young people in Brent. Unfortunately, this is now fully booked, but you can check out an incredible range of drop-ins in our No Booking Needed collection.'

Humanise Spotters Guide

'As a way to better understand and experience what makes a building interesting, characterful and joyful, the Humanise campaign has created a downloadable, mobile-friendly spotters' guide to invite the public to look more closely and ask questions of our built environment. To test this out, visitors are invited to explore King's Cross, starting at Heatherwick Studio’s Making House and taking in 11 other buildings en route.'

5 Wallpaper* highlights to book for 2026 Open House London

It's nearly impossible to narrow down a nearly 700-item list to just five – if nothing else, because we want to be everywhere and see everything. However, if we really had to, these are five events that feel special within the 2026 Open House London festival programme.

The Lloyd’s Building

Initially criticised for its unusual look, the 14-storey building, designed as the home of insurers Lloyd’s of London, is now a beloved landmark. The project was built as three towers, each with its own service section. They surround a central 60m-high atrium flooded with natural light. The building, in the heart of the City of London is now Grade I listed, described by Historic England as ‘one of the key buildings of the modern epoch’.

Zaha Hadid Foundation

The Zaha Hadid Foundation is entering a bold new era, driven by a visionary director, Aric Chen, who is intent on protecting, preserving and promoting the late, great architect’s legacy. The great architect's archive is housed in the old Design Museum building in Shad Thames and will be open for tours in a rare opportunity to explore the architectural legacy – and personality – of Zaha Hadid.

Barbican Conservatory

In 2025, the Barbican Centre shared proposals for its extensive upcoming renewal project. The project addresses the deteriorating structures – built between 1965 and 1982 – and the brutalist architecture's contemporary issues of accessibility and sustainability. It also looks at public spaces such as the foyers and lakeside terrace, and – excitingly – its eco-brutalist conservatory. London-based Harris Bugg Studio is working on the refresh.

A design tour of Olympia

After five years of construction, the Victorian landmark, West London's Olympia, reimagined as a vibrant cultural hub by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC, is nearly complete. With this tour, you can take a design-led look inside.

The Cloud House

Many private homes are part of the 2026 London Open House programme, and style-wise, there's definitely something for everyone in its listings. If we had to pick one, it might have to be this fluffy-feeling pink home in north London, a new design by architect Peter Morris. The project consists of two semi-detached homes in leafy Hampstead Heath, and it certainly brings a smile to our faces.

The 2026 London Open House Festival runs 12-20 September 2026, book your visit at openhouse.org.uk

London diners have become used to the idea of a sushi-based omakase menu; now this Fitzrovia import – the first European outpost of Ushio Haruyoshi Bettei in Fukuoka on the island of Kyushu – is introducing the capital to multi-course menus of wagyu beef. Put aside any preconceptions of fatty meat, however: the dinner-only restaurant specialises in akami (lean) wagyu rather than heavy marbling. Almost all the meat has been imported from Japan, along with the chefs who grill it and the ceramics it’s served on – not great for air miles, perhaps, but a guarantee of the niche authenticity the restaurant offers.

Wallpaper* dines at Wagyu Yakiniku Ushio, London

The mood: Counter-top cool

The restaurant’s interiors have been modelled on the Fukuoka original, with the best seats arranged around the L-shaped counter behind which the chefs sear and serve, though unless you speak Japanese, don’t expect much in the way of cheffy chat. Not that beef-based banter is the point, says chef-owner Hakusei Chin. ‘At Ushio, we’ve always believed that the quality of the ingredients and the skill of the chef should speak for themselves, so we wanted the space to feel equally calm and focused.’

He’s certainly managed that. All the staff – from the chefs to the saké-pouring sommeliers – are charm itself, while ceramics sourced from Kyushu display the same individual character. A backlit shelf behind the counter carries ceramics from Arita, the Kyushu town where Japan’s first porcelain was fired four centuries ago. Some of it is Ko-Imari, the heavily decorated porcelain that Europe bought by the shipload from the 1600s; some from Lin, a modern range glazed to a metallic finish. Vases holding seasonal flowers come courtesy of ceramicist Taeko Kajihara, who builds her pieces by hand instead of throwing them on a wheel.

‘Rather than expressing Japan through decoration,’ Chin says, ‘we chose to work with natural materials like wood, stone and plaster, and to keep the space as minimal as possible. In doing so, the counter and the act of cooking naturally become the centre of the experience.’ That minimalism extends to the lack of any obvious signage on the exterior, but rest assured that once inside, the experience doesn’t feel in the slightest bit unwelcoming.

The food: Lean cuisine

Each course of beef, whether from an omakase of A5 wagyu, a six-piece tasting selection or the à la carte, arrives with a card with the relevant cut stamped on an illustration of a cow. First comes top blade served sashimi-style, the pink meat lightly scored and faintly marbled; it looks almost like a slice of fatty tuna garnished with a shiso leaf but tastes powerfully and lingeringly of beefy umami.

The rest of the cuts come cooked, treated to the briefest of sears on the grills (‘yakiniku’ means ‘grilled meat’ in Japanese) before being flipped over and plated up. One arrangement features a trio of tongue, tenderloin and kurimi (lean shoulder), simply seasoned with salt; another plate brings top blade lightly glazed with tare. The richest-tasting of all is sirloin seared with sukiyaki marinade and presented with an egg yolk and a dome of steamed rice.

This lighter style of beef, the restaurant claims, is higher in protein and lower in fat than traditional wagyu, with the result common to many omakase meals that you may still be hungry at the end. If you’re feeling peckish, ask for an extra course of Fukuoka-style wagyu curry of slow-cooked beef tendon, its gravy-like sauce scooped up with a wooden spoon – it’s as comfortingly unsophisticated as the rest of the meal has been elegantly refined.

Wagyu Yakiniku Ushio is located at 12 Charlotte Street, London, W1T 2LU, UK.

See more of London's newest restaurant openings.

Zaha Hadid's sudden death at the age of 65, in 2016, was a cruel blow. Having fought so hard for her ideas, she was at the height of her career and had so much more to do. It was an incalculable loss in a world that desperately needs her sense of ambition and visionary thinking. An extraordinary architect and individual, Hadid's personality and professional output are hard to disentangle, and nowhere is this more evident than in her vast archive of drawings, models, furniture, clothing and design tools.

Step inside the Zaha Hadid Foundation and its archive

Her former tutor at the Architectural Association (AA), Rem Koolhaas, famously described her as ‘a planet in her own orbit.' The phrase aptly captures the enormity of her talent and the vivid image of a person who was constantly questioning and creating, in a class of her own. With characteristic foresight, in 2013, Hadid set up the Zaha Hadid Foundation (ZHF) with three main objectives: to support the education of young people in architecture, design and related disciplines; to take care of her archive and collections and produce exhibitions; and to establish or support a permanent museum or gallery. A few months after setting up the ZHF, she bought the site of the former Design Museum at Shad Thames, next to Tower Bridge in London, for approximately £10m. Sadly, she did not live to complete her vision for a museum there, but her team at Zaha Hadid Architects moved the archives and collections to the site in the summer of 2018 to continue the archiving process.

Hadid often seemed to live in a future world, imagining a form of architecture that was well beyond our experience. Indeed, for the first decade of her career, she struggled to find a client who would commit to her bold vision. At the same time, she was a magpie with an avid interest in the world around her. She was fascinated by culture, other architects' work, and the related disciplines of fashion, design and art. She was a keen collector and shopper, who would acquire work by a fashion graduate she had spotted at their catwalk show; or buy the same shoes or garments in several colourways.

For many architects, legacy is about the buildings they leave behind rather than the rolls of drawings and models that gather dust (or the servers full of CAD files, a struggle for museums due to constant software updates). Conventionally, an architect's output becomes part of the built fabric of society, whereas in the case of Hadid, legacy is a broader and more complex subject. There is no doubt that she changed the course of architectural practice. But in the UK – the country she chose to make her home, having grown up in Iraq – her vision was not widely accepted. Despite the advances in design thinking and construction that she led, British architecture largely consists of what her long-term friend and current ZHF trustee, Archigram co-founder Peter Cook, describes as vernacular-inspired, ‘biscuit-coloured' buildings.

During her life, Hadid completed around 35 buildings, alongside pavilions, installations, and design, furniture and fashion projects. Built work includes the Vitra Fire Station (1991) in Weil am Rhein, Phaeno Science Center (2005) in Wolfsburg (both in Germany), MAXXI Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome (2009) and the London Aquatics Centre (2012). More than 35 projects were in progress at the time of her death, including the Port Authority Building in Antwerp and the Mathematics Gallery at London's Science Museum.

Her ideas, particularly research into parametricism, virtual worlds, product design and new materials, continue to be developed by the architectural practice that now operates as ZHA. In June this year, the practice replaced her name following a court case, in which ZHA won the right to terminate the 2014 agreement that committed the company to paying six per cent of its revenue to the ZHF to continue using her name. The ruling and title change mark a new era in the practice's development. The renaming has caused controversy among many of Hadid's loyal followers, but as ZHA principal, Patrik Schumacher, says, ‘Of course, we love Zaha, and we've been working with her, the leadership and myself, for many decades, on these projects, but she's no longer with us – in spirit only – and we have a lot of new projects coming out.'

The court ruling, which came a decade after Hadid's death, also marks a new era for the ZHF under the leadership of architecture and design curator Aric Chen. Since the summer of 2025, Chen has brought a fresh wave of energy, initiating a new brand identity and website by Amsterdam-based design collective Experimental Jetset, as well as a light renovation by Studio KA of the practice's former studio, on Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell, which will become a public architecture centre complete with residency space and room for temporary shows and other programmes. Alongside this, the team is accelerating its work to catalogue and display Hadid's collections and archive, most of which are stored at Shad Thames.

Plans are also coming together for a major retrospective exhibition, aiming to tour Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the US. One of Chen's first moves, just a few months into the job, was to organise regular ‘Guess Who's in Town' evening events, where a mystery architect visiting London is invited to speak to an audience about their work. The sense of fun, informal debate and international glamour of these events seems an appropriate way to honour Hadid's fast-paced life, strong views and global network. Chen acknowledges that the ZHF's two properties need a lot of work, and that it will take time to plan for the future. In the meantime, his aim is for the Clerkenwell studio to provide galleries and education spaces for architectural culture, welcoming the public five days a week.

Chen has been busy creating alliances that reflect the life and work of Hadid. This autumn, to mark the relaunch of the ZHF, the team is planning a two-day, multi-venue symposium. Taking place 30-31 October (the latter being Hadid's birthday), the event will be a collaboration between the ZHF, the AA and the Serpentine, which built one of her first completed buildings, a temporary pavilion in the summer of 2000 (it was also the Serpentine's inaugural pavilion). Chen describes the planned sessions as ranging from ‘scholarship to gossip', looking at influences from the architect's early years in Baghdad and Beirut, through to her student days at the AA, her furniture and product designs, and the broader networks of clients, media and institutions in which she operated.

Over at Shad Thames, the archive is a longer-term project. The building is more than 40 years old and requires repairs. Some are ongoing. When we visit, a bucket positioned below a newly replaced rooflight catches rainwater drips - teething issues with one of the fixes to be done to ensure Hadid's collection, arguably one of the largest and most diverse archives ever created by an architect, has a safe home. The team says it is undertaking further improvements in order to maintain the progress of its inventory.

In Zaha Hadid: Complete Works, published by Thames & Hudson in 2004, US architect Greg Lynn, who taught alongside Hadid at Yale School of Architecture, wrote she ‘has always been at the epicentre of innovation of architectural communication, as well as having one of the strongest creative visions in our field... She combines painting, projective geometry, perspective, model building, computer renderings and smooth curvaceous geometric surfaces into the masses, interiors and structure of her buildings.'

The 2004 publication was a remarkable object in its own right – its red Perspex box contained four hardback volumes, of varying shapes and sizes, which seemed to explode from its sides. Lynn compared Hadid to the Italian Renaissance architect and stage designer Vincenzo Scamozzi and to Inigo Jones, the 17th-century architect, who also designed elaborate stage sets and costumes.

In the early years, Hadid's focus on ‘paper architecture' reinforced her drive to work in different formats, including set design. This work will be the subject of an exhibition at the ZHF in the newly renovated gallery in October. Curated jointly by Libby Sellers and ZHF's Catherine Howe, it will consider how Hadid's architectural language extended into immersive environments for contemporary dance, classical opera and pop music, and will include the Music Video Pavilion in Groningen, Netherlands (1990), which was commissioned for an urban festival promoting the fast-growing music video phenomenon, as well as a set for the Pet Shop Boys' Nightlife world tour (1999-2000).

Hadid's remarkable archive will be the subject of research, speculation and debate for years to come. Chen aims to make the material as accessible to students and scholars as possible, but he also faces a challenge. The ZHF consists of a team of 16, eight of whom are collections and research staff working their way through thousands of items, many of which have not been catalogued. Rolls of drawings are stacked up in tubes, with no detailed inventories. Part of the problem is that, although the entire archive covering the period up to 2016, including paintings, models and Hadid's fashion collection, was transferred from the practice to the ZHF in 2019, the digital transfer of the data, including provenance for objects in the collection, has been complicated.

Because of incompatibility between digital platforms, the ZHF collections and research teams are having to painstakingly retrieve information and add it to a new database. At the time of Hadid's death, the studio had inventorised and assigned unique archive collection numbers to roughly 17,000 objects. Given the scale of the archive and the resources available, many items had not been processed. Since then, the ZHF team has continued the documentation and cataloguing programme, resulting in a rough estimate of approximately 300,000 objects in the collection as a whole.

For Hadid, the collecting and archival process was of fundamental importance, and its origins reflect her holistic design vision. On a personal level, the collection includes her clothes (both those she collected for their design value and those she wore), shoes, handbags and furniture, together with her own designs for shoes, bags and jewellery. There are also folders of receipts from her clothing purchases, carefully put to one side. In her library, architecture books – many of them gifts from friends – sit alongside exhibition and building product catalogues, and copies of her favourite DVDs, including American Gigolo, which she reportedly used to watch on repeat.

Why did she keep all this stuff ? ‘I read into it a kind of sweet sentimentality,' says Chen. ‘She felt deeply about things, and people were important to her.' Many of the objects give an insight into Hadid's personality, and in particular, her playful side. For example, she is pictured on the cover of a publication accompanying her 1989 solo show at Arc en Rêve in Bordeaux, wearing an asymmetrical jacket that she had hand-painted, featuring a single ‘googly eye' tucked into one of its lower corners.

ZHA's head of exhibitions and archive Manon Janssens worked alongside Hadid for more than 20 years and formed a unique insight into her magpie-like ways. ‘The archive was at the centre of her practice. It was never considered a dead repository; it was very much alive and constantly consulted, revisited and used,' she notes. ‘Every detail was important to her, from the clothes she wore to how she lived at home and the office. She never threw anything away. The archive preserves not only the final outcomes but also the evidence of Zaha's creative thinking and development.'

Janssens joined the practice in 2003 as press officer. Hadid was much in demand as a speaker, and the pair often travelled around the world together, with Janssens preparing slides for lectures, responding to press requests and organising press conferences, such as for the Pritzker Prize ceremony at the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg in 2004. At that stage, the archive was recorded on a series of Excel spreadsheets, with items listed mainly if they had been part of exhibitions. There was no full catalogue, but Janssens recalls ‘colourful polaroids glued to boxes to show what was inside'. She says, ‘Zaha would frequently challenge me to locate models or documents at short notice, reinforcing the need for a database that was capable of tracking all things in the archive and its continual growth.'

Janssens left in 2005 for a stint at David Chipperfield Architects, but returned in 2008 to work on the practice's exhibitions, together with Zaha Hadid Design director Woody Yao, and to set up detailed catalogues of its physical and digital assets. These operated as a research tool, while also supporting the regular requests for loans and exhibitions that came from all over the world. Having visited archives at the Tate, Royal Academy, V&A and various global practices, the decision was made to build a bespoke cataloguing system that could deal with specific Hadid requests – for example, automating printing of well-designed product booklets, linking the personal archive to an iPad app, or printing shipping labels.

The bespoke catalogue is still in operation as the brain of the renamed ZHA, but the pre-2016 objects have been physically handed over to the ZHF. While it is understandable that the ZHF chose to adopt a system designed for museum collections (TMS), the bespoke digital platform itself is arguably a Hadid-designed ‘object'. Her dedication to producing such a sophisticated tool reflects the importance of exhibitions to Hadid and the meticulous way she approached them. The system was beautifully designed with graphic icons to symbolise categories of items, and even recorded the clothing Hadid had worn to particular exhibition openings. From 1981 to date, the practice participated in and organised 250 exhibitions, ranging from installations in art galleries and private residences to loans and displays at major retrospective exhibitions, such as those that took place at the Guggenheim in New York (2006), the Design Museum in London (2007), the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (2015), the Palazzo Franchetti in Venice (2016) or, most recently, at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Urban Planning in Shenzhen (2026).

Hadid's creation of the ZHF and her dedication to collecting were part of her commitment to making a better world, and that vision was inseparable from design innovation. The founding document of the charity specifically states that it should ‘advance the public knowledge of modern architecture…and the parametric style.' Today, in the UK at least, parametricism – a style that was synonymous with Hadid – seems out of step with a culture that is more interested in small-scale, artisanal approaches to making buildings. So it seems fair to ask, how will the ZHF be true to Hadid, as well as being, as Chen puts it, ‘relevant to our time'?

Chen believes the notion that Hadid was futuristic is reductive: ‘It relies on a singular notion of what the future looks like,' he says. ‘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.' He chuckles, recalling the famous quote of French philosopher Paul Valéry, ‘The trouble with our times is that the future isn't what it used to be'.

zhfoundation.com

Wallpaper’s 30th-anniversary, October 2026 Guest Editors’ Issue – with guest-edited sections by Es Devlin, Carrie Mae Weems and Palace Skateboards – is available from 3 September, in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper* today

The latest hot ticket to arrive in London is not yet another velvety underground watering hole in the city's centre, but a chic midcentury-style salon for a creative posse. Bar Blondie sits amid the buzz of Queen’s Park’s Lonsdale Road, which has recently seen an influx of mews buildings turned into atmospheric restaurants, including Pyrá and Don’t Tell Dad.

The opening is driven not so much by the rock’n’roll associations of its name as by country-and-western influences and the artistic inclinations of award-winning sommelier Alexandra Price (most recently head of wine at Michelin-starred Plates) and Aussie restaurateur Elliot Milne (founder of Silver Tree Restaurants). The duo collaborated with architecture and design studio Macaulay Sinclair on the charming, intriguing interiors, and with Ryan Stanier, founder of The Other Art Fair, on the engrossing art curation.

Wallpaper* dines at Bar Blondie, London

The mood: Once upon a time in Queen’s Park

Queen’s Park’s rich history of influential creative residents and Lonsdale Road’s recent creative reinvention are palpable in the choices that shaped the interior. The mews’ architectural bones allowed an eccentric country-and-western theme to play alongside the leading idea: an artist’s residence. ‘We used legendary Italian director Sergio Leone, creator of some of the most culturally significant spaghetti westerns of all time, as one of our muses. The name “Blondie” comes from Clint Eastwood’s character in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ says co-founder Elliot Milne.

A sleek bar in stained sapele and burl wood anchors the intimate 45-cover room; its shelves are layered with records, midcentury books, vases and lamps sourced through Vinterior. Bar-stool backrests are upholstered in Nobilis Paris’ golden, cowhide-like Velours Faon, while vintage chrome dining chairs by Gastone Rinaldi – sourced by Milne and reupholstered by Craftwood UK Interiors – sit beside plush banquettes conceived with the ease of a living-room sofa. Country-inflected prints lend the upholstery a homely, slightly raw character.

Macaulay Sinclair worked with LightOn on a scheme combining architectural fixtures with custom dim-to-warm bulbs. ‘Every western saloon has a chandelier, so we found one in Murano glass,’ Milne explains. ‘We also have Murano glass wall lights between the vintage prints.’

Designed by Tateside, the sound system plays a collection of new and second-hand vinyl curated with the help of Audio Gold in north London. Art provides another dimension to the wood-panelled walls: Lucy Robson created the tender commissioned work As Above, So Below, while original spaghetti-western posters came from At the Movies Posters in Marylebone. Among them are a limited-release 1970s Japanese poster for the Dollars Trilogy and two black-and-white photographic stills from the set of For a Few Dollars More, dated 1967.

The food: the best of both worlds

The word ‘bar’ rather undersells the kitchen. Its concise, deftly executed menu draws on head chef Alastair Walling’s background in southern French cuisine and executive chef Alexander Busca’s Italian heritage. A selection of snacks and small plates begins proceedings: Maldon oysters with champagne mignonette; thinly sliced Wagyu bresaola best paired with the house focaccia; and a cherry and pineapple tomato salad with black olive tapenade. It is an unspoken rule that you can judge a restaurant by the quality of its tomatoes. These make a persuasive case.

Handmade on-site each day, pasta acts as the backbone of the menu. Choose between creamy fazzoletti with Devon crab, chilli and lemon, or punchy paccheri alla vodka with ’nduja and pecorino. From the grill, the Provençal-inspired monkfish tail is served with mussels and samphire in a broth sharpened by peppery aïoli. Room for dessert? Don’t miss the red Mayan chocolate mousse with apricot and a gentle drizzle of olive oil.

While the cocktail list covers enduring favourites – namely the Vodka Martini and Venetian Select Spritz – the comprehensive wine list is a love letter to the arts. It opens with a section titled The Writer, celebrating Joan Didion while exploring historic and rare grape varieties, before continuing to The Actor, which champions inventive winemaking and independent producers. The Architect, a nod to Ray Eames, spans classic and contemporary styles, while The Director, inspired by Sergio Leone, spotlights iconic estates and singular cuvées.

Bar Blondie is located at 19-21 Lonsdale Rd, London NW6 6RA, United Kingdom

Nearly a quarter of a century ago, I experienced the late flowering glory of Bristol Cars, an eccentric British manufacturer approaching the end of its first historic epoch. Spun off from the Bristol Aeroplane Company (founded in 1918), Bristol Cars parlayed the inter-war manufacturing experience it had gleaned from making car and bus bodywork into proper automotive manufacturing.

The car division was founded in 1945, with a factory close to Bristol’s aviation works at Filton Airport to the north of the eponymous town. Its first car was effectively a pre-war BMW, the rights to which had previously belonged to Frazer Nash and which were subsequently acquired via the War Reparations Board.

When Bristol Aeroplane started along the long road to becoming a part of British Aerospace, the car maker became independent, ultimately overseen by the inimitable Tony Crook, a leading dealer, racing driver and former Second World War pilot, who took over from the founding White family.

Crook defined Bristol’s character, eccentric, slightly out of time, but plain speaking and wilfully idiosyncratic. Bristol models evolved at a glacial pace, never quite finding the pulse of fashion but often picked by customers with similar anti-establishment views. Above all, they had to be approved by Crook, who ruled from the company’s sole dealership, a wood-panelled period piece beneath an apartment block in London’s West Kensington.

The cars weren’t especially competitive or even attractive once the Type 410 and 411 gave way to the hard-edged Beaufighter, Britannia and Blenheim models of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Nevertheless, they retained a certain je ne sais quoi, with lazy Chrysler V8 engines providing plenty of power. As the new century progressed, the ageing Crook took a step back, but not before the company’s swansong, the V10-powered Bristol Fighter, made its debut.

This was the car I was assigned to drive, with Crook in the passenger seat barking orders and directions. Low and slim like a cigarette boat, with an engine taken from Chrysler’s frankly over-powered and intimidating Viper supercar, the Fighter certainly looked the part, even if the performance claims were somewhat bold. It also wasn't the easiest car for an inexperienced driver to thread through London traffic, especially as it had a towering list price of over £200,000.

The interior was festooned with dials and buttons, and even had controls mounted on the roof and a gauge that showed the total engine running hours, just like in an aircraft. As we drove west out of London, Crook urged me on, all the while extolling the virtues of the narrow body, the copious luggage space and the effortless power.

Top speed was said to be in excess of 200mph, with an even more extreme Fighter T variant offering 250mph-plus. It’s not known if any of the latter were made, for sadly Bristol Cars was on the way out. The company closed its doors in 2011, sold its London showroom and workshop and shuttered the factory in Bristol. Maybe as few as 20 Fighter chassis were ever built, with some sources suggesting less than ten cars were ever completed.

For the past 15 years, the name was in limbo. Crook died in 2014 at the age of 93, not living to see a stalled revival in the shape of the 2016 Bristol Bullet. It was a blank and the name disappeared yet again. However, those familiar with the auto industry’s current fascination with the recent past will know where this story is going, for the Bristol Fighter is back. A full 80 years after the company's first-ever car, it has returned with a continuation series of five ‘new’ Bristol Fighters.

These cars, constructed on unused original chassis, will all be handmade and built to order. Hopefully they'll secure the claimed coveted 210mph top speed once and for all, courtesy of their 8.0-litre V10 engine. The car illustrated here, unveiled at today’s Salon Privé event in Blenheim (2 September 2026), is a showcase for the revival, with impeccable trim and build quality. As before, it’s a strict two-seater, with generous luggage capacity. As before, it remains a powerful GT machine for the discerning individualist.

It’s the first page of a new chapter for the historic brand, revived by new owner and director Paul King with assistance from chairman Richard Hackett – who once worked alongside Crook. ‘Bringing Bristol Cars back is about far more than reviving a name; it is about bringing back the spirit of a marque that has always stood apart,’ says King. ‘We want to honour its heritage while giving Bristol a future that is every bit as distinctive. This is the beginning of Bristol’s return, and there is much more to come.’

For more information, visit Bristol-Cars.co.uk

Dufftown in Moray, Scotland, is considered the ‘malt whisky capital of the world’ and is home to distilleries that date back to the 1800s, including Glenfiddich, Mortlach, and Glendullan. Another among their number, The Balvenie, established in 1892, is underscoring the area’s longstanding whisky heritage as it unveils its 88-year-old Single Malt Scotch Whisky – currently the oldest whisky in the world.

The whisky was distilled in 1931 and bottled in 2019 by Malt Master Kelsey McKechnie (nudging the world’s previous oldest whisky, the Gordon & MacPhail 85-Year-Old Glenlivet, into second place). The new release forms part of the 1931 Collection, which also includes a 15-year-old, made from 100 per cent home-malted and home-grown barley, and a 12-year-old, made from 100 per cent home-malted barley.

To mark the collection, The Balvenie has collaborated with American artist Daniel Arsham on its presentation. The 88-year-old Single Malt Scotch Whisky is presented in ‘a refined hand-blown crystal decanter, reserved for The Balvenie’s most precious liquids,’ Arsham tells Wallpaper*. ‘It features “The Balvenie Ball”, which is inspired by the unique shape of the distillery’s copper stills, a design credited with intensifying the honeyed flavour in their whisky. I designed the bronze sculptural form that surrounds the bottle as a time-worn relic, crafted from eight layers, one for each decade that the liquid spent in cask. The flowing lines circle inwards as though time itself has carved the whisky into view.’

The bottle sits on a discreet bronze plinth set inside the sculpture, and within this, Arsham explains, there is a piece of copper (crafted from a piece of decommissioned still) that acts as a certificate of authenticity. The artist also designed the packaging for the two other whiskies in the collection, so there’s a continuous design language across all three releases.

Handwritten archives show that 1931 was a defining year for The Balvenie, seeing the opening of the company’s Home Malt Floor (where grain is germinated as part of the 'malting' process). On 5 March that year, what would eventually become the new 88-year-old – made using barley malted in the new facility – was poured into a European oak sherry butt sourced from Jerez in Spain. In the distillery’s warehouse, the liquid was tended by generations. Until, in 2019, the Balvenie’s current malt master, Kelsey McKechnie, intuitively recognised that it had come of age.

Designing a vessel for the landmark new whisky while nodding to the years of history was no easy feat, as Arsham explained: ‘Much of my work explores time, material transformation and the histories that objects carry. I wanted to create something that feels both ancient and contemporary, to make the passage of time tangible. It’s a huge privilege to be invited to be part of something so old and at the same time, so significant.

‘There are many layers of history, material, and craftsmanship within this whisky and the sculpture needed to contain those ideas while still feeling like a singular object. Ultimately, the materials became a way to tell the story; each element carries a different expression of time.’

Just 17 bottles of the 88-year-old whisky exist, with the tasting notes referencing honey and a subtle mint leaf and buttery fudge, along with floral heather tones and worn leather.

Arsham concludes, ‘Time is revered at The Balvenie; its unhurried approach to whisky-making combined with patience and skill has allowed this whisky to reach an unprecedented age. I wanted to convey the preciousness of the liquid; the bottle sits in the centre like a relic uncovered. I also wanted to express the distillery’s rich materiality. The sculpture is made from bronze, an alloy of copper, and evokes a feeling of permanence.

‘The passing of time is represented by a green distressed patina, mirroring the natural ageing process and the oxidisation that happens to copper over time. You can see this colour in the distillery’s spirit safe. Then there’s the wood that plays such an important role in the maturation process – I’ve referenced this on the back of the sculpture. I love the idea that something can evolve over decades while remaining true to its essence; I hope I’ve captured a little of that in the design.’

The Balvenie will partner with Frieze Seoul to debut the 1931 Collection through an immersive, sensorial performance, directed by Daniel Arsham.

thebalvenie.com

If you don’t know how to pronounce Leominster, the historic market town in Herefordshire, England, you’d be forgiven. It’s pronounced Lem-ster, a fact that swiftly differentiates out-of-towners from locals. Another thing you might not know? That Leominster (population: 12,000) is home to a significant collection of medieval and Tudor buildings, some dating back to the 12th-century.

While Leominster may not have the star power of other historic towns in the UK, one local preservation architect is spotlighting the town’s architectural heritage, one viral video at a time.

Earlier this month, Christian Montez, founder of the firm Montez Architects, decided to spotlight Leominster’s lesser-known architectural treasures on Instagram with a silly ditty. In the resulting video, photos of Leominster's unsung medieval and Tudor elements – corbels, bargeboards, mullions, finials – flash by in an absurdist sequence, set to a bouncy tune.

To the architect’s surprise, the video has racked up more than 2 million views since Montez uploaded it to Instagram on 20 August. ‘I'm like, what on earth? Like, do people really want to see a silly video about bargeboards and finials?’ Montez, 39, tells Wallpaper*.

Montez decided to run with the theme. Next came a whistle stop tour of Leominster via classical column orders; an explainer on astragals; and a spotlight on breastsummers.

It’s all in an effort to spark pride in Leominster’s architectural heritage, an asset Montez recognised when he moved to the town nearly three years ago to base his practice, which specialises in restoring ancient buildings ranging from castles to timber-framed Tudors.

‘The whole town's basically built on a medieval footprint, and it became incredibly lucrative for the production of wool. You can probably find every element of architectural styles from the 12th-century onwards,’ Montez explains. ‘The reason stuff survives here is lack of money, so people haven't changed things. If we were in the southeast, every building would have been done up in the ‘60s. Everything would have been lost.’

That curiosity has resulted in a personal research project and website, Leominster Heritage. Montez hopes that by combining local lore, alongside centuries-old maps, modern surveys and cutting-edge technology like drone scanning, he can work with the community to help better understand the town’s history.

‘The thing that really excites me – what brought me to this area– is that it’s all still here to discover,’ Montez says.

Social media is a vehicle to help bring visibility to Leominster’s heritage, and Montez hopes he can partner with local groups, like Leominster Heritage Guides, an organization that provides walking tours, to further engage locals and out-of-town visitors.

The architect recalls, ‘‘If someone asked on Facebook, “What’s the best thing about Leominster,”? The response would be like, “leaving.” We've got problems like most towns. It's just about trying to get everyone together and excited.’

Montez is encouraged by the global interest in the architecture videos, and plans to further expand the Leominster Heritage website. More ditties are to come, he promises: ‘I've got an audience now, so the Pandora's box is open and everyone's going to have to listen to what rubbish is in my brain.’

It’s all go on Sloane Square: hot on the heels of Martino’s in the old Hugo Boss site, Clare Smyth’s Corenucopia round the corner on Holbein Place and a new pub from the Walmer Castle team opening in autumn comes this first international outpost of La Nouvelle Garde. The brasserie group has 10 Insta-friendly restaurants in its native France, including five in Paris and another five stretching from Lille to Marseille (Brasserie Bellanger, near the Gare du Nord, is excellent before a trip home on Eurostar). In true brasserie style, Olivia is open for everything from breakfast to a post-theatre nightcap after the Royal Court.

Wallpaper* dines at Brasserie Olivia, London

The mood: Cross-channel glamour

First impressions of the space (the old David Mellor cutlery showroom) are Gallic all the way, with a plant-strewn pavement terrace outside and checkerboard tiling within. Mirrors and Murano-style chandeliers soften the light pouring in through wraparound windows, while vintage posters and South of France postcards line the walls.

But co-founder Charles Perez has taken inspiration from the English, too, looking to the sort of grand Riviera hotels beloved of the holidaying aristocracy in the 1920s. Brits abroad, this is very much not, however. ‘The intention was to capture the energy and sophistication of that era through a contemporary lens, rather than recreating a period interior,’ says Mark Bithrey, founder of B3 Designers, the London-based studio responsible for the look of eight of Nouvelle Garde’s previous restaurants. ‘Textiles from Pierre Frey introduce layers of colour, texture and character, helping to create an environment that feels richly layered and distinctly French without becoming nostalgic or overly themed.’

The food: Brasserie classics done right

Head chef Rachide Sambu Baldé has a CV that takes in everything from old-school French (Galvin La Chapelle) to modern fine-dining (The Five Fields). But in the best brasserie tradition, this is not a kitchen focused on the creativity of the chef but on a menu of tried-and-tested brasserie classics that must come out right every time to have any chance of repeat custom.

In that, Brasserie Olivia succeeds. There are gougères full of gooey Parmesan, a garden-fresh plate of crudités to dip into salsa verde, butter-soft brandy-marinated foie gras, and bavette steak cooked rare with a mound of crisp, salty frites. Seafood is taken care of at an oyster counter for shellfish shucked to order and lobster tanks from which to select one’s own crustacean before having it anointed with garlic butter. The crêpe Suzette might not be quite as silkily luxurious as the one served at The Ritz, but it costs a sixth of the price. Spend any saved pennies sampling over 20 wines by the glass on a decent value all-French list.

But possibly the Frenchest thing of all is that dogs are made to feel very welcome – pack your Bichon Frisé in your chicest Chanel handbag.

Brasserie Olivia is located at 1 Sloane Square, London SW1W 8EE, United Kingdom

Turkey’s Cup of Joy has chosen Marylebone for its first address abroad. Founded in Istanbul’s Bebek neighbourhood in 2013, the speciality coffee and bakery brand now operates eight cafés across Turkey. Its London site occupies two floors on Blandford Street, opposite Jikoni, with coffee, pastries and an all-day menu served within an interior by EBBA Architects.

Wallpaper* visits Cup of Joy coffee shop, London

The mood: Istanbul in clay and stone

EBBA founder Benni Allan travelled across Istanbul while developing the project, visiting Cup of Joy’s existing cafés and studying the city’s stone walls, recessed openings and shaded courtyards. These architectural qualities informed the construction of the London interior. As such, clay plaster covers the ground floor and continues into the stairwell. Large pieces of Portland stone occupy the lower sections of the walls, with smaller fragments appearing higher up.

The studio selected and positioned each piece on site before applying the clay around its edges. The surface has the irregular composition of old masonry, though its form is distinctly contemporary. A continuous datum establishes a clear scale across the room. Within the thick walls, oak-lined recesses contain benches, retail displays, a water fountain and small seating areas. The oak bar sits diagonally across the ground floor, with tables and other custom furniture aligned to the same angle.

Timber and opaque glass panels cover the ceiling, producing an even, ambient light across the clay surfaces. The effect suits a room intended for both early coffee and long lunches, without exposing diners to the glare of individual spotlights. Woodblock flooring extends across both storeys, while a terracotta-concrete staircase with a matching steel frame connects them. Downstairs, clay plaster covers the ceiling and oak panelling lines the walls, creating a smaller, closely enclosed dining room.

The food: Coffee, eggs and Aleppo pepper butter

Cup of Joy’s house blend combines sustainably sourced Arabica beans from El Salvador, Brazil and Colombia, with flavours of dark chocolate, orange and hazelnut. Coffee is served in one-off ceramic cups made by co-founder and self-taught ceramicist Gökçe Kalyoncu. Their uneven profiles and glazed surfaces introduce a small element of variation to the daily flat white.

The all-day menu includes a bagel filled with feta and heirloom tomatoes, pistachio porridge, toasties and salads. Eggs Istanbul are finished with Aleppo pepper butter – a nod to the brand’s Turkish beginnings. For something sweet, Baba Au Tea consists of poppy-seed sponge soaked in orange rooibos syrup and topped with whipped cream.

Cup of Joy is located at 28 Blandford Street, Marylebone, London W1U 4BZ, United Kingdom

London-based studio Templeton Ford joins the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026, our round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios from around the world.

Who: Templeton Ford

Templeton Ford is an architecture and design studio founded in 2025 by André and Jessica Templeton Ford. The practice designs distinctive homes and buildings that are rooted in their landscape, history and culture. Their work draws on vernacular architecture and craft traditions. The team enjoy working on projects that feel inseparable from their setting: buildings that could only ever have been built where they are.

'We are interested in architecture that reveals itself gradually: buildings whose qualities emerge and evolve through daily use,’ they explain. The duo wants to create architecture that is memorable, rewarding to inhabit and deeply connected to its place.

Aside from their interest in place and materiality – working particularly with timber, brick, stone and lime that weather and age to create unique patinas, Templeton Ford also wants its buildings to be expressive and joyful, and to create places with a distinct sense of character that enliven everyday life. This often results in work that looks unexpected, yet entirely natural in its setting – as if it had always been there. 'We are inspired by the tradition of the Gesamtkunstwerk – the idea that architecture, interiors, landscape, furniture and craft can be conceived as parts of a coherent whole.'

What: Clay Rise

Clay Rise is a three-bedroom home in West Sussex completed in 2024 that balances heritage and contemporary architectural expression by using traditional Sussex brick and a distinctive curved sloping roofline. The house is constructed from a prefabricated panelised timber frame system and is embedded deep into the site to establish a split-level arrangement. This has the dual effect of creating a deeper slope to the rear, creating a dramatic curved form.

The building is oriented to optimise solar gain and shading, with a deep south-facing window allowing low winter sun to penetrate, while limiting summer overheating. Effective cross-ventilation is achieved via operable east-west openings, and a central stair atrium acts as a thermal chimney, drawing warm air upward to maintain comfort year-round. An air-source heat pump provides efficient heating and hot water, complemented by high levels of insulation and double-glazing.

Why: Architects Directory 2026

When the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory was conceived in 2000, it was built as our bespoke international index of emerging architectural talent. Now in its 25th edition, our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe (now comprising over 500 alumni) champions the best and most promising young studios – a snapshot of talent showcasing inspiring work from all corners of the Earth with an emphasis on the residential realm.

This year’s anniversary survey includes 30 young studios (one for each of the 30 years of Wallpaper*), from Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Ghana, Greece, France, Ivory Coast, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, India, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam. Welcome to the promise, ideas and exciting architecture of the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026.

templetonford.com

An ivory trunk cinched with navy and cobalt straps, its shell crowded with old airline stickers. An orange case bearing a jumble of destination labels. A powder-blue suitcase with coral corners and wheels. Together, they form Globe-Trotter’s second Renewed Collection (available 3pm BST today, 27 August).

Globe-Trotter makes a case for luggage with a past

This is the latest release under The Restoration Edit, the British brand’s programme for returning used cases to service. Its first drop sold out shortly after launch. For round two, another selection has passed through Globe-Trotter’s Hertfordshire workshop, where artisans have repaired each piece by hand. Handles, locks and structural elements are brought back into working order, while scuffs, softened leather and fading labels are left intact.

The cases’ survival owes much to the original construction. Globe-Trotter has made its cases from vulcanised fibreboard since its foundation in 1897, reinforcing them with vegetable-tanned leather and assembling them by hand. Its Hertfordshire production still employs manufacturing methods and machinery dating to the Victorian era. Restoration belongs to that same system: the shell can be repaired, components replaced, and the object sent back into use.

The visual friction is, arguably, the collection’s draw. Fresh straps sit against mottled corners; restored fittings share space with decals collected in transit. The colour combinations can be eccentric: blush-pink belts cross cream fibreboard, a green-handled wardrobe trunk opens onto dense florals, and coral corners punctuate a powder-blue shell. Each suitcase retains Globe-Trotter’s character, with colours and wear that exist as a one-off combination.

Later in 2026, Globe-Trotter will follow the Renewed Collection with The Archive, a second strand of the project built around historic cases drawn from the company’s own holdings. Each will be restored individually and presented as a collectable work.

The second drop of The Renewed Collection launches exclusively at globe-trotter.com at 3 pm BST today (27 August 2026).

London-based studio Farid Karim joins the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026, our latest annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios from around the world.

Who: Farid Karim

Farid Karim founded his namesake studio in 2021 in London, working at the intersections of art, architecture and design. For Farid Karim Design, the name of the game is to go beyond functional problem-solving for its clients, motivated by the belief that ‘everyday buildings should be capable of enriching daily life through atmosphere, craft and delight.’

The practice creates spaces with ‘strong identities that emerge from close collaboration with clients, careful attention to context and a deep engagement with materials’. Be it a residential or a retail interior, the goal for the studio is always to produce timeless environments that feel deeply personal and distinctive to their clients.

The biggest influence on the practice is the relationship between architecture and craft, drawing inspiration from art deco, modernist interiors, traditional craftsmanship and contemporary art. The studio is also fascinated by contemporary manufacturing techniques, joinery, metalwork, and upholstery, which often act as a point of departure in the early design stages.

Karim’s interdisciplinary approach is further exemplified by an active artistic practice maintained alongside the studio, with work exhibited at past Royal Academy Summer Exhibitions as well as other independent shows. This combination of architecture, art and design informs a creative philosophy that strongly values spatial experience and material expression.

What: Deco House

Deco House is a London project that eschews the more subdued, contemporary extension styles of terraced homes in favour of a bold, neo-art-deco-inspired design full of character. The design increases the original floor plan from around 100 sq m to 170 sq m through the loft extensions, rear ground-floor addition and summer outhouse, as well as a reconfiguration of space internally. Drawing on art deco references, the extension plays with colour, texture and materiality, from glazed ceramic tiles and brass fixtures to timber finishes complemented by marble worktops, creating a warm, cohesive finish.

The landscape of the garden also plays a role in the extension, with an existing koi pond being integrated into the design as well as the circular summer house used as a home office. This project is an exemplar of Farid Karim Design’s interest in ‘how materials age, how light interacts with surfaces and how carefully considered details can enrich everyday life’.

Why: Architects Directory 2026

When the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory was conceived in 2000, it was built as our bespoke international index of emerging architectural talent. Now in its 25th edition, our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe (now comprising over 500 alumni) champions the best and most promising young studios - a snapshot of talent showcasing inspiring work from all corners of the Earth with an emphasis on the residential realm.

This year’s anniversary survey includes 30 young studios (one for each of the 30 years of Wallpaper*), from Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Ghana, Greece, France, Ivory Coast, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, India, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam. Welcome to the promise, ideas and exciting architecture of the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026.

faridkarimdesign.com

Stepping inside this north London apartment, you would be forgiven for thinking it is the very chic home of a gallerist or design enthusiast – and in a sense, it is. Yet Apartment 21 is much more than that, explains its author, London architecture practice Piercy&Co. The space, a residential unit in Kentish Town, is used as a private gallery, a guest residence, as well as a three-dimensional, full-sized showcase of the studio's approach to interiors and how they affect our everyday lives.

Step inside Piercy&Co’s London Apartment 21

The space, a one-bedroom interior in a 1930s former technical college building, belonged to a gallerist and was used as their residence when the practice's founder, architect Stuart Piercy, first spotted it. When it came on the market, he snapped it up, aiming to transform it into a craft-rich, spatial experiment and a domestic extension to the main studio's space for the business's guests and activities.

Piercy&Co is no stranger to creating finely tuned interiors – as shown by projects such as its One Triton Square. At Apartment 21, Piercy and Fiona Neil, the firm's director and head of interiors, developed the interior as more than a functional living space, they explain. It was conceived to be an opportunity for in-person 'hosting, gathering and collaboration'.

It was all about calibrating the interiors for an experience that feels organic but also subtly dramatic. A dark-painted corridor, a curved wall, a circular cutout on a wooden partition (created by Piercy&Co's long-term collaborator and timber specialist, Benchmark, no less) are all gestures that elevate the compact space to a truly refined moment.

Piercy says: 'I’ve never believed scale changes the intensity of the question. A tower has to meet the ground the way a handle has to meet a hand – with the same sense of connection, the same care for how a hand rests, a body turns, a pause. Apartment 21 is really about sharing food and conversation, but also experiments in furniture, mood and comfort.'

Custom-designed pieces by the studio in collaboration with Benchmark are made of British ash and elm and are scattered throughout. They are complemented by wool rugs, natural fibre upholstery and linen curtains. Architectural lighting by P&S Labs illuminates the interior.

'Apartment 21 is not a traditional project with a linear timeline of concept, build, photograph and leave,' Neil says. 'Here, the concept phase never really ended; it's a space in continual evolution. In a way, the whole point of Apartment 21 is that it's forever in the concept phase – we test, we trial objects and experiment with finishes. This is where the hosting component of the space is very important to us.'

‘Neuroaesthetics and the psychological and physiological effects spaces have on us lie at the core of our interiors studio – so having the opportunity to witness the effects of experimenting with the compression and expansion of volumes, or the response to natural materials and/or playing with spatial perception, all feeds back into the studio’s work.

‘It took a while to reflect on what Apartment 21 is really about – a lot was instinctive and conversational. But I think it is essentially about creating space to hold the ephemeral: whether that is changing patterns of light, a breeze that billows curtains or the hum of conversations, shared meals and the exchange of ideas.’

piercyandco.com

Nestled in a verdant pocket of central London, a small yet perfectly formed minimalist structure peeks out from its leafy environs. Welcome to Finsbury Circus Parks Office, the new structure conceived to support the care and maintenance of its namesake park and the wider borough's public realm planting.

Explore the Finsbury Circus Parks Office

The building is the creation of London practice Studio Weave, an architecture firm known for its sensitive as well as playful approach to context and history – past examples include a Maida Vale public toilet created using recycled stone.

In the case of the Finsbury Circus Parks Office, architect and Studio Weave director JJ Cliff said: 'Our buildings sit most comfortably when they understand the role they serve within their wider setting. At Finsbury Circus, the Parks Office emerges quietly from the landscape, affording places to perch and shelter in the spirit of generosity that supports both human and non-human life in the city.'

The structure replaced an existing, older building on site, which was no longer fit for purpose. The new design contains a kitchenette/sitting room, a toilet, a wet room for washing and cleaning equipment, storage for tools and equipment, and a hub for electronics – as well as secure outdoor space for more storage.

The Finsbury Circus Parks Office's earthy feel is reinforced by the building's natural stone and clay render cladding. These materials offer a 'bold simplicity' and 'rawness', the architecture team explains. A base of Kentish Ragstone anchors the structure to the ground. Meanwhile, a gentle curve in the volume helps it softy intergrate with the surroundings.

Cliff continues: 'The City of London Corporation understands the value of long-term stewardship of public space, and it has been a pleasure to work with a client that champions this way of thinking in both architecture and landscape. This project continues a series of collaborations between the City and Studio Weave, alongside landscape architects and horticulturists including Tom Stuart-Smith at Bank Junction, Tom Massey at Jubilee Gardens, and Realm, here at Finsbury Circus.

'We look forward to seeing the Parks Office become a welcoming base for the City Gardens team as they care for the critical green spaces, whose health will be vital in helping our cities adapt to climate change.'

studioweave.com

London-based studio Pensaer makes it into the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026, our latest annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios.

Who: Pensaer

Pensaer is the Welsh word for ‘lead craftsperson’, which seemed a suitable fit for architect Rhys Howell Owen when he founded his firm in 2020. Staying true to its name, Pensaer creates architecture that is rooted in making, skill, and material understanding.

Pensaer focuses on a collaborative approach, working with skilled makers and craftspeople to make every space seem effortless and memorable. ‘At the beginning of every project, we ask our clients a question: “What is your architecture?”’, explains Howell Owen. ‘It’s not something most people expect to be asked, and often the answer isn’t clear straight away. That’s exactly the point. The question opens up a conversation about how someone lives, what they value, what materials they are drawn to, and what kind of spaces feel right for them.’

From here, the project becomes a journey of exploration. The practice enjoys brainstorming and planning until the result feels inevitable, as the solution is gradually excavated through the process. ‘It’s rarely something we could have predicted at the start. This shared discovery means we can look back on our projects and see the client’s personalities within them,’ shares Howell Owen.

What: Clay House

In London’s Peckham Rye, Clay House boasts a new extension that balances natural elements and sculptural detailing. Pensaer collaborated closely with the sustainability-conscious client to create a residence where the owner's personality and desire to create a ‘warm and welcoming’ feeling are felt throughout.

The studio leaned towards a muted colour palette of warm oak joinery and concrete flooring. The skylight fitted above the kitchen filters light throughout the space, dappling the walls. The smooth joinery here extends to an angular window seat, a perfect alcove in which to sit, unwind and feel connected to the garden.

‘Even though we work as architects, we think a lot about how things are actually made,’ explains Howell Owens. ‘We’re interested in the intelligence that exists in craft, particularly in materials and techniques, as well as in the experience of the people who work with their hands every day.'

He continues: 'A small adjustment suggested by a craftsperson, or a new way of working with a material, can completely shift the direction of a design.’

The extension was designed to provide multiple pockets in which to linger and relax as you move through the house. Every finish or detail offers a reminder of the craftsmanship that makes Clay House a soothing urban haven.

Why: Architects Directory 2026

When the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory was conceived in 2000, it was built as our bespoke international index of emerging architectural talent. Now in its 25th edition, our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe (now comprising over 500 alumni) champions the best and most promising young studios - a snapshot of talent showcasing inspiring work from all corners of the Earth with an emphasis on the residential realm.

This year’s anniversary survey includes 30 young studios (one for each of the 30 years of Wallpaper*), from Australia, Bahrain, Benin, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Ghana, Greece, France, Ivory Coast, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, India, Morocco, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam. Welcome to the promise, ideas and exciting architecture of the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2026.

Pensaer.london

The V&A is celebrating the 80th anniversary of Freddie Mercury’s birth with a free exhibition tracing the singer’s style evolution.

Created together with Mary Austin, Mercury’s former fiancée and friend of 20 years, ‘Splendid Things’ unites eight famous looks Mercury wore in music videos and for performances throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Costumes and accessories include the monochrome outfit Mercury wore on the cover of Queen’s debut album in 1973, the ‘Mercury Wing’ catsuit designed by Wendy de Smet worn in the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ video and the crown and cloak designed by Diana Moseley, worn for his last stage appearance with Queen at Knebworth, in 1986.

Austin, who has lent seven of the eight looks to the V&A for the exhibition, emphasises the key role clothes held in Mercury’s exploration as an artist. ‘As we celebrate Freddie’s legacy in what would have been his 80th year, the clothes and costumes to be displayed at the V&A tell a hugely important part of his story both on and off the stage,’ she says. ‘Never mere accoutrements, his costumes and clothes were essential to his performances, creative vision, and wider self-expression, carefully designed to create a lasting visual and emotional impact that has reached across the generations and still reverberates today.’

It is an appropriate tribute to Mercury, who delighted in beauty and had a passion for art, design and fashion, remarking in 1978, ‘I like to be surrounded by splendid things. I want to lead a Victorian life surrounded by exquisite clutter.’

'Freddie Mercury | Splendid Things' will be at the V&A in London from 24 October 2026 – 17 January 2027, across the museum’s permanent galleries, and will be free to visit

vam.ac.uk

This Italian seafood specialist began life on Milan’s Via Savona in 2007 before expanding to two further sites in Italy’s fashion and design capital, then opening outposts in the favoured grazing spots of the international jet-set: the Cheval Blanc Paris; Porto Cervo on Sardinia and Paraggi Bay on the Italian Riviera; a mountaintop in St Moritz. Now it’s arrived at The OWO, the former Old War Office reborn as a Raffles hotel, but with its own dedicated entrance on Whitehall Place so you never feel like you’re actually in a hotel. It’s proved to be an instant hit with London’s Italian expats; needless to say, you should dress up as if for Milan Fashion Week when dining here.

Wallpaper* dines at Langosteria London

The mood: Whitehall’s Italian job

Italian architect Carlo Samarati was also behind the look of the Langosterias in Milan and Paraggi and died before he completed the London outpost, with Thirtyone Design + Management as project architect. The group’s founder, Enrico Buonocore, describes Samarati as ‘a dear friend of mine whose untimely passing left a deep void,’ though Langosteria London stands as a fitting tribute.

A travertine and Italian walnut counter in the bar sets the tone, with bottle-green Verde Alpi marble floors flowing through into the more casual of the two dining rooms, with alcove seating along one side and a wine wall dividing the space from the Historical Room beyond. This is the former meeting room of the Old War Office, where original stone fireplaces and stucco ceilings contrast with hand-painted, hand-embroidered silk wallcoverings by Misha. Guests sit on custom-made chairs by Medea and dine at Molteni tables, flatteringly lit by bespoke Venini lamps.

‘We wanted to respect the architecture of the Old War Office while injecting it with a sense of Italian hospitality and effortless elegance,’ Buonocore says. ‘The core intention was to marry the excellence of Italian design with Britain’s majestic historical legacy.’

The food: A taste of Milan

While the menu features classic Italian fish and seafood of fritto misto and sea bass in a salt crust, the kitchen goes beyond the familiar with signature dishes imported from Milan: chateaubriand of black grouper, say, or orecchiette damare, a dish so well-timed it is almost impossible to differentiate between the springy texture of the sautéed seafood and the al dente pasta.

It is simple cooking constructed from high-quality Italian ingredients – Sicilian langoustine, Mediterranean yellowtail – and presented with a creative flourish. A carpaccio of tonno rosso has ruby-fleshed tuna sliced into ribbons and folded like the petals of a rose, with an almost liquid centre of candied tomato and basil. The Sardinian speciality of Mazzancolle prawns ‘alla catalana’ has a pair of fat pink prawns on a bed of Camone tomato, celery and red onion: an eye-catchingly alluring assembly of fresh, vivid flavours and vibrant colours.

Finish with a wobbly tiramisu; its creaminess is more at the macchiato than espresso end of the coffee spectrum. For something equally sweet but with considerably more kick, order a Prince Alfonso, an in-house cocktail creation that combines Zacapa 23 rum with Dubonnet and aged cherry: truly the cherry on top of a very glamorous cake.

Langosteria London is located at Whitehall Place, London SW1A 2BD, United Kingdom

How ultra-processed is the built world around us? The answer, for now at least, is very.

Highly manufactured building materials, many of them chemically engineered, reign supreme in modern construction. From our homes and offices to schools and hospitals, we are surrounded by polymers, sealants, adhesives and synthetic composites.

What is ultra-processed architecture?

The result? Often, a homogeneous, mass-produced design with an unhealthy side of toxicity. 'We are, quite literally, living in a plastic world,' says Gina Ciganik, chief executive of Habitable, an organisation focused on reducing the use of hazardous chemicals in building products. 'We need to start thinking a lot more about what we are surrounding ourselves with and breathing in. With 2.5 trillion sq ft of real estate projected to be built by 2060, the materials we choose going forward really matter.'

Thankfully, a shift is underway. Just as we are becoming more aware of the detrimental effects of ultra-processed food on our bodies and minds, so are we beginning to question our exposure to highly processed – and potentially toxic - materials in our buildings. 'We are starting to understand that making our buildings, spaces and places healthier is the most important thing we can do for our health and the health of our families and children,' says Carrie Denning Jackson, head of innovation and technology at US developer Jamestown and founder of Places as Medicine, an organisation dedicated to creating healthier places and spaces.

Buildings represent 'one of the greatest public health opportunities of this century,' says Harvard University’s Healthy Buildings Program director Joseph Allen. And that opportunity stretches beyond improving our physical health. Many architects believe that a shift towards using more natural, and often less uniform, materials will also lead to longer-lasting, more sustainable spaces where people feel more emotionally connected to the world around them.

For Robert Douge, co-founder of architectural practice Arya Douge, creating low-tox homes and buildings is about more than just reducing exposure to VOCs, the volatile organic compounds found in highly processed building materials. It’s about originality. 'At a time of digital saturation and AI-generated perfection, people want real, natural materials,' he says. 'The market has become saturated with cheap, accessible, ultra-processed fakes. A porcelain tile that has been mass-produced in a factory might look flawless, but it’s not real. A piece of marble straight out of the quarry with a unique imperfection is yours, and yours alone.'

'One of the best tapware suppliers we work with, Studio Ore, specialises in unpatinated finishes. The taps are left to age and patina, so everyone gets a very high-quality tap but, by virtue of how you use it and where it is, six months into owning that tap, it will be different to any other in the world.'

It was this pursuit of the unique that saw homeowners Emma Trachtenberg and Edward Pearse Wheatley turn to reclaimed materials and one-off finishes during the redevelopment of their Victorian terraced house in north-west London. Among their finds were an original butcher’s block, repurposed as a kitchen island, and hand-poured bathroom tiles.

Such a vehement quest for individuality is what Sam Pye, creative director of architectural studio Echlin London, tries to instil in his clients. 'Take kitchen surfaces,' he says. 'People are often warned against marble because it stains. But think of it like a leather wallet. The first mark will bother you the most, but then the stains become part of your story. Do you want your island unit to look box-fresh in ten years? Or do you want those red wine and lemon juice stains to remind you of the life you have lived?'

Not that marble is the only option. At The Dairy, a residential scheme in Notting Hill that has seen the redevelopment of a 19th-century working dairy into eight homes, Echlin used leathered rather than polished Taj Mahal quartzite - a more practical, but still 100% natural, choice of stone.

It’s the replicas, says Pye, the heavy lacquers and high-gloss finishes, that bring chemicals and toxins into a building. That and mass-produced joinery, adds Olga Turner-Baker, managing director and co-founder of Ekkist, a design consultancy specialising in health and well-being in buildings. 'Composite joinery is wood pulp mixed with glue and sealants,' she says. 'Chewed up, wrapped wood products full of chemicals.'

At Pensaer, an architectural practice focused on the process of making, natural materials are used not only for their health benefits but because they age well. 'Rather than introducing unnecessary synthetic layers, we allow materials to weather and develop character over time,' says head of studio Paula Morgan. Internal clay render was used alongside the existing brickwork at Ashbourne Grove, a home in London’s East Dulwich, to naturally regulate humidity and at Casino Avenue in Southwark, the practice used raw materials at touch points, including a salvaged stone countertop.

None of this is easy, of course. 'Natural materials are regularly value engineered out of projects due to higher costs,' says Jamestown’s Denning Jackson. 'And we still don’t know the durability of some of these materials. We used cork in one project that started bubbling, so we had to fix that and then educate the installers on how best to work with the material to avoid it happening again. This is all challenging stuff, but experimentation is at the heart of change and innovation.'

Matt Hobbs, founder and chief executive of Copper Beech, a global advisory and operating partner specialising in the design and development of private members clubs, adds that a move away from ultra-processed materials in commercial spaces, just as much as homes, is no passing fad. “Sourcing healthy materials for members’ clubs now is as important as sourcing healthy foods. Clubs need to align with members’ values. A sense of place reflected in local stone, timber and the work of local artisans is something even big players like Six Senses are using in their designs. There is nothing flighty about this; these are long-term values, and architectural decisions really do matter.”

And the use of natural materials is successfully shifting perceptions around what constitutes a healthy building, even in highly regulated spaces. At the New Velindre Cancer Centre in Wales, natural, anti-fungal materials help to improve the health of the building’s end-users. 'The heart of the building is mass timber, and in the patient areas we have made the walls out of hemp and lime render, which are all naturally anti-bacterial,' says Christian Dimbleby, head of sustainability at White Arkitekter. 'They are also breathable, so toxins naturally escape. We came up against standards written for modern materials and had to prove that traditional, natural materials are suitable in healthcare settings. We are pushing boundaries to show that if you use unprocessed materials, you are reducing the risk of unknown chemicals and toxins. We want the general public to know that.'

We have the technology, the machinery and the processes to create flawless replicas at pace. But the tide looks set to finally be turning.

There are few hotels that are as much a part of London’s story as The Savoy. For more than 135 years, its guest book has been a who’s who of the world’s most celebrated artists, actors and musicians, from Claude Monet and Frank Sinatra to Marilyn Monroe, all the while setting standards with innovations like electric lighting, 24-hour room service and Britain’s first electric hotel lifts – today’s famous Red Lift – where nervous guests were once offered smelling salts before stepping inside. Now marking a new chapter, London-based hospitality design studio GA has carefully reimagined the hotel’s Edwardian and Art Deco interiors with a lighter palette, bespoke British craftsmanship and modern-day comforts, while preserving the character that has made The Savoy one of the capital’s best-loved landmarks.

Wallpaper* checks in at The Savoy, London

What’s on your doorstep?

Set between the Strand and the River Thames, The Savoy puts much of London within walking distance. Covent Garden is just around the corner, the West End’s theatres are minutes away while the Southbank Centre, Tate Modern and the National Theatre are just a stroll across Waterloo bridge, which also has some of the city’s finest views. Somerset House, Trafalgar Square, St James’s and Mayfair are all within easy reach too, making it easy to spend the day gallery hopping, shopping and exploring London’s historic streets. Be sure to make use of the concierge, who are at hand to unlock everything from sought-after restaurant tables to theatre tickets.

Who is behind the design?

The work of hospitality design studio GA, the Edwardian rooms have been refreshed with warm silvers, ivory silks, marble and antique brass, accented with ochre and amber tones, while the Art Deco rooms embrace richer shades of the hotel’s signature green alongside polished finishes and subtle geometric detailing inspired by the glamour of the 1920s. Throughout, original architectural features, including fireplaces and intricate cornicing, have been carefully restored, while bespoke furniture, artworks inspired by the neighbouring Savoy Theatre and an emphasis on British craftsmanship preserve the hotel’s heritage while bringing it firmly into the 21st century.

The room to book

Thanks to the hotel’s overhaul, all of the rooms are worth booking, but from the window seat of the Grand River View Suite, it’s easy to lose yourself watching London go by. Here, the updated Edwardian interiors bring a lighter, more refined feel to the room that, together with spectacular views of the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and the Thames, makes staying in just as appealing as heading out. Amenities including Penhaligon bathroom toiletries, yoga mats and colour-changing vanity mirrors come standard, but guests in the River Suites get access to the dedicated butler services as well as use of the house car.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Surrounded by some of London’s best restaurants, including the recently relaunched Simpson’s in the Strand, there are plenty of reasons to eat out. Yet dining has been central to The Savoy ever since the hotel set new standards for fine dining and service that would shape luxury hotels to come. Today, breakfast is served in the recently redesigned Gallery, where curved banquette seating, Murano glass chandeliers and a soft palette of greens, creams and blush tones create an elegant backdrop for classic dishes from Omelette Arnold Bennett to Grilled Kippers.

Later in the day, The River Restaurant, with its Thames views, offers an approachable British seafood menu where the fish and chips are difficult to pass up. Elsewhere, Savoy Grill continues its long tradition of British and French classics, while Restaurant 1890 offers a more intimate Michelin-starred experience. Before leaving, it’s worth finding time for a cocktail at the legendary American Bar or the black-and-gold Beaufort Bar, two of London’s great hotel drinking destinations.

Where to switch off

The spa and wellness facilities may not be the main reason for staying at The Savoy, but they’re a welcome retreat after a day exploring London. At its centre is a beautiful heated swimming pool, set beneath a glass atrium that fills the space with natural light, alongside a sauna, steam room and well-equipped gym. Meanwhile, a rotating programme of visiting wellness brands, offers everything from massages to Natura Bissé bespoke facials including the Citrus Ultimate Essence Radiance.

The verdict

It would have been easy for the refurbishment to dilute what has made The Savoy so special for more than a century, but the refreshed rooms have preserved the hotel’s character while elevating the experience for the next generation of guests.

The Savoy is located at Strand, London WC2R 0EZ, United Kingdom

Man Hon Luk founded Vinyl Pimp, the second-hand record shop that was a second home for London’s DJ community, in 2007, making him an east London scenester long before he was a chef. His cooking conversion came at a poker tournament in Austin in 2021 when he ate at the now Michelin-starred InterStellar BBQ, where pitmaster John Bates introduced him to the ceremony of Texan smoking. After training Stateside in the art of low-and-slow, Luk brought his newly acquired skills back to pop-ups in London, then a two-year residency at All My Friends in Hackney Wick – and now, following a £36k crowdfunder, this permanent home above Crate Brewery.

Wallpaper* dines at Hon’s BBQ, London

The mood: Hong Kong in Hackney Wick

Luk designed the first-floor room himself, taking as twin inspirations his Hong Kong heritage and the Hackney Wick music scene. A liberal use of red takes care of the Hong Kong half: ‘vivid, energising and a direct nod to Chinese culture,’ Luk says. The pinwheel-patterned tables and bar stools are custom pieces by his friend, the Chinese designer Mo Tong; the chairs and lighting in the private dining room are handmade by furniture and interior designer David B Ross at his workshop on Hackney Road. Other pieces have been recycled or repurposed from the site’s previous occupant Silo as a tribute to that restaurant’s zero-waste ethos.

As for the music, that’s covered by speakers hand-built by Noise Control Audio in south-west France. The company was founded by veterans of Nineties rave sound systems Spiral Tribe and Bedlam, and its kit has since been put to work at Glastonbury, Notting Hill Carnival and the Roundhouse. DJs and live performances are promised further down the line, with the room shifting from restaurant to music-led bar after the last food orders at 9.30 pm.

The operation splits between ‘the smoke’ and ‘the serve’, with the meat spending up to 12 hours in the outdoor smoker before being butchered and carved inside at an open kitchen encircled by a chrome counter.

‘That openness is very true to how Texas barbecue is meant to feel,’ Luk says, ‘nothing hidden, everything ritual. The red and the repurposed materials tie back to the Chinese and Asian flavours running through the menu, so the room and the food are telling the same story.’ Are you sitting comfortably?

The food: Chinese cooking, right on cue

Imagine all your favourite meat dishes from the Chinese repertoire, exposed to the smoke of a Texan barbecue pit. The idea is to order meat by the gram, though be aware that Luk arrives at the restaurant every morning at 5 am to start smoking, and when each meat is gone for the day, that’s it – so pre-order when you book a table, or eat early and finish the evening with drinks outside on the towpath terrace at Crate.

The small-plates format means that two people could pretty much work their way through the entire menu, though if you’re not so hungry, the one must-order is the beef short ribs with Sichuan peppercorn sauce, the fall-off-the-bone meat encased in a caramelised, chilli-spiked crust, any leftover sauce doing double duty as a dressing to drizzle over beef-dripping fried rice.

Other smokin’-hot hits include bite-sized cubes of Taiwanese pork belly, the fattiness of the melt-in-the-mouth meat cut through with wedges of fermented radish, ox cheek made woozily aromatic with five-spice, and deeply flavoured duck that is far better than the rather stiff pancakes it comes with. The ultimate Chinese-American mash-up, however, is the mac and cheese, for which it is the highest compliment to say that it tastes as it came out of a packet, if that packet also contained springy cubes of smoked lap cheong sausage.

Vegetarians get braised tofu, a tomato and melon salad and cauliflower with smoked corn sauce – but really, you’re in the wrong restaurant.

Hon’s BBQ is located on the first floor of Unit 7, The White Building, Queen’s Yard, London E9 5EN, United Kingdom

The Architecture Association (AA) has unveiled to the public its Department of Tropical Architecture Archive – an extensive, fascinating and important digital platform documenting projects, pedagogies and legacies springing from its historical namesake academic division, which showcases the powerful impact the department's graduates had in shaping global architecture.

Discover the AA’s fascinating and important Tropical Architecture Archive

A significant research undertaking of over two and a half years, the project traces a range of personal and collective geographies from 540 AA alumni, spanning individual and institutional levels, internationally. The result is impressive. The archive digitised and now makes available myriad drawings, photographs and other media that were previously inaccessible – either in private hands or personal, family collections.

Of the archival holdings, the school has in its possession a large proportion of the work of its founding director, Dr Otto Koenigsberger, from 1957-71. This includes everything from his own student work under the tutelage of German architect Bruno Taut in the 1930s to his role as federal director of housing in India from 1948-51. In these archival drawings, one can trace the department's early pedagogical focus, which centred on climatic concerns such as orientation, aspect and topography.

Projects such as his Maas Family Summer House (1927) appear attuned to their landscape. Archival images show a large roof, spacious verandas and a robust, deep construction that responded spatially to site and setting.

Later projects by Koenigsberger in India, in his role as director of housing, show an attempt to adapt this language towards developing a contextual response to different climates. The Central College for Women, Nagpur (1940) shows an arrangement of rooms planned around a central courtyard, with deep reveals and overhangs to mediate the southern sun. Other projects in Mysore for the TIFR experimental building show experiments with louvred façade systems designed to mitigate heat and dust – an overtly modernist international style adapted to suit local site conditions.

These experiments are further evident in the archival teaching material, which highlights a concern around elements such as wind direction, soil make-up and sun-path diagrams. There is an analytical rigour to understanding place, and it is not hard to imagine how such a focus might have influenced some of the department's most renowned alumni, including 20th-century architecture critic Kenneth Frampton, known for coining the term ‘Contextual Modernism’ – modernism that responds to the specific conditions of place.

Although the department initially attracted a largely European cohort, many of whom looked to develop an understanding of climate-led design within newly independent nations as fertile ground in a limited postwar European context, this was subverted in later years. The department slowly established a strong identity and undertook an influx of professionals from over 80 countries outside Europe.

Archival entries include individuals such as artist, photographer and architect Maath Al Alousi (Baghdad, 1963-1964), who joined the department while working in the Ministry for Housing in Baghdad, and studied to develop an understanding of building construction with specific applications to an arid climate.

Projects developed on his return show meaningful engagement with context, using familiar local vernacular and reinterpreting this towards a version of Iranian modernism. Completing a range of civic and private projects in Baghdad across many different scales, his work deploys the same recognisable values taught at the department – namely, leading design solutions with an understanding of local microclimates.

Meanwhile, Indian architects, such as Ashok Behari Lall (1969-1970), joined the programme aiming to understand the use of locally sourced natural materials. On returning to India, Behari Lall completed the Institute of Rural Research and Development (IRRAD) in Gurgaon, where local stones, including granite and sandstone, are recycled to keep the project’s embodied energy to a minimum. The project also uses design strategies that maximise reliance on natural daylight, passive air ventilation, and an organic continuity between interior spaces and outdoor courtyards.

The AA's Department of Tropical Architecture Archive is now live, but it remains an important work in progress for the renowned London school. ‘There is still plenty more mapping to be done, to visualise the networks of institutions and practices which interacted with the Department… The traces of empire are everywhere,’ explains Edward Bottoms, head of archives at the Architecture Association.

‘What we want to do is to carry on documenting, and to utilise this as an open and equitable source, a live receptacle. We look forward to the research that will come out of this as an extraordinary resource to researchers,’ adds AA director Ingrid Schroder.

aaschool.ac.uk

In 2023, Broadwick Soho, a Martin Brudnizki-designed hotel, arrived on the corner of Broadwick Street and Berwick Street in London’s Soho with pink elephants on the façade, a rooftop bar upstairs and Italian restaurant Dear Jackie below ground as its red-roomed heart. Now, one of its central characters is being recast.

Beefbar gives Broadwick Soho a carnivorous new chapter

This autumn, Monaco-born Beefbar will move into the fun-loving property, taking over Dear Jackie’s subterranean space and ground-floor sister bar, Bar Jackie. The new address, Beefbar at Dear Jackie, opens on 10 September 2026 with bespoke interiors and a redesigned terrace for day-to-night dining by Brudnizki – very useful in a neighbourhood where lunch has a habit of becoming last orders.

Founded in Monte Carlo in 2005 by Riccardo Giraudi, Beefbar has built its name by giving the steakhouse a Riviera-infused new identity: think prized cuts, glossy rooms, a bit of theatre, and enough international appeal to carry it to Paris, Milan, Mykonos, New York and beyond. The new Soho outpost will become its UK flagship, following the brand’s Chelsea opening.

Giraudi says he wanted Beefbar’s new UK home to have ‘real soul’, adding that Dear Jackie gives the team ‘freedom to be playful with the menu’. Broadwick Soho’s managing director Joshua Gardner puts it in typically Soho terms: ‘We don’t take ourselves too seriously, but we care enormously about every detail.’

The menu will centre on Japanese Kobe, Australian Wagyu and Beefbar’s signature sauce, alongside London-only dishes including Wagyu shepherd’s pie and a truffle-laced Cordon Bleu.

Broadwick Soho is located at 20 Broadwick St, London W1F 8HT, United Kingdom

The newest residential project by Stylus Architects offers another take on the classic Victorian terraced house extension. The London-based architects, recently featured for their Green Lodge project in Roehampton, turned their hand to another south London site, this time in an awkwardly shaped back garden plot.

Discover this ingenious London house extension

The clients called for a larger, more inclusive kitchen space, one that integrated better with the rear garden and brought light deeper into the traditional long floorplan. As the architects note, the existing house posed a challenge, for ‘no wall meets another at 90 degrees’. Rather than straighten up the lines, Stylus delved deeper into the angles, using the tapering form of the floor plan to maximise the sense of space. A new faceted brick garden façade amplifies the irregularities.

‘Etta House isn't a project about unusual geometry,’ explains architect Matthew Withers. ‘Geometry was simply the tool. By listening carefully to the site, every design decision, from the overall plan to the smallest brick detail, became part of one coherent architectural idea. The design is sophisticated. But the experience is simple.’

In many respects, the project is a straightforward one, especially in London where the Victorian terrace has proved an adept and flexible staging ground on which to expand, extend and alter. What sets Etta House apart is the way the new addition feels like a cohesive whole, a natural extension of the original structure that also has the character of a standalone pavilion.

The wedge-shaped floor plan flares out towards the modest London garden and the architects have ensured that the alignments of walls, windows and rooflights follows the established lines. One of the stand-out features is the ribbon of rooflight above the kitchen counters, running the full length of the extension and terminating above the opening into the front reception rooms.

Brick is also used on the interior, with chalk grey bricks and lime pointing creating a softer light. They’re paired with off-white plaster walls, timber floors and ribbed wood joinery on the kitchen. Deep green cupboards provide a splash of natural colour.

At the rear, the garden façade is formed by two angled brick blades, one housing an inset bifold door that opens onto the decking and the other framing a tall glass window that aligns with the rooflight. The walls are set slightly apart by a brick or two, creating depth, shadow and a bold sense of form.

To ensure this geometric precision is maintained down to the millimetre, Stylus set out drawings for the rear brickwork, as well as commissioned bespoke bricks, so that the edges were crisp and not interrupted by joints. The absence of any 90-degree angles is keenly felt but used to the project’s advantage.

StylusArchitects.co.uk

Bookending the new London Olympia development is the Hyatt Regency London Olympia. The hotel is housed within an old car park originally built in 1937, which featured a double-ramp system to handle growing automobile traffic. Now a west London hotel, the building still champions the early modernist style of architect Joseph Emberton, but integrates contemporary functionality into its interiors. The Hyatt Regency London Olympia is an ideally located respite, with access to live music, museums, and parks just a stone's throw away.

Wallpaper* checks in at Hyatt Regency London Olympia

What’s on your doorstep?

Emerging from the Kensington Olympia overground station, the Hyatt Regency London Olympia greets visitors with its curved glass facade. The west London hotel is set within the £1.3 billion Olympia regeneration; its modus operandi is a stylish hotel of convenience and efficiency. With swift connections to central London and Heathrow Airport, visitors can also amble to Holland Park, Kensington Palace, the Design Museum and the Natural History Museum.

Who’s behind the design?

Design studio Twenty2degrees was behind the design of the 204-room property. Creative director Joe Stella and his team wanted to create a space which felt calm and unfussy, sprinkled with Art Deco touches. ‘We are always interpretive when drawing on design influences, rather than literal. The carpets in the guestrooms are designed with striations of contemporary colour, supporting the hotel's contemporary aesthetic while subtly reinforcing the wider narrative,’ Stella explains.

Materiality plays a central part in the design. Steelworks such as brushed brass-framed reeded glass panels are found in public areas. Furniture was rounded at corners and columns ribbed to soften the space and nod to the Art Deco era.

The room to book

There are three suites and 11 room types; each feels fresh and crisp. Each room showcases fluid and curvaceous architectural form. The Regency Executive Suite with a terrace offers London views, a dedicated work area, and living space for longer stays.

However, the hotel’s King Bed Deluxe room is equally relaxing and a perfect place to unwind after a day of exploring. In the rooms, guests may spot visual codes which nod to rock artists who have performed at Olympia, including Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Chemical Brothers.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

What is refreshing about Hyatt Regency London Olympia is its adjoining restaurant, Idalia. Although accessible via the hotel lobby, the restaurant also stands alone with its own entrance, terrace and grand high-ceiling entrance. What usually fades into a hotel’s framework, Idalia stands out. It is found on the ground floor of the Grade II* listed Pillar Hall.

The cuisine is Asian meets European influences. Start with the Korean fried Gochujang chicken thigh with Siracha mayonnaise, and the burrata with broad bean pesto and pine nut crumb (I recommend asking for extra bread). Skip the lobster linguine and instead go for the miso-crusted black cod, with bok choi, chilli and spring onion, and pair it with beef tallow chunky chips and grilled purple sprouting broccoli. The cocktails are fun and delicious, but be warned it's sugar-coated glass gets quite sticky. Inside, marvel at the historic architecture but avert your eyes from large busts with synthetic pink wigs and plastic vegetation.

Where to switch off

Guests can find a dedicated fitness centre for those who find being active a good way to unwind. Otherwise, enjoy the public area, which is cozy and snug. Says Stella, ‘The design narrative is powerfully present from the moment guests arrive, but it doesn’t overwhelm, and there is so much for guests to discover on their repeat stays’.

The verdict

The Hyatt Regency London Olympia was designed for comfort and ease, which is exactly what it provides. It acts as an unfussy base to retreat to after exploring Olympia, London’s new cultural and lifestyle hub.

Hyatt Regency London Olympia is located at 7 Olympia Way, London W14 0EY, United Kingdom

Heinrich Simon’s famous 1874 saying, 'There is no such thing as bad weather, there are only good clothes,' rings true for those living in or visiting Scotland. It also resonates with the aptly named architecture studio Dress for the Weather, which has recently transformed a stone-built Victorian schoolhouse into Island Cottage, a contemporary family home.

Inside Island Cottage, a redesigned Victorian schoolhouse

Nestled on an island on Scotland’s west coast, the old former schoolhouse building contained the teacher’s quarters downstairs and a classroom upstairs. Now, the new layout features three bedrooms and an extension, with views over the sea to the Kintyre Peninsula and Arran.

‘The client had originally conceived the project as a rear extension to the cottage; but seeing the rear (and I’d say main) facade of the cottage for the first time, it was clear to me that we needed to work with it,’ explains project architect Matt McKenna. ‘The views out to the west from the site then determined the orientation for the extension. So, the existing site had already sort of determined the main moves. This then gave us the courtyard space that we have now, formed by both the historic and new facades.’

The home has an L-shaped plan. The existing stone facade has been restored with a new slate roof installed. The extension comprises a timber frame with large, glazed openings framing the expansive vista.

Inside, the bedrooms and bathrooms can be found in the original cottage, while communal living spaces are located in the extension. A new entrance area has been integrated, highlighting the exposed stone of the cottage and acting as a bridge between the old and the new.

‘The weathered timber cladding and stonework have helped give a neutral tone to the building, which sits well within the colourful landscape,’ notes the architect.

The residence is an example of how a design can champion both what was there before and what is on site now. Says McKenna, ‘ Whether you're in the hall where the gable of the cottage is exposed internally, or in the courtyard where we’ve tried to keep the composition equal, the overall experience is enhanced by bringing the old and new together. This gives the project a balance.‘

dressfortheweather.co.uk

Unplugged understands that one of modern travel’s greatest luxuries is being unreachable. Since 2020, the UK’s original off-grid cabin escape has built its offer around three-night digital detoxes, placing solar-powered cabins within easy reach of major cities and asking guests to lock away their phones, abandon Wi-Fi and return to older forms of entertainment: books, maps, board games...

Unplugged introduces its first seafront cabins

Its latest move takes that idea to the coast. Barclay and Wilfred, the brand’s first seafront cabins, sit in Porlock, Somerset, high above the water with open views towards the sea. The blueprint remains familiar – compact timber cabin, phone lockbox, an emergency Nokia, hot shower, log burner, Piglet in Bed linen, books, games and instant camera – but the setting shifts the mood entirely.

Barclay is the harder-earned arrival, reached by a steep drive and a hike up to the cabin, with views over the coastline and shore once you reach the top. Wilfred offers its own approach through Exmoor National Park, with the option of taking the UK’s steepest A-road before arriving at views of the Celtic Sea. Both are dog-friendly, fully enclosed and designed in-house for one or two guests.

The surrounding area is equally enticing: pebble beaches at Porlock and Bossington, a wood-fired barrel sauna by the water, Exmoor walks at Heddon’s Mouth and the Valley of Rocks, seaside pubs, tea rooms and dinner at Locanda on the Weir, where the menu is built around local and foraged ingredients.

All escapes are for minimum three nights, with stays starting from £540 per cabin.

unplugged.rest

Camilla Meshiea and Ryan Sheehan’s Counter 71 earned a loyal following in Shoreditch for its intimate chef’s table format. Now the pair have reimagined the venue as Appalachia, drawing on the culinary traditions of America’s eastern mountain range. This time, it’s personal: Meshiea’s mother’s family settled in Georgia before working their way west to Nebraska, while Sheehan’s Irish family put down roots in Savannah, where Meshiea and Sheehan later met and married. The space has been refreshed rather than rebuilt, with chef Ali Borer, formerly of Smoking Goat, brought in to lead the refocused kitchen.

Wallpaper* dines at Appalachia, London

The mood: A home from home

Meshiea says that the vibe at Appalachia should feel like she’s throwing a party for her customers – which means ‘flattering lighting and a room a little too small for the head count’. Extra covers have been created thanks to new countertops hewn from the same marble as the original counter now running along the windowsills, with flip-out stools squeezed in to make the most of the room. ‘At our launch parties, we could already feel the dynamic shift,’ Meshiea says. ‘Staff had to wiggle through a tighter space, and everyone felt a kinetic energy bristling in the crowd.’

The fast turnaround between Counter 71 and Appalachia was necessarily short to limit the time the restaurant was closed. ‘Independent restaurants like ours are a dying breed,’ Meshiea says, ‘so we’ve had to be inventive. Our design inspiration is informed by wanting our passion and personalisation to be palpable to customers. Ryan did a lot of the building work himself, so brings that sense of home and community to the space.’

Much of the art on the walls has come from the couple’s own home in Fulham: in the downstairs bar, Water Water is by painter Betsy Cain, a connection made through Meshiea’s friend Susan Laney of Laney Contemporary in Savannah, while Migration, upstairs, is by another Savannah-based friend, artist Lisa Watson. A giant textured mirror, meanwhile, also from the couple’s home, suggests mountainous topography. ‘I wanted the sense of Appalachia as a theme or concept to feel present only obliquely,’ Meshiea says.

The food: Fire and fusion

Borer’s cooking brings together the disparate strands of Appalachian culinary tradition forged from centuries of immigration and fuses them with fire-led, Thai-influenced technique. The result is a melting pot of American, European and Asian influences, which might result in anything from a curried crab omelette with chilli, ginger and seaweed butter sauce to a smoked pork chop with spiced collard greens, with sophisticated touches elevating the homely preparations: the butter-brined half chicken comes with miso grits and black pepper gravy.

With Sheehan in charge of the basement bar, called Lowcountry, the drinks here are as important as the food. Meshiea describes her husband as an encyclopaedia of bourbon, and the bar houses a collection of rare bourbons and rye whiskies. But there are contemporary takes on the American classics, too: try a banana pudding Sazerac, made with brown-butter-washed rye, vanilla rum, banana liqueur, absinthe and Peychaud’s Bitters – though not, perhaps, matched to the banana pudding choux bun on the dessert menu. You can have too much of a good thing, after all.

Appalachia is located at 71 Nile St, London, N1 7RD, United Kingdom

A Welsh cottage, White Breakers, has been reimagined for the 21st century, courtesy of London-based architecture studio Unknown Works. The aim was to redesign an existing single-storey house on the edge of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park to improve both functionality and sustainable architecture – and to do so in the 'stealthiest' way possible.

Explore this reimagined Welsh cottage

The house offers long views of the Irish Sea and features large windows that bring in the natural vistas in all the main spaces. The architects sought to enhance this, implementing a muted colour palette inside and out, with dark colours outside and bright whites and timber accents inside. The slick look achieved makes the house discreet as well as warm and sophisticated.

Energy efficiency was a huge priority for the team and its client. Ensuring a low carbon footprint, both in terms of construction and the home's eventual habitation and operation, informed many of the design decisions. Keeping things nature-friendly was also crucial. A bat box was installed on the building's exterior, for example.

The clients, a pair of creatives with a main base in London’s Notting Hill, are a long-term Unknown Works collaborator – their London home was the practice’s first completed project, in 2016. This allowed the team to have flowing, in-depth discussions, working through the elements of the structure that needed updating and the best ways forward in each case.

It was ‘a bit of a Frankenstein building’, says Unknown Works director Kaowen Ho. ‘It was typically energy inefficient, like so many properties of its era, built with ad hoc extensions and very little thought given to the lifecycle of the building or how it might be used in the future, let alone sustainability or biodiversity. The house also showed signs of water ingress, thermal bridging and damp, amongst other critical construction flaws, whilst the interior was a warren of small spaces with no sensible layout or flow.

‘Overall, this is a stealthy, subtle and restrained design,’ he adds, ‘with the low-slung black, even brutal, exterior giving way to a very soft and bright interior, offering the warmth and welcome of a proper family home.’

unknown.works

It's been a busy summer for eyewear brand Cubitts. Following hot on the heels of The Yard – the brand's sprawling new headquarters and optical manufactory in King’s Cross, London – on 30 July 2026 it opens its first Manchester shop, concluding a decade-long search for the perfect property.

Welcome to Cubitts Manchester

Located at 16 Smithfield Buildings in the city's Northern Quarter, it occupies part of the building that was formerly Affleck & Brown – a department store that operated from the 1860s until its closure in 1973 and was coined the 'Harrods of the North'.

For more than a century, cloth was sold here by the yard and garments were made to measure. In the same space, Cubitts will now measure, fit, adjust and repair spectacles – it's an accidental parallel but one that the brand enjoys.

'We wanted to be in the Northern Quarter, but only if we could find a building with the history and character to justify our arrival,' says Tom Broughton, who founded Cubitts in 2013. 'Smithfield Buildings felt immediately right: a spectacle shop inside a former draper’s department store, in a neighbourhood shaped by making, music and independent trade.'

As Cubitts grows – Manchester is its 21st shop worldwide and 19th in the UK – Broughton understands the importance of creating retail spaces that have a clear brand DNA, while also reflecting their unique surroundings.

'Each Cubitts store tries to belong to its neighbourhood,' Broughton tells Wallpaper*. 'We start with the building, the street and the people who give the area its character, rather than imposing the same design everywhere. What ties them together is “precision with soul”: precision because optics is technical, exacting and important; soul because it is ultimately deeply human too. While each site is different, each tries to be the antithesis of a clinical optician.'

In Manchester, the interiors come courtesy of local studio Youth – the designers behind the recently opened Cotswolds hotel Hyll – who wanted to create a space that respects the building's past but reflects the city's future.

'Having grown up creatively and professionally in Manchester, we have always been conscious of how the city represents itself through design,' the studio's co-founder Liam McGroarty told Wallpaper*. 'Too often, Manchester is defined by familiar, clichéd references to its musical and industrial past, which can limit how its future is imagined. Our approach for Cubitts was to create a space that reflects where the city is going: confident, progressive and culturally relevant, while reinterpreting its history through a contemporary lens that feels relevant to the people shaping the city today.'

In the store, this translates as precise steelwork and rain-textured glass display units that sit in deliberate contrast to the unrefined finish of the surrounding plaster walls. 'The crafted metalwork reframes the city’s industrial heritage in a contemporary way, while reflecting the precision of the Cubitts brand,' explains McGroarty.

Made to display up to 72 optical frames and sunglasses, the display case's textured glass platforms cast broken, watery shadows beneath the spotlights. Echoing this theme of contrasts, sleek steel-frames wrap the hand-dimpled mirrors, which return a deliberately imperfect reflection.

Elsewhere, divided by waxed-cotton curtains, there is a dedicated repairs desk, an optometric room and a bespoke consultation area – all services that are traditionally relegated to back-of-shop but here, like at Cubitts’ King’s Cross HQ, are made visible. At the heart of the space, a faceted oak counter acts as a social focal point designed to be gathered around rather than a transactional barrier. A turntable is integrated into the joinery, introducing a subtle musical reference that also creates an opportunity to engage with neighbouring record stores.

To make the store feel collected rather than decorated, the team sourced artworks and objects that reflect traditions of tailoring, industry, modernism and close manual work. An original painting by Francis Hoyland depicts a seamstress at work, while a Cubist gouache by Marcel Gille shows a forge worker. A pair of modernist sandstone figures by sculptor Richard Perry sit in front of a speaker, while a vintage revolving bookcase – originally made by Manchester cabinetmakers Goodall, Lamb and Heighway using timber salvaged from HMS Foudroyant – holds a selection of publications from Manchester’s The Modernist.

'It was important that Cubitts Manchester was designed in Manchester, and not just deposited here,' reflects Broughton. 'The result is thoughtful, industrial and warm, with references to the city embedded in its materials, objects and music rather than announced from the walls.'

We spend nearly a third of our life working. And if you consider that we spend around a third of our life sleeping, then it adds up that we spend less time with our families and on leisure pursuits than we do taking meetings, drawing up spreadsheets, balancing books or operating machinery. So, in an ideal world, this place that you spend so much time in should have its pleasurable moments.

New Balance felt the same way when it commissioned a garden for its UK headquarters. This tranquil new outdoor space, named the Flimby Garden, is located alongside the American footwear brand’s Cumbria factory, and has been designed as a place exclusively for its 300-odd employees to step away from the cacophonous production floor and spend time immersed in nature.

Step into the New Balance garden in Cumbria

This is more than just a landscape project. A significant number of scientific studies have highlighted how green spaces in the workplace can lead to a significant reduction in stress levels, a boost in creativity and productivity, and even enhanced cognitive function, and the garden is a reflection of New Balance’s longstanding belief that exceptional craftsmanship begins with keeping the people that make its products happy. As one of the few global footwear brands to maintain domestic manufacturing in both the UK and the US, New Balance continues to invest in the factories, communities and skilled makers that define its legacy, and the garden is a lasting symbol of that commitment, offering employees a dedicated restorative space for resting, reflecting and connecting.

The garden’s creator is Bleue Wickham-Burnham, founder of London-based jewellery brand Bleue Burnham. A jewellery designer may seem an unusual choice for such a project, but Wickham-Burnham had already been talking with the brand about other collaborations when a conversation unearthed that he was also an enthusiastic amateur gardener and keen to try his hand on a more professional plane. The passion had blossomed in his late teens growing up in East Sussex and is evident in his jewellery output, which is heavily influenced by horticulture and the natural world.

Echoing the surrounding landscape of the Lake District, the garden features gently undulating flower beds, pockets of water and flowering cherry trees, as well as seating areas, communal gathering points and customised multicoloured bird boxes. Taking inspiration from the bold New Perennial block plantings of designers such as Piet Oudolf and cottage garden styles such as those at Great Dixter and Sissinghurst, alongside pre-Raphaelite floral renderings and 17th-century topiary, the Flimby garden is filled with varieties that include roses, peonies, anemones, foxgloves and lilies, and is already a much loved haven for local birds, bees and other wildlife (a stoat family being regular visitors), as well as for the factory’s employees, some of whom participated in the planting.

‘It was both a privilege and an honour to have been entrusted with designing a garden for New Balance,’ says Wickham-Burnham. ‘The project gave us the opportunity to explore how our design language and philosophy could interact with garden design, creating a space that is playful in its design, while encouraging moments of pause, connection and joy throughout the working day.’

To coincide with the garden’s opening, New Balance and Bleue Burnham have also produced a documentary-style film chronicling the development of the project from concept to completion. The film includes a special appearance from renowned gardener and broadcaster Monty Don, a hero of Wickham-Burnham, who grew up glued to the BBC’s Gardeners’ World. ‘They say never meet your hero, because they often disappoint you,’ he notes. ‘But in my case, it was the opposite.’

When Olympia, originally known as the National Agricultural Hall, first opened in 1886, it welcomed a spectacle hosted by Paris Hippodrome Circus, which featured 400 performers, 300 horses, and six elephants. Since then, the Victorian event space in London’s West Kensington has hosted everything from international trade fairs to Vivienne Westwood's first runway show, and historic concerts by Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix.

Inside Olympia London

Nevertheless, in between such notable events, Olympia remained closed to the public for most of each year and had come to feel outdated compared to newer venues, such as east London's ExCeL centre.

However, this narrative has now changed. Olympia has undergone a massive £1.3 billion transformation and today features live music spaces, hotels, restaurants, and a new theatre alongside its preserved Victorian halls.

Spearheaded by Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC, the construction began in 2020 and the project has partially opened in summer 2026.

The architects decided to relocate all logistics underground and opened up 2.5 acres of accessible streets, elevated walkways and landscaped terraces. The masterplan also reimagined the 14-acre landmark to include year-round hospitality venues.

Entering via the street, visitors are welcomed to Olympia by two cascading escalators that run under the biophilic-inspired glass roofing. Reaching a mezzanine level, visitors enter the glazed ‘Canopy’.

Inspired by the design of Olympia’s original exhibition halls, by Sir Henry Edward Coe, it is formed of five curved structural steel arches. Each arch spans 22m, and together they support a transparent roof of 520 pleated glass panels. Beneath the glass canopy are various dining spots, from quiet cafes to buzzy restaurants.

Also part of the renovation are two new hotels: citizenM, a 146-room hotel inside the Grade II-listed National Hall; and Hyatt Regency London Olympia.

A new 3,800-capacity live entertainment venue, British Airways ARC, has just opened. Yet to come are a rooftop dining destination; and the 1,575-seat British Airways Theatre, the largest new permanent London theatre in almost 50 years (opening in 2027).

It’s estimated that Olympia will see annual footfall reach ten million across the whole destination and will contribute more than £600 million to the UK economy each year.

Says Thomas Heatherwick, founder and design director of Heatherwick Studio: ‘We’ve reimagined [Olympia] as part of London’s everyday life again, creating a new public street raised up in the air, sitting on top of the existing heritage halls. [This is] surrounded by London's largest theatre to open in 50 years [coming in 2027], a new performance venue, two hotels, offices, plus lots of places to sit and eat and be together. It is now a place where you can feel the city’s energy. The new Olympia reflects a quiet confidence, showing that we can take extraordinary British heritage and adapt it with care, imagination and purpose for the future.’

olympia.co.uk

This new architect's house – Draper Studio’s spectacular double-storey extension to a Victorian home in south London – maximises the drama within its classic terraced template, common around the capital. Designed for studio founder Adam Draper’s own family, the house had already been extended, setting a precedent for more involved and extensive works once the household had got used to the space and explored how best to make it work for many years to come.

Explore this south London architect’s house

‘[Because we’d been] living in the house a few years prior, knowing the location was great for schools and wanting a space for the next ten years, we discussed removing the existing lacklustre rear extension and maximising the home’s potential space at ground and first [floor levels],’ says Draper. ‘Although we got planning for a double-storey front extension, we worked out what was needed most: a full-width ground-floor rear extension to unify the three key spaces of a centrally accessed house, and a new double bedroom above.’

The major manoeuvre is a common one – taking out the rear façade and replacing it with a glazed, full-width extension for a garden-facing kitchen and family room. It’s a familiar device, especially with London houses, but Draper and his team have excelled themselves with the detail and materiality, stretching the budget wherever possible, from using spare stone bricks from other projects (‘kindly donated by my clients for use here’) to the most efficient brickwork patterns possible.

‘Recycling a repurposed material became a comforting theme during these radical changes to our home,’ says Draper. Some of the concrete foundations from the old extension structure were used as gabion walls in the rear garden, for example. The roof cladding is raw zinc, designed to patinate, while the glazing is low-key and unobtrusive anodised aluminium, and inside the walls are finished in limestone blockwork.

‘Although the CO2 saving is relevant, using [the limestone] as a textural finish that glows in the daylight from the skylight above is the true value here,’ says Draper. ‘The ground-level concrete floor was a bit of an experiment,’ he adds. ‘We cast terracotta tiles, stones, shells the kids had collected on holidays past – although I was correctly stopped from putting Lego in as a retaliation for all the times I’ve stepped on it. The floor’s finish has texture – it is deliberately not perfect, and warm underfoot.’

The primary material is the Redwood-pine timber frame, which is left visible throughout. ‘It’s everything in the space: a warm-feeling enclosure that feels linked to the main house in the winter and a pergola-like structure extending the garden when the sliding doors are cast open in the summer,’ says Draper. ‘With careful placement of rooflights, you’d hardly know there’s a double bedroom above with all the daylight flooding in.’

Much of the work was fabricated off-site to minimise disruption (and allow the family to stay put and save costs during the build). ‘Using materials that are real as opposed to finishes is also important, whether that be the concrete floor, the limestone blocks of the kitchen extension flank wall or the unpainted hemp plaster of the dining room,’ says Draper.

Using off-the-shelf lengths of timber also dictated the scale and rhythm of the frame, which in turn zones the 34 sq m extension into its different areas: kitchen, dining space and playroom.

As well as minimising off-cuts and sourcing second-hand materials where possible, the architects also salvaged elements like bathroom brassware, all in the name of lowering the environmental impact of the build. ‘It’s good to confront waste first hand,’ Draper admits. ‘Can stuff be repurposed, reused or retained, not just as an echo or a statement feature?’

The new house succeeds as both a laboratory of ideas and techniques and as a warm, inviting family home. ‘It’s a privilege to design your own home and explore ideas that I’ve been unable, to date, to convince clients to go with,’ says Draper. ‘It’s a little bit of material experiment, a narrative of what a home can be, all unified in a large, warm volume that finally links the house and enables the spaces to cohere.’

Draper.Studio

Ever since The Zetter first opened in Clerkenwell in 2004, the group has helped set the bar for London’s boutique hotel scene with its relaxed approach to luxury, characterful interiors and distinctly residential feel. Its newest opening, The Zetter Bloomsbury, continues that tradition across six interconnected Georgian townhouses neighbouring the British Museum, where check-in takes place over a glass of wine or coffee, immediately setting the tone for the rest of the stay. With interiors that have all the warmth and personality The Zetter has become known for, it’s the sort of hotel you’ll find yourself looking forward to returning to at the end of the day.

Wallpaper* checks in at The Zetter Bloomsbury, London

What’s on your doorstep?

Tucked away in Bloomsbury, The Zetter sits in one of central London’s most convenient yet often overlooked locations. The British Museum is just next door, while Russell Square, Tottenham Court Road and Holborn Underground stations are all within a short walk, making it easy to reach almost anywhere in the capital. Soho, Covent Garden, Oxford Street and the West End are all close enough to reach on foot, whether you’re heading to a gallery, catching a show or browsing the shops. Yet Bloomsbury itself is reason enough to stay put. Beyond the museums and shopping, it’s the sort of neighbourhood where it’s easy to lose track of time, whether you’re browsing an independent bookshop or settling into a café for a long lunch.

Who is behind the design?

The interiors are designed by James Thurstan Waterworth, and every shelf, cabinet and corner is layered with objects that feel as though they’ve been collected over a lifetime. European antiques sit alongside midcentury furniture, African textiles, Turkish rugs repurposed as ottomans and works by St Ives artists including Sandra Blow and Roger Hilton, while ancient Egyptian artefacts and a library of more than 600 vintage art and auction catalogues reflect the hotel’s close relationship with its neighbour, the British Museum.

It’s the craftsmanship that really sets the hotel apart. More than 500 cushions have been made from antique textiles; vintage fabrics have been reworked into upholstery, headboards and lampshades; Georgian cabinets discreetly conceal modern services, while hand-painted faux-marbled architraves, reclaimed timber floorboards, bespoke rugs and decorative pieces made by British artisans create interiors that feel deeply personal.

The room to book

Overlooking the secluded courtyard garden, the Junior Suites are well worth booking, with lofty ceilings and four-poster beds that give them all the charm of the Georgian townhouses they occupy, while marble bathrooms, richly textured fabrics, antiques and collected objects make them feel just as characterful as the public spaces downstairs. Thoughtful details continue throughout, from the well-stocked minibar tucked discreetly beneath the television to Verden amenities in the bathroom. If you’re celebrating a special occasion, however, the Terrace Suite is worth the splurge, with its wraparound terrace, claw-foot bath positioned beneath the bay window and views across the garden.

Staying for drinks and dinner?

Breakfast is served in The Orangery beneath a glass roof, where leafy plants, the morning light and views onto the courtyard garden make it one of the loveliest spots in the hotel to start the day, while an à la carte menu featuring dishes such as avocado on toast or a full English breakfast is complemented by baskets of pastries, breads and fresh juices.

Later in the day, the menu moves next door to The Parlour and its adjoining courtyard garden, where elevated British classics such as Scotch eggs and sausage rolls are joined by seasonal salads and larger plates, making it just as suited to lunch as evening drinks. On arrival, every guest is also handed a coin to exchange for a complimentary drink from the bar, from a coffee to a cocktail or even one of the more premium spirits, a small but memorable touch that perfectly captures The Zetter’s relaxed approach to hospitality.

Where to switch off

The Zetter Bloomsbury isn’t a hotel with a sprawling spa or extensive wellness facilities, but that’s part of its charm. Instead, switching off comes naturally in the hotel’s secluded courtyard garden, where a drink beneath the trees on a warm summer afternoon is the perfect escape from the bustle of central London.

The verdict

Characterful, welcoming and full of personality, The Zetter Bloomsbury is the sort of place that’s just as appealing to first-time visitors to London as it is to those who know the city well. As one of London’s newest hotels, there are still a few service inconsistencies to iron out, but once those settle, the hotel has all the ingredients to become one of the capital’s most enjoyable boutique stays.

The Zetter Bloomsbury is located at 2-7 Montague St, London WC1B 5BP, United Kingdom. Rates: from £210

This summer sees a five-year vision come to life: a Cornish eco-cabin landscape combining sustainable living with ecologically minded design. On a former airfield in North Cornwall, Koto at the Point is the latest addition to award-winning resort development The Point at Polzeath. It comprises 17 ‘eco-lodge’ cabins set within 11 of The Point’s 240 acres, a gently sloping landscape of diverse trees, meadow, and bright perennials, stitched together by over 400m of traditional slate-and-soil Cornish walling.

Explore a leafy Cornish eco-cabin landscape designed by Darren Hawkes

Sustainability-minded since taking on The Point in 2012 – transforming its golf course and health club amenities and adding environment-conscious self-catering apartments – owners Eva and Jeremy Davies wanted this next project to be yet more future-facing. 'We wanted to leave a legacy,' explains Eva, 'to be able to walk away and be proud of what we’d made.' Gearing the development around the core principles of habitat provision, biodiversity increase and climate resilience, Koto at the Point was an opportunity for the couple to steward the land. 'It’s been a bigger challenge than we ever thought it would be,' says Jeremy, 'but it’s something that we can feel incredibly proud of.'

Koto at the Point’s origins began in 2020, during the first pandemic lockdown, where, in a sense, one form of cabin fever led to another. With an idea forming to build a range of modern, sustainable, Scandinavian-style holiday cabins within a landscape rooted in its local surroundings, Eva had discovered Devon-based architecture and design studio Koto, and felt their principles aligned. 'Growing up in Norway, I spent a lot of time outside, whether in the mountains, the sea, or the woods,' she explains.

'The architects at Koto had worked in a Norwegian practice in Oslo for ten years and were very familiar with the sense of indoor-outdoor living, and the word ‘Friluftsliv’ – ‘free air living’ – which is ingrained in the Norwegian vocabulary. That’s why I fell in love with the Koto concept, and how they came to design the cabins.' Early in the project’s development, Koto co-founder Theo Dales introduced the Davies to award-winning, Cornwall-based landscape designer Darren Hawkes, with whom the practice had previously collaborated. 'When Darren presented his first plans – including the 400m of walls snaking through the site – it was a big moment. We just fell in love straightaway with everything he put on paper.'

Operating from a studio in Fowey, on the south coast of Cornwall, Hawkes' work encompasses everything from townhouse gardens and country retreats to 2026’s gold-winning Chelsea show garden and a new Maggie’s garden at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Stirlingshire. In the case of Koto at the Point, it was the opportunity to be involved from the project’s outset that first attracted him, right down to pegging out where the cabins would be sited. 'Normally an architect has already decided where a building will be placed, so to be able to really think about how people would live within and relate to the landscape was really exciting,' he says. 'Alongside the fact that Jeremy and Eva wanted to do this at such a high level, with a massive commitment to nature.'

Working collaboratively with an ecologist, Hawkes reconfigured the flat, roughly rectangular and formerly closely mown airfield into a more dynamic topography. 'I wanted to break it up as much as possible,' he explains, 'cutting and filling, and creating the sense of a little envelope around each building.' While a central swale directs rainwater runoff towards an irrigation pond at the bottom of the site, the three curving walls (known as ‘Cornish hedges’ – a protected characteristic of the Cornish countryside) add further complexity to the landscape.

Handcrafted by a local contractor and planted with wildflowers and structural shrubs, these provide exceptional habitat for invertebrates, birds and small mammals. The real masterstroke of landscape design, however, is in the avoidance of hard boundaries. 'The walls divide and split up various sections, but then we use areas of rough grass, meadow, lawn, and garden spaces as a further buffer between cabins,' Darren explains. 'Meandering paths allow people staying here to walk through the site, taking them through openings in the walls in a way that feels playful, particularly for children. Yet it becomes clear where you start to veer into private space.'

Intimately familiar with the environmental conditions particular to England’s south-west peninsula, Hawkes has found something of a natural design niche with coastal gardens. 'Most of our projects in Cornwall and Devon are adjacent to the sea, so understanding how to build and maintain gardens in these environments is something we’ve learned a lot about; we’re continually learning what survives close to the sea.' This knowledge played directly into the tree and large shrub selections Hawkes made for the site, including characterful, often multi-stemmed specimens of spindle, pine, dogwood and juniper, sourced from tree nursery New Wood Trees in Totnes.

So far, over 130 trees have gone into the site, says Jeremy, and their density will be increased year on year. 'We’re surrounded by a lot of farmland here in North Cornwall, so just to be planting trees in an area where there aren’t many is wonderful,' he adds. Ensuring their establishment, alongside that of the meadows, lawns, and elegant pocket gardens of colourful heleniums, sea hollies and soft ornamental grasses – which are set so beautifully against the black of the cabins – is head gardener Natalie Buse and The Point’s head greenkeeper, Tom Collings.

Though the life of this landscape will mature and develop over decades, its component parts are beginning to coalesce already, after only a few years, settling sympathetically into the surrounding coastal countryside. Poppies and daisies spill from the walls; architectural trees are framed through the cabin glass. Returning to monitor the site’s biodiversity, ecologist John Sproull recently recorded an encouraging wealth of wildlife, from painted lady and meadow brown butterflies to goldfinches and meadow pipits.

Koto cabin owners have delighted, too, in seeing deer pass through the site, Jeremy says. 'We feel very privileged to have been working with Darren on this project; he fully understood what we were looking to do, just as we understood what he wanted to create.' For Eva, it’s now a moment for taking stock. 'When we stop and look at what we’ve created, sitting in one of the cabins and looking out at the hedges and trees we’ve planted, it feels such a privilege to have been able to do this.'

More information at kotoatthepoint.co.uk, where a few cabins are still available to buy

darrenhawkes.com

Elizabeth Darling’s new monograph, Palace of the Ether: Broadcasting House and the Architecture of the BBC, 1922-1932, is a fascinating insight into the formation and professionalisation of the entity founded as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922 and granted a Royal Charter in 1927, becoming the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). From an ad hoc collection of offices and studios scattered around various London locations, the newly minted Corporation started a search for a site for a dedicated, purpose-built HQ later that year.

Explore the history of Broadcasting House and the BBC in this new book

This book is the story of that building, and the locations that preceded it, along with the architectural, interior and design decisions that were made to create what has been described as a ‘Palace of the Ether’. Broadcasting House, located at the meeting of Langham Place and Portland Place in central London, officially opened in May 1932.

In modernist architecture lore, Val Myer’s monumental, curved edifice, with its façade of Portland stone and evocative sculptural exhortations of the ethos and role of a national broadcaster, has always been slightly overlooked.

The structure was considered Modernism Lite, perhaps, a soft-pedalled version of the more muscular and ideologically pure approach demonstrated by contemporary structures like Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff’s De La Warr Pavilion (1935). For the diehard modernists, the Corporation’s most effective expressions of contemporary design were in the interiors.

However, as Darling chronicles, it was the interior work of Raymond McGrath, Edward Maufe, Wells Coates, and Chermayeff that really set a standard, creating contemporary studio interiors that seemed completely in sync with the BBC’s mission to educate and modernise. Chermayeff and his peers were praised for their use of modern materials and contemporary furnishing pieces.

And yet, many of these pioneering spaces were swiftly upgraded and overhauled, either through wartime destruction or through sheer expediency – broadcast technology was moving fast, and they were quickly outdated.

As the book also shows, modern interiors often sat side by side with more old-fashioned, traditional spaces, complete with ersatz fireplaces, drapes and libraries of leather-bound books. Regardless of the interior approach, the BBC set about presenting Broadcasting House as a central part of its identity, a role it continues right up to the present day.

This is a text-heavy book, rich with research and rewarding historic anecdote. It tells a story that is still being written, albeit with the BBC’s authority and role being challenged like never before.

'Palace of the Ether: Broadcasting House and the Architecture of the BBC, 1922-1932,' Elizabeth Darling, £45, LundHumphries.com

A watch, a ring, or a fine piece of silver – these are the kind of time-honoured treasures that get passed down through generations. But what are the heirlooms of today? With her elegant collection of linens and homewares, Emilia Wickstead has an answer.

The New Zealand-born fashion designer is known for her exquisitely tailored garments, pieces whose modern silhouettes have become perennial favourites of A-Listers, including the royal family. But with Emilia Wickstead Home – which Wickstead expanded this spring with help from her mother, Angela – she’s turning her couturier’s eye to the table.

‘Beautiful Italian linens and embroideries are something we admire but don't necessarily own ourselves. I wanted to bring this to the marketplace in a design-led way under the name of a fashion house,’ she tells Wallpaper*.

Like her clothing, Wickstead’s home items are crafted from the finest materials using traditional techniques, like silver cutlery crafted in Sheffield, porcelain made by a family-run business in Limoges, and crystal glasses blown by a traditional Murano artisan. ‘If you're going to do it, you need to do it properly,’ laughs Wickstead. ‘This is for long longevity, these are the keepsake pieces.’

Equally timeless is Wickstead’s hosting style. Here is how she does it.

How we Host with Emilia Wickstead

Wallpaper*: Are you a relaxed host and pull it all together at the last minute, or is there careful planning?

Emilia Wickstead: I'm from New Zealand, which has quite a relaxed culture, but then I have the Italian influence of my grandmother, who’s always hosting and having everyone around the table. Although it was relaxed, it was also well thought out and beautifully laid. It was the same linens that came out all the time. We weren't inventing a new tablescape every time; it was just beautiful linens and different sets. I remember those throughout the years, and I want to recreate that storytelling element. There's a bit of nostalgia with that, which I love.

Can you cook?

EW: My husband is an exceptional cook. I love to cook, but he takes a lot of pleasure in feeding a table of people. Nothing feels stressed or frantic in the kitchen when he's cooking, which makes it very enjoyable. To have a home-cooked meal is very much part of our culture. I remember fondly that my mother would always have fabric napkins at the table and fabric placemats or a tablecloth. Why wait for a special occasion when it can be something as simple as breakfast? Every moment is a special occasion.

W*: What was the first dish you perfected to feed a group of friends or family?

EW: My grandmother taught me how to make Bolognese sauce, and I took that with me to university. I was very popular with that dish when I was living in London in my younger years. The secret to the recipe isn't in the ingredients, but the way in which you cook the meat. It's the timing of how dry the meat is before you put in the next ingredient. I also make a pavlova, which is a New Zealand meringue cake.

W*: Drinks on arrival – what’s on offer?

EW: I drink a lot of Champagne. That is my go-to drink; I always have a refrigerator stocked with my favourite. My husband will make cocktails, which is very old school. One thing that my husband and I have in common is that we love having people over and allowing people to eat as much as they can, drink as much as they want, and have a merry time.

W*: Go on and tempt us – what’s your go-to menu, from starters to afters, whether homemade or bought in?

EW: I don't really think there is a go-to. I think it's very much comfort food, though. It is about having people over and taking care of people, which is what we ultimately enjoy.

W*: What’s on your dinner party playlist?

EW: I'll have anything from a bit of jazz in the background like Chet Baker, to Paul Simon, Van Morrison or Eric Clapton. I might also throw Elvis or Aretha Franklin into the mix. It feels relaxing and warm. It's often what I have in the background at home, or if I'm working. It's the same playlist throughout my life of doing all the things I enjoy. I get the best out of myself.

W*: Who’s your dream dinner party guest?

EW: I honestly would love Diana Vreeland. She's someone I've always admired. She was crazy about her family, her sons and her husband. I imagine she was family-oriented but also very much a creative. From art to literature, she was so expressive with her point of view and opinions. One of my favourite things about having people around my table is when people are really expressive and have really strong opinions. Conversations are always very funny and open. She would be the perfect addition with her wit and wisdom.

W*: Dish the dirt: what should a host never do?

EW: Ask people to leave early.

W* What would be your secret to a successful evening?

EW: That people don't want to leave. The whole idea is for everyone to have a good time.

Get the look

Casual Italian may have been the big story on the capital’s restaurant scene in the past 12 months, but Londoners’ appetite for the sort of French bistro that wouldn’t disgrace the set of ’Allo ’Allo! shows no sign of waning – so much so that we’re now having to import them.

Buvette comes courtesy of New York-based restaurateur Jody Williams, whose West Village original, opened in 2011, is one of five Manhattan hotspots she co-owns with wife Rita Sodi. This is the US400 couple’s second bite at a London Buvette, after a Notting Hill outpost opened in 2020 and closed three years later.

Covent Garden, however, already feels like a better fit: squint from a pavement table under the red awning in Neal’s Yard and you could be in a French square straight out of Emily in Paris – or, perhaps, an especially photogenic enclave of Greenwich Village.

Wallpaper* dines at Buvette, London

The mood: Flea market chic

A buvette is the French word for a small bar, though Williams prefers to describe this place as a gastrothèque, her own word for a mash-up of café, bar and restaurant where one is as likely to drop in for a breakfast croissant and café au lait as a supper of cassoulet and Beaujolais.

Williams says that the New York Buvette was inspired by visits to flea markets and antique fairs, though here in London she’s been equally influenced by the building’s 400-year history and that of Neal’s Yard itself, where the British whole-food scene was kickstarted in the 1970s with the likes of Monmouth Coffee and Neal’s Yard Dairy.

Inside are exposed brick walls, warm wood finishes, a tin ceiling embossed with metallic garlands and close-set tables for two. If the dimensions feel more cramped than cosy, the best way to approach Buvette might be as an hour spent en route to somewhere else: a breakfast meeting before the office or pre-theatre ahead of the Donmar. Or pull up a solo stool at the marble counter.

The food: Small plates of bistro cooking

Williams might have a James Beard Award to her name for New York City’s Best Chef, but she taught herself to cook and spent five years in Italy and Japan before opening Buvette. All of which is to say that she is not bound by tradition. So while the menu is a love letter to traditional bourgeois cuisine – coq au vin and charcuterie, steak tartare and tarte Tatin – the presentation of the food as small plates feels bang up to date.

Not that you’ll want to split everything: a croque-monsieur, bubbled with golden-brown blisters of gooey Gruyère, is far too good to share. Carb-loading is the way to go: garlicky escargots come with slices of sourdough toast for dunking, while a tartine is spread with an artery-clogging amount of butter and draped with a salty sliver of anchovy and a tangy caper.

Not everything works quite so well when presented in miniature. A pot of moules topped with a pile of French fries makes excavating the mussels from their shells awkward, though it’s worth persevering, as the curry sauce beneath makes an excellent dipping sauce.

Even if you just stick to tap water, do take time to admire the design of the drinks list, which is beautifully illustrated as a homage to the Belle Époque and is as lovely to look at as everything else here.

Buvette is located at 2 Neal’s Yard, London WC2H 9DP, UK

Mayfair dining rooms often arrive fully dressed. Latine is better when it changes outfit. Set in Lancashire Court, the Franco-Latin restaurant by London-based interior designer Victoria Vogel moves from a bright ground-floor crudo bar to a candlelit first-floor salon, a mural-wrapped private dining room and a basement lounge in lacquer, velvet and brass.

Wallpaper* dines at Latine Mayfair

The mood: A venue of many temperatures

The ground-floor restaurant is the brightest chapter: limewashed walls, solid wood tables, bouclé seating and a marble-fronted crudo bar, all gathered around an exposed brick rotunda and central chandelier. Decorative tiling nods to the seafood-led menu, while cream, terracotta, chocolate and pale timber give the room its soft sense of warmth.

Upstairs, La Candela brings white wainscoting, twin crystal chandeliers and terracotta accents into a candlelit salon. On the second floor, El Cielo turns private dining into a scenic room, wrapped in a hand-painted mural by Melissa Wickham beneath exposed oak beams and a sculptural bronze chandelier. Downstairs space, LACAV, drops the temperature: lacquered walls, burl walnut, velvet seating and brass lighting make it the late-night room: darker, richer, and much happier after dinner.

The food: Ceviche first, Béarnaise later

The menu opens with colourful crudos: bright, sharp and built around citrus, heat and sweetness. Sea bream tiradito comes with coconut leche de tigre; red prawn ceviche with mango and yuzu. Yet, the starters are where the Franco-Latin exchange gets better: snails baked with chimichurri butter and served with brioche; Cornish mussels with Latine marinière and fries; pão de queijo filled with Camembert, with the option to add Oscietra caviar.

Mains continue the exchange: grilled hispi cabbage with Peruvian curry sauce and Comté, wild sea bass with ají amarillo beurre blanc, bouillabaisse with ají panca rouille, and chargrilled ribeye with chimichurri Béarnaise.

Latine Mayfair is located at 10-11 Lancashire Ct, London W1S 1EY, United Kingdom

There are few weeks in London’s calendar when the city feels quite as alive as it does during London Design Festival. Every September, museums, galleries and streets become the centre of conversation, where architects, designers and makers invite us to look differently at the spaces we move through every day.

The first programme announced for London Design Festival 2026, which returns from 12 to 20 September, looks at both the origins of design and its future direction. This year, both craft and artificial intelligence sit alongside one another as historic techniques are revisited through contemporary collaborations, exploring themes of migration, ecology, and cultural exchange across many confirmed projects.

London Design Festival 2026: programme announced

A bamboo pavilion with a bigger story to tell

Among the first commissions announced is The Pangolin Shield, the festival’s inaugural Landmark Project by the Anglo-Indian studio Studio Saar and structural engineers Atelier One. Installed on the Strand, the pavilion takes its cue from the pangolin, the shy, armour-plated mammal whose overlapping scales serve as the starting point for a structure made of bamboo and woven shields traditionally used by farming communities in north-eastern India.

While the pavilion could easily be appreciated for its impressive engineering, the aim is to encourage visitors to engage with it on a deeper level. It invites reflection on colonial histories, the movement of people and ideas, and the stories that materials carry as they journey across the Indian Ocean. Traditionally, the bamboo canopy serves both as shelter and as a space for contemplation, urging those on London’s busiest streets to slow down and be viewed.

On view all day, 12-20 September, Strand, Aldwych, London, WC2R 1ES

Made looks back to the Barbican

Renowned for its iconic brutalist architecture, the Barbican has profoundly influenced London’s design imagination. Its impact is evident in contemporary interiors, furniture design, and even the conversations surrounding urban living.

This autumn, Made revisits that legacy with a new Made x Barbican collection developed by designer Miriam Howitt, drawing on archival research into the estate and its original interiors. Furniture, lighting and textiles draw on the Barbican’s distinctive interiors. To accompany this, an installation at the Barbican during the festival explores how one of Britain’s most recognisable architectural landmarks continues to shape ideas of home decades after it first opened.

Installation on view 8am-11pm, 12-20 September, Barbican, Level G Hub Space, Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS

The V&A begins with an awakening

The V&A has become the spiritual home of the London Design Festival, and its annual commission often captures the mood of each edition. This year, ‘Awakenings’, curated by Carrie Chan and Kristian Volsing, looks at how design can reshape our relationship with the world around us.

Spread throughout the museum, the programme brings together designers including Aziza Kadyri, Eunjo Lee and Henry Svendsen, alongside new commissions exploring sound, identity, artificial intelligence and the natural world. There is a sense of curiosity running through the exhibition, as well as a sense that technology is no longer treated as something separate from craft. Instead, both are becoming part of the same conversation.

From 12 September, V&A South Kensington, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL

The Design Museum turns its attention to people behind the practice

The Design Museum’s programme during LDF, as ever, spans fashion, furniture and contemporary design culture. A major ongoing retrospective celebrates Nigo (until 4 October), charting the Japanese designer’s influence across streetwear and luxury fashion. London-based designer, educator and cultural change-maker Simone Brewster’s Platform installation (until January 2027) continues her exploration of sculptural furniture and material histories, layered with references from 'palaeolithic fertility deities to African diasporic traditions'.

Away from the galleries, conversations take centre stage too. Brewster joins Jasmi Hussein, Emefa Cole and Hettie Judah for a discussion exploring design and motherhood, shifting the focus away from finished work towards the lives and experiences that shape creative work.

224-238 Kensington High St, London W8 6AG; visit designmuseum.org for the full programme

Japanese craft meets contemporary design

This year, Craft x Tech Tokai Project continues its tradition of collaboration between Japanese artisans and international designers. The exhibition highlights the fusion of traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design, featuring media such as ceramics, washi paper, lacquer, textiles, and woodworking.

It spotlights designers such as Bethan Laura Wood, David Caon, and Philippe Malouin, who engage with artisans whose techniques have been refined and passed down through generations, showcasing the exciting possibilities born from this rich exchange of ideas.

12-30 September, Victoria & Albert Museum, Medieval & Renaissance, Room 64b, The Simon Sainsbury Gallery, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 2RL

New conversations between Asia and London

Elsewhere, cultural platform MixZ continues its exploration of exchange between Asia and the UK through a pair of exhibitions taking place at the V&A and the Old Selfridges Hotel, an event space within the London department store.

At the V&A, ‘MixZ: China White Reimagined’ highlights the ancient beauty of Dehua porcelain. At the Old Selfridges Hotel, ‘Future Living with Shenzhen Style’ explores future living through future with immersive technologies and artificial intelligence. Throughout both presentations, the focus is on collaboration as community, underscoring the idea that true innovation seldom occurs in a vacuum. Instead, it flourishes through the shared knowledge, materials, and ideas that flow between different cultures.

V&A, Cromwell Road London, SW7 2RL
Selfridges, 1 Orchard St, London W1H 6HJ

St Paul’s Cathedral becomes a space of light

Ukrainian artist and lighting designer Mykola Kabluka will install two works inside St Paul’s Cathedral. Created with his Kyiv studio, Expolight, Soul and The Point of Unity examines the moment when a thought or feeling remains private.

Soul draws on research into the brain during daydreaming and inward thought. Its audiovisual imagery has no set sequence. Light travels through glass and responds to people moving around the cathedral, changing the work as they pass. The Point of Unity debuted at Burning Man in 2025 and will make its UK debut at the LDF. Some 3,500 fibre optic points illuminate the sculpture after dark; during the day, its mirrored surfaces reflect the cathedral around it. Kabluka explores how an individual presence becomes part of a larger whole.

Created during the ongoing war against Ukraine, Kabluka highlights his thoughts and personal experience of uncertainty and hope.

St. Paul's Churchyard, London EC4M 8AD

The Speaking Oasis gives palm weaving a 'new language'

Saudi architect Shahad Alazzaz turns to the date palm for The Speaking Oasis, presented at The Lavery in Cromwell Place during the London Design Festival. Her project explores how a material deeply woven into Saudi cultural life can be used in contemporary design.

The largest self-contained palm oasis, Al Hasa Oasis in eastern Saudi Arabia, acts as a reference point. Its extensive date palm groves have long made it a place of movement and exchange, while generations of craftspeople have worked with the palm through weaving. Supported by the Ithra Palm Initiative, launched by the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture in Dhahran, Alazzaz, founder of Azaz Architects, brings this skill and knowledge into architecture and design, exploring how the material and its techniques can develop.

On view all day, 12-20 September,The Lavery, (3 Cromwell Place), London SW7 2JE

Mali Mowcka creates a special sanctuary in Shoreditch

At the Hart, Shoreditch has invited contemporary urban artist Mali Mowcka to create Sanctum of Renewal inside its pan-Asian restaurant 'UBA', turning it into a contemporary sacred space for the London Design Festival, filling the upper part of the room with wooden pieces that descend from the ceiling.

Making between 160 and 200 forms by hand, each with an organic shape. Translucent resin petals will be suspended among them, drawing on Yūgen, the Japanese idea that 'beauty can be found in what remains partly unseen.' UBA will continue operating as a restaurant throughout the installation, with guests eating beneath the sculpture as staff move through the room.
On view all day, 12-20 September, 61 - 67 Great Eastern St, London EC2A 3HU

Brompton Design District puts craft in focus

Brompton Design District returns for London Design Festival under the direction of British and Italian curator and gallerist Alex Tieghi-Walker. The Wallpaper* USA 400 honouree has invited designers and curators to occupy spaces across the district, bringing together more than 150 participants. Isamaya Ffrench and former guest editor Laila Gohar are among them, along with a group of New York designers making their festival debut alongside launches from designers and brands including Molteni&C, Cassina and Tai Ping, presenting new collections from their Brompton showrooms.

Following his 2025 programme, Tieghi-Walker returns with a closer look at craft and contemporary design, introducing work by new voices London audiences may not yet know. Taking place from 12 to 20 September, this year's programme considers the personal attachments we form with the objects and design around us. Titled Perfectly Imperfect, the programme opens up studios and workshops, bringing unfinished experiments into public view.

On view all day, 12-20 September, The Lavery, (3 Cromwell Place), London SW7 2JE

Byron Pritchard lets the material decide

Also at Brompton Design District, British designer Byron Pritchard presents a new body of work featuring a slab of sycamore at the London Design Festival. Building on traditional woodworking techniques and with a deep appreciation for the craft, he and his team will, in work yet to be completed, work entirely by hand in a garage in Cromwell Mews, following the grain and responding to the timber as they go.

Finding Form brings this part of the design process into public view with no drawing setting out the final object; visitors will see each decision take shape as the work develops. To do this, Pritchard will research historic woodworking at the nearby V&A, then return to the garage and keep making.

On view all day, 12-20 September, Cromwell Mews Garage, London SW7 2JS

Past Made Present takes over Ham House

At Ham House, students from Kingston University’s MA Product & Furniture Design programme have responded to a place with more than 400 years of history. Developed with The Storybox Collective and the National Trust, Past Made Present brings the work of a new generation of designers into the house and gardens that inspired it.

Projects and prototypes will be installed throughout the property, drawing on archival research and stories connected to the house. Accessibility is central to the exhibition, with the students considering how design can give visitors another way to experience a historic place. Their material experiments enter into the existing rooms quietly, responding to Ham House as it is.

From 10 September to 11 October, Ham St, Ham, Richmond TW10 7RS

Plans have been revealed for London's BT Tower to be transformed into a hotel by London-based studio Orms Architecture. The consultation, which took place on Monday (13 July 2026), included details of the planned overhaul of the 177m-tall tower, such as the extension of the tower’s podium buildings, a swimming pool, and a public square.

The proposal also revealed the project's construction schedule – and it is sooner than you’d think. After the second consultation in July is finalised, along with planning consent granted from Camden Council in September this year, construction will begin in 2029, with the building set to open in 2033.

The future of the BT Tower in London

The American hotel chain MCR is behind the transformation of the former telecommunications tower, having acquired the building for a cool £270 million from the BT Group in 2024.

The proposal includes a restoration of the former 1930s telephone exchange, the Howland building, into hotel rooms. Plans also show the addition of a second staircase and four rooms positioned around the original concrete core of the tower, using this main body as the hotel's framework.

Additionally, the 1960s façade of the main ground-floor building will be renovated to accommodate shop fronts and other retail uses. Although there is no mention of bringing back the revolving restaurant, the public will have access to a revolving observation deck at the top of the tower.

There will also be a chance to swim at the tower, with plans for a rooftop swimming pool inspired by MCR's (and Wallpaper* Travel Guide favourite) TWA Hotel in New York. While it is available to hotel guests, the public will also be able to book a slot to use the heated, infinity-edge pool.

In consultation documents, Orms stated: ‘While maintaining the overall structure, we will remove unsightly modern additions to the 1960s exterior on the ground floor. We will then introduce retail on the ground floor and add a modest pavilion structure on the roof.’

The final part of Orms’ plan is to create a public square accessible from Howland Street and Maple Street. However, it remains uncertain what will be in store within levels 24 to 30.

Since the tower's completion in 1964, the building has undergone many iterations. Originally commissioned by the General Post Office to provide telecoms, it also housed a revolving restaurant, which closed in 1971 after a bomb exploded.

After its renaming to the British Telecom Tower in the early 1980s, the tower was closed to the public altogether from 1981. Since then, BT Tower has seen a 360-degree lighting display installed, in the early 2000s, but Orms’ plans for the tower are the most expansive to date.

You can read more about the consultation here

A Somerset retreat set within a quiet hamlet among rolling countryside, just a short drive south of Bath, this renovation project is the work of Daytrip, an interior design and architecture studio founded by Iwan Halstead and Emily Furniss Potter.

Based in Hackney, East London, the pair is known for their timeless yet distinctive projects, many of which draw on both contemporary and classic influences. For example, their Cloisters office in London blends Stuart-era features with modern designs, while a Highbury residence brings minimalist curves to a Victorian house.

Discover the leafy embrace of this Somerset retreat

For this Somerset scheme, the pair had to work with a much more recent building, Springfield Farm. Completed in the 1990s by architect Max Aitken, it is defined by its tiered form and weather-stained grey timber cladding that allowed it to recede softly into its setting.

Daytrip turned it into an idyllic 250 sq m second home by adding warmth to the interiors, which are now filled with bespoke pieces and Scandinavian classics, and by connecting the residence to a new garden and 12m-long swimming pool surrounded by wildflower meadows.

‘We are always interested in understanding what is already there and how we can build upon it rather than overwrite it,’ explains Halstead. ‘The house had a strong spatial logic and generous proportions, but it certainly felt like it had been designed by an architect in the 1990s – slightly cold and technical in places.

‘It lacked the warmth and emotional depth that we often try to bring to our interiors. Our approach was to introduce tactile layering through materials such as wide oak flooring, dark cherry timber, travertine and bronze finishes, bringing richness and softness while respecting the original architecture.'

Construction went smoothly until a fire damaged the house just before completion, and made Daytrip revisit and remake portions of their scheme. ‘In hindsight, that process reinforced the resilience of the design and gave us an opportunity to refine details even further,’ says Halstead.

Designed for entertaining, the flowing living spaces open directly onto the terraces and gardens, with large glazed doors left open in the summer. In contrast, midcentury-inspired wood veneers and deep shearling seating from Dagmar, as well as glass and brass wall lights by Max Ingrand, create a cocooning space for the long winter evenings.

Natural stone, bronze details, textured rugs and linen upholstery complete a material palette designed to bring a sense of tranquillity. ‘The challenge was less about correcting the architecture and more about deepening its relationship to the landscape – creating spaces that felt open, calm and atmospheric, with strong visual connections to their surroundings,’ says Halstead.

The living space, which opens directly onto the landscape, has ‘a wonderful quietness to it’, says the architect. ‘It transforms with the movement of sunlight throughout the day, and the views across the meadows are breathtaking. I enjoy the generosity of the room – the long timber steps lead down into the lounge, where a grand piano and sprawling sofas create a sense of ease and informality. The dark cherry timber wall panelling helps wrap the space and tie it together, while the travertine fireplace anchors the room.’

Daytrip collaborates closely with artists, designers, and makers to create spaces that feel timeless and distinctive, and this is apparent in this project too. Unique artworks dotted around the house, the majority of which are by East London artists represented by Partnership Editions, including Katarina Lalic and Mary West.

‘One of the most important aspects of the project was the layering of art, objects and collectable furniture,’ says Halstead. ‘The large sculptural bronze chandelier by Joe Armitage in the stairwell became a real focal point. At 3m in height, it represents a new direction in his design language – monumental yet delicate, with incredible presence and charm.’

Of course, the scenery framed by the large windows can also easily steal the show. The garden landscaping was designed around the swimming pool, which is placed so that it can be seen from all the key living spaces, and contrasts with the wildflower meadows.

‘We worked with landscape designer Pollyanna Wilkinson to develop the tiered stepping and planting that envelops the perimeter of the house, creating a natural journey down to the pool terrace and orchard,’ says Halstead. ‘A restrained planting language was chosen to flourish throughout the year, with grasses, Nepeta, Gaura and soft perennial species that feel both naturalistic and rooted in the English countryside.’

daytrip.studio

Mayfair has no shortage of polished dining rooms, but Miko Mei Fair has arrived to turn up the heat. On the ground floor of MiMi Mei Fair’s Georgian townhouse, the 50-cover Thai restaurant is the latest opening from Samyukta Nair, the restaurateur behind London hotspots Jamavar, Bombay Bustle, MiMi Mei Fair and Nipotina. Led by chef Soonthorn Apaipat of Koyn Thai, it pairs townhouse glamour with cooking rooted in fire, balance and sharing.

Wallpaper* dines at Miko Mei Fair

The mood: MiMi’s more eccentric sibling

Miko Mei Feir delivers a darker, more intimate mood than the usual Mayfair new opening: candlelight, glossy wood, patterned banquettes. The interiors keep the townhouse framework and dial up the colour: teal and timber panelling, red leather booths, brass accents and tropical wallcoverings, with gold-leaf lotus details adding a subtle Thai nod. The Peacock Room, set behind folding timber screens, adds a private dining room for eight, while hand-painted chinoiserie wallpaper ties it back to MiMi Mei Fair upstairs.

The food: Robata smoke meets Thai balance

Chef Apaipat moves across Thailand – Isaan heat, Southern coconut richness, Central Thai balance – with Koyn Thai’s robata-style grill guiding the kitchen. The headline dish is the Apple Wood Fire Peking Duck Penang Curry, adding MiMi Mei Fair’s signature duck into one of Thailand’s best-loved curries. Elsewhere, there are spring rolls with tofu and spring onion, prawns pla ra, and toasted rice beef tenderloin. Don’t miss Sabai Sabai, the signature cocktail, which mixes Mekong rum, kaffir lime, Thai basil and soda. For no-alcohol drinkers, Akoya comprises cucumber, Thai basil, lychee, lime and sparkling jasmine tea.

Miko Mei Fair is located at 55 Curzon Street, London W1J 8PG, United Kingdom

Chef and restaurateur Jackson Boxer has form when it comes to opening beloved local restaurants: Brunswick House has been going strong in Vauxhall since 2010, while in 2025, Dove replaced Boxer’s Notting Hill restaurant Orasay, on the same site, with something more approachably laid-back (not least with its off-menu cheeseburger, rationed to ten per service).

For his latest venture, the chef heads to Clerkenwell with Vesper, its name the Roman word for the planet Venus, as it appears at sunset: the time to enjoy one of the restaurant’s bracingly cold cocktails, ideally at a bistro table on the pavement as the Exmouth Market passeggiata slides by, with the promise of a Gorgonzola and dry-aged beef burger to follow.

Wallpaper* dines at Vesper, London

The mood: Built to last

Designer Jermaine Gallacher, a longtime friend of Boxer’s, approached Vesper with the simple brief of creating somewhere he would wish to be a regular himself. ‘I wanted to give Jackson a restaurant that would stand the test of time,’ he says, ‘something classic and refined.’

The result occupies a double-fronted corner space with timber-framed floor-to-ceiling windows, a bar by the entrance and a candlelit dining room beyond. Gallacher found his design cues in unlikely places – an ancient studded door spotted on a trip to Italy became the inspiration for the bar, while a photo of a pair of carved lips in an old book about 1980s New York restaurants informed the stonework.

The team of London artisans Gallacher collaborated with were closer to home: architectural stone carver Tom Pullen hand-carved the limestone panels according to Gallacher’s drawings, artist Lawrence Andrew Chalk made the studded zinc bar and curved cloakroom door, while the steel and brass sconces, candlesticks and cast-pewter door handle come courtesy of sculptor Will Jack. ‘I think what’s so magical about really good restaurants is that they are the sum of all parts,’ Gallacher says. ‘It’s not just about the food or the interior or the people that frequent them. It’s all of those things and more. Things made with love are honest, true and never date.’

The food: Comfortably ambitious

Boxer is far too canny an operator not to give his customers what they want, which here means including an edit of the Dove greatest hits: not just that beef-rib burger, but a spin on the fermented potato pizzette, here topped with stracciatella, mortadella and mostarda.

But Vesper goes beyond merely transplanting the Dove menu from Notting Hill to east London. Take the chuck-eye steak Diane with grilled maitake mushrooms and baked saffron rice, which promotes a neglected cut of beef to star billing. It’s the sort of clever update on a retro British classic that has made Boxer one of the UK’s most in-demand chefs (he’s also a consultant chef at Cowley Manor). But if you prefer your classics more straightforward, order the half-roast chicken with bread sauce to share.

And if you’re here just to drink: a bowl of homemade salt-and-vinegar crisps with trout roe and French onion smoked cream is the poshest version of chips and dips to snack on with a citrus-spritzed martini.

Vesper is located at 8-10 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QA, United Kingdom