River Forest Lookout was built in 2023, designed and constructed by Mark Derenthal as the perfect getaway in nature. Built from galvanised steel set into a concrete plinth on the forest floor, the watchtower has enjoyed a healthy career as an Airbnb but is now looking for a new owner.

The accommodation is located in two modified shipping containers set 60ft up, atop a custom steel stair tower – the attached winch is most definitely not designed for pets, let alone people.

Consisting of a kitchen, living and sleeping area with a modest balcony, alongside a full bathroom, it’s a tight 300 sq ft space that is mitigated by the panoramic 360-degree treetop views across the Chattahoochee National Forest to the Cohutta Mountains. Warning: things get insanely photogenic in fall.

The site itself winds across 14 acres of forest and includes around 3,000ft of private frontage onto the Jacks River. This is fishing territory (trout), and there are waterfalls and swimming holes to discover as well. The structure made extensive use of prefabricated industrial components.

Derenthal, who collaborated on the project with the structural engineer Bill Seeber, not only re-used shipping containers but adapted a tower crane mast for the support structure. Derenthal did much of the construction work himself, creating a project that is low maintenance, fire resistant and self-sufficient.

Atop the tower, reached by a spiral staircase set between the two shipping containers, the Forest Lookout offers a rooftop terrace complete with firepit. It sits between the solar array, which works alongside propane heaters to create a totally off-grid living space.

The property, which is being sold through Mountain Sotheby’s International Realty, is offered as a fully furnished, totally turnkey operation, a nod to its current role as a popular Airbnb destination. The site also has permission and utilities in place for a second structure, should the new owner want to expand the hospitality concept.

The River Forest Lookout splices the technological transfer beloved of High-Tech architecture with a very specifically American picturesque, one that frames the individual within the wilderness in an elaborate and dramatic way. By eschewing a more austere architectural approach in favour of gutsy, durable post-industrial architecture, the lookout is a fortress of solitude that offers the ultimate escape from the day-to-day.

For sale via Mountain Sotheby’s International Realty, priced at $1,200,000, SothebysRealty.com, @mountain.sir

In 2018, Japanese architect and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto was selected to refresh the lobby of Gordon Bunshaft’s brutalist Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. – one of 11 Smithsonian institutions to line the National Mall. Eight years later, Sugimoto has returned with an even more dramatic revamp of the contemporary art museum’s sculpture garden.

The project had several aims: to make the sunken space more visible; to shade it more effectively; and to showcase more art. This has all been accomplished in a scheme plotted out by Sugimoto’s architecture office, New Material Research Laboratory, in collaboration with New York-based YUN Architecture.

Sugimoto’s lobby work was a light and clever tweak of the Bunshaft original. The sculpture garden was different. The project, acting museum director Aaron Seeto stresses, is ‘a complete rethink. It is not just a renovation of an existing plan.’

The logic of the redesign makes full sense: The 1.3-acre sculpture garden has long been somewhat concealed, depressed up to 14 feet beneath the surface of the National Mall (a typically Bunshfatian balancing device: the Hirshorn’s circular museum volume begins 14 feet above street level). For the last several decades the garden has only had two entrances (a third, an original passageway under Jefferson Drive, has been closed since 1981). Sugimoto restored the shuttered entrance and widened the northern entrance, a move that’s been transformational, Seeto says: ‘It means that our front door is the National Mall,’ Seeto says.

Sugimoto acted in rough accord with Bunshaft’s original wishes for a larger reflecting pool with a scheme of two pools in the center, with the addition of a platform that can be used for performance in the centre, inspired by Noh theatre in Tokyo. Gunshaft also took inspiration from zen gardens, according to Sugimoto.

‘Having “void space” amid greenery is the essential precondition for a proper Zen garden. Placing a lifeless, empty space amid vigorously flourishing vegetation has the paradoxical effect of presenting the viewer with a powerful visualization of the concept of life,’ the architect said in a design statement.

There was one problem: Gunshaft’s garden didn’t have many plants. ‘While the original Bunshaft-designed garden succeeded in establishing this void space, I believe it was missing the surrounding green plantings,’ Sugimoto said.

The Smithsonian first realized this some time ago, commissioning a partial redesign by Lester Collins in 1981, which greened Bunshaft’s rather bare scheme. Preservationists have objected to the redesign largely for effacing these Collins elements. The Cultural Landscape Foundation classified the garden as ‘threatened.’ Sugomito’s intense attachment to new stacked stone walls were also the focus of particular critique for abandoning a central concrete element cohering with the museum’s form.

Sugimoto has unquestionably sought to complement Bunshaft’s museum in multiple forms, in a design that provides a considerably more dramatic forecourt for the museum. It has emerged somehow as both more comfortable and more monumental space, a conversation pit rather than a secret garden.

The stone walls, containing 950 tons of stone from Gloucester, Massachusetts, hand-stacked by Japanese stonemasons, are certainly attractive in themselves. The redesign has provided considerably more seating and shade, both welcome in Washington’s acutely miserable summer climate. Seeto says, ‘We want people to linger longer and to really use the space for contemplation of our extraordinary collection.’

Historic elms were retained at the garden’s perimeter, otherwise the architects, working with Rhodeside & Harwell landscape architects, have added 57 new trees, from American elms to Katsura cherry trees, and over 40,000 plants. Sugimoto’s aim was ‘the perfect forest’ with somewhat different characteristics in each spot.

An unambiguous benefit is a leap in the number of sculptures on display, which have risen from 35 to 60. Nineteen of these works have never been displayed at the museum. ‘There is a little bit of an art historical narrative. Our collection of Rodins have been presented as a kind of foundation to think through modern sculpture. Then it moves through history. Hirschorn had personal relationships with Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth and we have an amazing collection. We have created a gallery specifically for those two artists,’ Seeto explains.

Eleven new works were added to the garden, ranging from Woody De Othello, to Chatchai Puipia. Four of them are specific commissions. These include works by Izumi Kato and KAWS, plus a piece by Sugimoto himself, Passage of Reflectance – a stainless steel work nestled under the bridge between the museum and the garden that lends elegant volumetric accentuation to Bunshaft’s museum. Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree for Washington, a work created for the garden which incorporates a live dogwood tree has also returned.

Another new addition may bring to mind other activities in Washington: Danish sculptors Elmgren and Dragset have contributed Eight, a stainless steel work which fancifully evokes a backyard swimming pool turned on its side.

‘We have been asked if there’s a relation to other pools that have been tremendously infamous in Washington recently,’ Ingar Dragset jokes. ‘To that we have to say we planned this for four years. More than us commenting on reality, reality sometimes starts to comment on our pieces.’

This savage little confection is the GT-XA, the newest offering from Austrian specialist motorcycle and racing car manufacturer KTM X-Bow. Best known for its debut vehicle, the X-Bow, which marked a shift from two-wheeled performance to four, the GT-XA is effectively an out-and-out racing machine re-engineered for the roads.

The original X-Bow was notable for its stripped back aesthetic, with no windscreen, doors, luggage space or weatherproofing. Over time, KTM diversified the offering, with the more civilised X-Bow GT even offering air conditioning. At the same time, it also branched out into track-only machines for the various FIA sports car series.

The new GT-XA takes this track experience and channels it back into a road car, this time aimed specifically at the US market, where KTM hopes to sell 30 cars a year. The Austrian company has partnered with Carbon Yard to transform the track-hardened carbon fibre monocoque into a road legal car. This will be no mean feat, for it’s only the dramatic carbon bodywork that stands between this machine and a standard open wheel endurance racing car.

Power comes from a 2.5-litre Audi 5-cylinder turbocharged engine, already well tested on the track. Refinements for road use include a new adjustable suspension package (which also offers a lift function for added ground clearance) and a host of customisation options should you not wish to go for vivid DayGlo orange. As long as they realise the GT-XA isn’t a traditional grand tourer, but a dedicated driver’s machine, with not a line or surface out of place.

Even the X-Bow’s signature jet fighter-style canopy cockpit isn’t about theatrics, but forward visibility and structural strength. From the driver’s seat you’re surrounded by a blanket of carbon fibre surfaces, with a race-style steering wheel and integrated information panel.

Dedicated driver’s machines rarely come with such an established racing pedigree as the GT-XA. The American arm of the company will provide all servicing and set-up for newly minted US customers, and KTM hopes that buyers won’t be seeking a static acquisition to add to a collection but a car that demands to be experienced on a day-to-day basis.

KTM X-Bow GT-AX, from c.$490,000, KTM-XBow-USA.com

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

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

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

Step inside Cadence in King's Cross

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Explore the new Torre Velasca Residences by Matteo Thun & Partners

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Step inside this hempcrete experiment in Iceland

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ludika.is

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sabine Marcelis' material and colour exploration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discover Sabine Marcelis’ latest lava lamp collaboration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating ‘Session’: Doshi Levien and Brunner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discover a treasure trove in ‘Artists’ Modernist Houses’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apple iPhone Duo Folio with Kickstand

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

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

Bionic iPhone Duo Charger

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

iPhone Duo Charger, €229, BionicParis.com

Moft Cases

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

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

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

Mous Limitless Case

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

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

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

Torro Leather Wallet

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

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

Better Mobile Xperience SolidSafe Duo

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

BMX SolidSafe Duo, £79.99, HeyBMX.com

Tiny Computers

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LA28.org, @LA28, Olympics.com

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

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

Fabric first: Ten c x Comoli has arrived

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

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

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

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

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

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

tenc.com

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

Discover BIG's 'Refugee Cities' project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Celebrating with the Zaha Hadid Foundation

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

The new Zaha Hadid Foundation hub

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

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

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

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

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

The symposium: ‘89° of Zaha Hadid’

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

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

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

A fresh identity

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

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

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

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

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

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

zhfoundation.com

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

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

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

Acer Swift Blade 14

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

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

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

Krafted Edge

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

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

Krafted Edge power bank, £149.99, Kraftedtech.com

Lexar Muse Ultra-Slim Portable SSD

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

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

Timekettle LiveTalk

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

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

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

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

Flowtica Folio

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

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

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

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

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

Anker Universal Charger

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

Anker Universal Charger, £69.99, Anker.com

Clicks Power Keyboard

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

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

Clicks Power Keyboard, £109, Clicks.tech

ProtoArc XK01 Foldable Keyboard

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

ProtoArc XK01 Foldable Keyboard, £44.99, ProtoArc.com

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

Pierre Wine Bar, Rome

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The story behind Tekla’s second collaboration with Auralee

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Shop the story

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Nestled in the green landscape of Khao Yai in northeastern Thailand, this new home clearly stands out – not just for its colour, a crisp white that pleasingly pops within its leafy setting, but also for its unapologetically contemporary form and the zig-zag roof that defines its volume. Welcome to Khao Yai Mountain Grounded Villa, a new countryside retreat designed by Thai architecture practice HAS Design and Research and its founders (and 2022 Wallpaper* Architects Directory entrants) Jenchieh Hung and Kulthida Songkittipakdee.

The project was conceived as a family dwelling which responds to 'the philosophy of the Sufficiency Economy, initiated by Thailand's King Rama IX, which advocates self-reliance through sustainable, environmentally conscious living,' the architects explain. This means that old and new building methods and spatial arrangements merge for the optimal result that creates ample and comfortable living space while respecting the surrounding environment and its resources.

This means the home uses passive environmental strategies to both work harmoniously with its context and operate in the best way for its users. Techniques used include maximising sun exposure and ventilation to help maintain a comfortable internal environment, and a harvesting system that collects and reuses rainwater for irrigation in the garden.

The house itself looks decidedly modern, yet takes its cues from context and history. Its L-shaped footprint references the local agricultural vernacular's courtyard arrangement – which also helps control sun and airflow within the home, protecting some areas while opening up others to the outdoors. The result is a residence that 'maintains an average temperature of approximately 26°C without the need for air conditioning,' the architects explain.

At the same time, its tongue-in-cheek, jagged roofline is not just a playful geometric design, but echoes in an abstract way the outline of the region's surrounding mountains, seen from the home's large openings. Meanwhile, these shapes cast distinctive pixel-like mountain shadows on the floor, and reflections on the extensive glazed surfaces, bringing a sense of fun and dynamism into the design.

This approach, the architects add, 'draws inspiration from the dramatic silhouettes of Nang Yai, Thailand's traditional shadow puppet theatre. While Nang Yai is one of Thailand's most celebrated cultural traditions, its visual language has never before been translated into contemporary Thai architecture. Here, the project reinterprets this cultural heritage through architecture, transforming light, shadow, and landscape into an immersive spatial experience.'

Inside, a flowing open plan is designed to allow for maximum flexibility in terms of how to use the spaces – gathering, communication, yoga, meditation, and a range of everyday activities can all be easily accommodated. Further auxiliary spaces discreetly support a tatami room, music room, water closet, kitchen, and wine cellar. One arm of the 'L' contains social areas, and the other hosts the house's two en suite bedrooms.

The architects conclude: 'More than introducing a new residential typology, the project redefines the role of the villa by shifting its architectural paradigm from Le Corbusier's free plan to Mies van der Rohe's transparent façade, and ultimately to the roof as a new architectural manifesto of shade and shadow. In doing so, the project proposes a new paradigm for contemporary tropical living, where wind, rain, light, landscape, culture, and nature become the primary generators of architectural space.'

hasdesignandresearch.com

It was only a matter of time before Isay Weinfeld designed a cinema. The São Paulo-based architect is celebrated worldwide for his buildings, interiors, and furniture, but fewer people know that film is an equal passion. In 1988, he co-directed the feature Fogo e Paixão with his former business partner, and he is a professor of kinetic expression at the Fundação Armando Álvares Penteado, a private, non-profit university and cultural centre in São Paulo. Those who know Weinfeld are familiar with the boyish glint in his eye at the first mention of the movies. At Cine Tutu, that glint is everywhere.

Discover the world of Cine Tutu by Isay Weinfeld

The 114-seat independent movie house is the first street cinema in Vila Madalena, the city’s bohemian-chic enclave. Located on Rua Girassol, the building was conceived as a theatre but sat unfinished and empty for years. Founder Paulo Velasco, also behind Cinesala – the beloved street cinema in neighbouring Pinheiros – has delivered it to its original cultural calling, and Weinfeld has staged the experience as a sequence of scenes, each a sophisticated take on the moviegoing ritual, none resembling the shopping-mall multiplex.

The first unfolds at street level in Barouche, Velasco’s café-bar, open with or without a ticket. Expect speciality Brazilian coffee, sandwiches, draught beer and craft cocktails, plus popcorn from vintage countertop pipoqueiras – a buttery, nostalgic touch. Contrasting stainless steel and rich, warm native wood sets a stylish tone, and lush tropical flora behind the glass façade puts on a show of its own.

Downstairs, the waiting area feels more like a cocktail lounge than a pre-show holding pen. The walls are full of framed classic film posters, and stylish custom olive-green banquettes are clustered around a central column. Above, a one-of-a-kind centrepiece chandelier stretches its slender arms, washing the ceiling in pools of warm light that are a design feature in their own right. It all makes the room hard to leave, even as the coming attractions are calling.

Inside the screening room, a cheeky floral print developed in partnership with renowned Brazilian textile and design house Entreposto covers the rows of seats and lounge chairs prototyped to perfection by Weinfeld’s famously detail-obsessed studio. By nature, the technology maintains a lower visual profile, but delivers an eye-opening experience with an 8.9m-wide screen, Christie 4K projection, and Dolby 7.1 sound.

When the credits roll, the bar beckons for a drink and a debate about the film’s high points, low points, and, of course, the denouement. This month, there is plenty to discuss: Cine Tutu has joined the line-up of venues for the 50th São Paulo International Film Festival. Look for Weinfeld in the front row.

isayweinfeld.com

This autumn in London, the Hermès Maison window at 166 New Bond Street unveils a spectacular new display dreamt up by architects Space Popular. Scenes across its six arched windows sweep passersby up into a cosy and surreal drawing room built of cotton-and-silk-blend quilts in warm and toasty colours, inspired by the Georgian history of the Maison’s architecture.

Discover the new Hermès Maison window design in London

Titled ‘Ciel de Lit’, the storybook tableaux are wrapped in quilted sash windows ready to lift off into quilted clouds, a roaring fireplace, and a door that opens just ajar, hinting at imaginary worlds beyond. There’s humour in the details – floating Hermès gloves draw open the curtains, a silk scarf adorns an easel and a leather belt plugs into a stitched socket – sparking contrasts between the softness of the fabric-world and the exquisite reality of fine craft.

'We like to create things that make you look twice, widen your mind and spark curiosity,' says architect Fredrik Hellberg, one half of the Space Popular duo with architect Lara Lesmes.

Interested in virtual worlds, surrealism and trompe l’oeil, they were inspired by the strange magic of ‘moments between sleeping and waking’. The duo also looked to Hermès’ 2026 guiding creative theme of the year, ‘Venture Beyond’, and the whimsy of the London Maison itself, a magical village of six buildings and 55 uniquely designed rooms that unfolds beyond the windows.

After working together for many years, Space Popular has, over the past decade, turned increasingly to textiles, resonating with how the medium resonates deeply with the body, humanises architecture and tells stories over millennia. This first foray into quilting evolved in collaboration with a group of artisans and London-based crafts specialist Andy Knight, who joined nearly 500 pieces of quilted textiles together to create the vast installation, their largest endeavour to date.

'It’s incomprehensible how many hundreds of miles of stitching there is, yet how slow and precise it is too, because of all of the ornaments and details. You'll see that the stitching doesn't miss a millimetre,' says Hellberg, reflecting on the awe of the craft.

Space Popular worked closely with the Hermès team to curate the house’s objects within the display, many of which were drawn from the Home collection. There’s the Pippa stool, originally designed in 1983 by architects Peter Coles and Rena Dumas (1937-2009), the latter whose studio, Rena Dumas Architecture Intérieure (RDAI), now under the artistic direction of Denis Montel, is behind the design of the London Maison and establishing the interior vision of Hermès stores worldwide. As well as a luxurious sofa re-edition by Jean-Michel Frank; the Les Trotteuses d’Hermès occasional table; and Pantographe arc floor lamp.

When viewed in-person, one absorbs the architectural reflections, shifting light, the shiny speed of black cabs, and the elegant bustle of New Bond Street as another illusion, softly mirrored into the scene.

This history of Hermès’ windows is a tradition and art form in its own right, which was overseen for many years, between 1978 and 2013, by Tunisian designer-decorator Leïla Menchari (1927-2020), then in charge of the Hermès windows at Faubourg Saint-Honoré. Her work is celebrated in the book ‘Leïla Menchari, the Queen of Enchantment,' published by Hermès.

'This is the kind of legacy that you’re stepping into,' says Hellberg on Space Popular’s participation in this window display, recognising in admiration previous artistic collaborators of their generation such as Wang & Söderström. For Space Popular, part of the beauty of this installation is in reaching the broad public audience of the street with its wonder: 'We are called Space Popular for a reason,' he says, 'At our core we are really interested in what people like and what people enjoy.'

'Ciel de Lit by Space Popular' is on display at Maison Hermès at 166 New Bond St, London, W1S 4RB until 30 October 2026

It's exactly ten years since Dame Zaha Hadid passed away unexpectedly at the age of 65, leaving an unassailable legacy in her Issey Miyake-clad wake. In a strange piece of synchronicity, there’s now an incredibly rare chance to own one of her buildings in the heart of London.

Constructed from 2014 onwards, this house in Belgravia’s Grosvenor Crescent Mews has the distinction of being one of only two private residential projects completed by the studio (the other being the Capital Hill Residence outside Moscow).

A unicorn in the London property market, 6 Grosvenor Crescent Mews isn’t just a rare example of Hadid’s work but it’s also a 3,980 sq ft house with integral garage just a stone’s throw from Hyde Park Corner, located in what is Belgravia's only private gated mews.

Gaining permission for such an avant-garde structure in the midst of a thicket of Conservation Areas and listed buildings was no mean feat, even for an architecture of the calibre of Zaha Hadid. The site had boundaries with no fewer than nine different neighbours, placed in such a way that the only public-facing façade was just six metres in width.

That element, a rippling curtain of back-lit brickwork lattices and patterned glass, belies the scale of the house behind it, which extends over four generous 1,000 sq ft floorplans.

The garage was a planning condition, but it was fitted out to a residential specification so that it can be used as a study area if needed. It adjoins the main reception room, a space bounded by the curved interventions of the polished balustrade rail and the custom-designed staircase, formed from polished concrete and shaped to wind sinuously between the floors.

Like many London mews and conversion projects, the house goes down as well as up, with a kitchen and sitting room located in the basement, beneath a double height space which in itself is topped by a glazed terrace at first floor level. With windows, parapets, courtyards and walls arranged so as to avoid overlooking from surrounding properties, the entire house is cleverly folded into its site, making the most from the available space.

Utility, plant and stores are tucked away in the basement behind the kitchen, another area that is defined by a trademark Hadidian swoop, this time in the form of a polished kitchen counter that projects out from the wall like a geological form.

From here, the two-storey atrium rises up to the gauzy light that filters through the glass roof, with the polished balustrade playing off the curved concrete stair risers contained behind a glazed wall.

The first floor houses the principal bedroom suite, complete with curved glass and sole access to the terrace. A living wall flanks the perimeter of the property (it’s joined by a brown roof system designed to improve the house’s insulation), while the glazed stair tower rises up beneath the fluted forms of another skylight. On the second floor there are two further ensuite bedrooms, each winding around a central dressing room space.

The artistry and style of 6 Grosvenor Crescent Mews is sadly unrepeatable, making this project a rare opportunity to acquire a functional work of art in the heart of London.

In the decade since her death, the firm Hadid established in Studio 9 of a former school on Bowling Green Lane in Clerkenwell has gone all out into making her wildly exuberant approach into a clearly defined architectural style, Parametricism, translating Hadid’s wild, analogue forms into a heady, AI-infused cocktail of data-shaped aesthetic adventures.

If you can ignore the Succession-like shenanigans that have swirled around ZHA in the years that followed, the Zaha Hadid Foundation holds a fascinating archive of her work.

6 Grosvenor Crescent Mews, London SW1X is for sale at £11.95m through Forbes Gilbert-Green, ForbesGilbertGreen.com

What happens when a Southern California desert home is designed around just three circles? This curved residence was born of such a minimalist premise, taking its cues from, and unfolding around, its surrounding landscape.

Avocado House is a newly completed retreat perched above the Yucca Valley, created by Arshia Architects' principal architect Arshia Mahmoodi. The starting point was three simple circular shapes. One forms the house's core, another defines the yard, and a third connects the two. Sections of that geometry were then carved away to create a crescent-shaped courtyard and frame views across Yucca Valley to the San Jacinto Mountains.

Explore Avocado House, a new Californian desert home

Somewhere along the design process, the floorplan began to resemble an avocado, with the rounded core forming the ‘pit’ and the name stuck. The three-bedroom home is now part of Fieldtrip’s Signature Homes portfolio, the hospitality company behind Joshua Tree’s famed piece of desert architecture, the Invisible House, and other distinctive properties for home stays that include boutique hotel amenities.

The shape of Avocado House was conceived around its hilltop setting. Rather than placing the outdoor spaces behind the house, the architecture wraps around a central courtyard (or the pit, if you will) with a pool, spa and fire pit. Angled openings capture the surrounding boulders, desert sunsets and mountain views, while the main living room and two bedrooms open directly outside, serving as both a gathering space and a frame for the surrounding vistas.

The courtyard was a key element of the circular layout. ‘We wanted an outdoor space carved directly from the building volume, one that connects the house to the hillside and creates a quiet, intimate space within this vast hilltop landscape,’ says the owner of the home, Zhang Zhuo.

The curved interiors were developed by Xinlei Li of Xinlei Architecture, Inc., in collaboration with the ownership team, and include lighting fixtures by Flos with custom furniture pieces and artworks commissioned for the house to reflect the natural light at different times of day, while a lofted lounge with a pool table overlooks the main living area, creating a more intimate space within the open interior.

The curved wood framing and canopy were among the home’s most challenging elements to execute, but also some of its most defining. Following the geometry of the house, they create a sense of enclosure and privacy without closing the home off from its desert surroundings.

With the views as a core priority for the owners, Zhuo notes, ‘We explored a circular geometry for the layout with a central core for the living spaces, an outer ring defining the yard, and a connecting zone linking the house and yard together. We developed this circular idea into a volumetric form and wrapped it within an outer shell. We then made two intentional cuts into the building mass to frame the views and manage building height. The courtyard was carved out of this volume to tie the house to the hillside. The curved walls and canopy grew naturally from this circular geometry we pursued for the project.’

One of the main construction challenges for the team was building the curved wood framing and canopy accurately. ‘The most distinctive material we used is curved glulam timber,’ adds Zhuo. ‘It forms the sweeping canopy and roof structure, bringing warmth while following the building’s soft, rounded geometry.’

The project also incorporates a roof-drainage system with runoff directed to two dry wells on the property, and a solar-panel system to offset electricity demand.

‘When we started planning the home, the three-circle layout was our response to this hilltop setting. The three rings create a natural flow from the private interior living zone, through a transitional courtyard, out to the surrounding desert landscape. This layered arrangement lets us enjoy the panoramic views while still maintaining privacy.’

stayfieldtrip.com

In 1976, Polo Ralph Lauren arrived in Tokyo, Japan, its first location opening within the Seibu department store in Ikebukuro. Later that year, Ralph Lauren would host a runway show in the Tokyo Prince Hotel; so would begin a love affair between Japanese consumers and the American fashion behemoth, falling into a wider adoption of US style codes happening across the country. Deemed ‘Ametora’ – a portmanteau of American Traditionalist – denim, button-downs, Western shirts and the like proliferated in Japanese cities, oftentimes remade or perfected by local producers.

Six decades on, with over 150 Ralph Lauren store in the country – including a vast Tokyo flagship in the Omotesando neighbourhood – Ralph Lauren is marking 50 years in the country with PoloFest this weekend (23-25 October 2026), the first event of its kind. Spanning three days in Jing Harajuku events space in Tokyo’s Shibuya district, the festival will bring together ‘communities of passionate [Polo] fans from around the world’ enjoying a schedule that comprises an exhibition of archival pieces (dating back from Polo Ralph Lauren’s introduction in 1967), a vintage marketplace (featuring some of the most well-known international collectors), and a series of talks.

Ralph Lauren debuts PoloFest in Tokyo, Japan

It is an apt moment for such an event to take place: Polo Ralph Lauren is currently having something of a resurgence, part of a wider preppy revival (recent collections from the likes of Dior, Miu Miu and Celine have all mined collegiate and varsity dress codes; the last house is led by Michael Rider, who was previously creative director at Polo Ralph Lauren). Polo Ralph Lauren says the event encapsulates its founding principles: ‘Polo has [always] been about more than collections – it has created a distinctive world and a way of living. PoloFest is inspired by this unique emotional bond... through culture, community, collecting, and conversation.’

‘I have collected Ralph Lauren for most of my life and it’s the perfect opportunity to share this passion with other like-minded people,’ Albie Robert, founder of The Polo Archive – an Instagram that documents rare Polo Ralph Lauren garments and imagery – tells Wallpaper* of participating in PoloFest. ‘It is also significant to be a part of the first collectors event of its kind – something only Ralph Lauren could do.’

‘It has been amazing so far, meeting collectors and Ralph Lauren wearers from all over the world, some of whom I have spoken to over Instagram over the years,’ he continues, joining the likes of Japan’s Big Apple Store, the United States’ Millennial Decorator, Italy’s Tartan Vintage and Canada’s F as in Frank, among others, at the event. ‘It has been inspirational to see the many ways people wear and collect from all corners of the world – from the US to Japan to New Zealand. It shows the power of Ralph Lauren’s storytelling, which always allows you to be transported.’

PoloFest marks the first in a series of events that will celebrate Ralph Lauren’s 60th anniversary, taking place officially in 2027 (as for whether PoloFest will become an annual occurrence is yet to be announced). Founded in 1967 by the eponymous designer, the fashion empire began with a line of men’s neckties branded with ‘Polo’ and notable for their wider cut. ‘It was influenced by Ivy League, and then by England,’ he said of the Polo branding in a 1985 issue of New York Magazine. ‘I admired the European style, and horses and the whole atmosphere of a good life. I wasn’t merely interested in fashion. I’m not a fashion lover, but I knew what I admired.’

PoloFest takes place 23-25 October 2026, at Jing Harajuku in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Admission is complimentary, with tickets available exclusively through the Ralph Lauren LINE membership community.

For more information on PoloFest, visit the Ralph Lauren website.

A meeting of two brands that are never too far away from their next collaboration, the Fender x Paul Smith Telecaster is a new guitar out of Fender Japan, a limited-edition model due to ship in 2027 and created to mark the 80th birthday of Sir Paul Smith and the 80th anniversary of the founding of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

Why a Telecaster? This minimal, timeless form was designed by Leo Fender in 1949 and went into production the following year. The form has remained essentially unchanged ever since, with an infinite palette of variations keeping the Tele fresh and relevant for each successive generation. The Made in Japan series offers some of the most stylistically eclectic and finely crafted models in Fender’s range; it’s also a market with a long history of Paul Smith fandom.

The result is this Made in Japan Paul Smith Telecaster, a guitar that is instantly recognisable as a product of the Paul Smith school of bold but tasteful polychromy. The Signature Stripe pattern covers both front and back of the alder body, paired with a tortoiseshell pickguard. A light-coloured Maple Modern neck and dark Rosewood fingerboard (the neck is shaped in Fender’s shallow C-shaped profile).

The guitar also features two specially modified pick-ups in the Telecaster’s signature bridge and neck positions, along with a brass barrel bridge and a custom neckplate bearing the Paul Smith logo. Each guitar is individually numbered and comes with a specially designed hard case. Orders are open now for delivery next year.

In addition to the guitar itself, Paul Smith has collaborated on a new 16-piece capsule collection of clothing and accessories, running from ready-to-wear pieces to fine tailoring. One item that’s a must-have for buyers of the Telecaster is the Signature Stripe Paul guitar strap, made in Japan with co-branded leather trims and a polyester weave that perfectly matches the guitar itself.

Fender x Paul Smith Telecaster, £1,999, UK.Fender.com, @Fender

Paul Smith x Fender Signature Stripe Guitar Strap, £150, PaulSmith.com, @PaulSmithDesign

Launched this week at the firm’s shiny new store in New York, this is the Teenage Engineering EP-35, a standalone amplifier designed to be used for a keyboard, guitar, voice or whatever else needs plugging in and turning up. Powered by batteries, the relative simplicity and necessary scale of the amp has allowed TE to indulge in its passion for the cassette-futurist aesthetic, although as with the rest of its diverse range, there’s much more to the EP-35 than first meets the eye.

In addition to having a host of inputs (line, microphone, guitar, USB and Bluetooth), the EP-35 also has an array of eight effects tracks on both the mic and guitar input, selected and adjusted via old-school roller dials. These are programmed and labelled with typical TE aplomb (Indie, Twang, Robo Choir, Frog, etc), epitomising the company’s status as a supplier of eccentric gear that appeals to both hobbyists and ‘serious’ professionals.

Round the back of the amp there’s a storage compartment and a ‘camp light’, which can also be switched to a sound-reactive disco mode. Accessories include a carry bag and the K.O.–PEDAL expressive foot controller, which not only allows you to change volume and effects but should also work with other compatible gear.

An accessory kit is also available with a USB drive, microphone, the amptenna FM receiver (good for campfire audio) and a dock for clipping the Pocket Operator series of audio machines to the side of the amp.

A few weeks ago, there were hints from the TE camp that the company might be done with making synthesisers. As the creators of the hugely desirable OP-1 and its successor, the OP-1 Field, TE has lured countless synth-curious customers into acquiring what is are usually ferociously expensive pieces of hardware.

TE's gear has loyalists and detractors in equal measure, but could the company really be stepping back from the sector that made its name? The company suggested that such devices function just as effectively as a form of therapy as they do as a means of helping musicians make a living, so it's just possible that TE wants to focus its not inconsiderable industrial design chops on sectors that are a little less niche, like the EPA1 electric scooter it shaped for Vässla last year.

In any case, the music industry is changing fast. The past couple of months have seen the rise of homebrewed, vibe-coded firmware and decompiled operating systems, allowing enthusiasts to make major changes across everything from games consoles to high-end synths.

Many reckon this wave of AI-driven re-engineering will blow apart the cosy world of expensive proprietary boxes, dramatically slashing the status of carefully crafted interfaces like those created by TE. It’s very much a watch this space situation.

Teenage Engineering EP-35 Amplifier, £349, accessories sold separately, Teenage.Engineering, @TeenageEngineering

Montreal might not be as well known an art deco capital as Miami, Mumbai or Havana, but the Canadian city is crammed full of striking 1930s buildings, from the Jardin Botanique, Atwater Market and Aldred Building to the charming townhouses and theatre of Outremont. It is in this affluent residential district on the slopes of Mont Royal that you will find the art deco-influenced Residence Beloeil, an elegant renovation by local studio Atelier Barda.

Take a tour of Residence Beloeil by Atelier Barda

Featured in our 2020 Architects’ Directory, the practice, founded by Cécile Combelle and Antonio Di Bacco, focuses on projects rooted in their local context, 'creating environments and spaces that reflect the identity and singularity of its clients'. This is certainly the case with Residence Beloeil, a 1937 residence updated by Atelier Barda into a light-filled home furnished with unique designs and complemented by a new curved terrace.

The team, led by Di Bacco, threaded carefully to renovate the 300 sq m, three-level townhouse, seeking to 'accompany it' rather than radically transform it. They used the 'balance embedded in the proportions of the rooms and the height of the ceilings' and general atmosphere as 'generous constraints for reworking the house', and preserved original features such as the original glass block tiles in the stairwell.

Designed in dialogue with the original building, the new layout amplifies the qualities of the existing spaces. A custom-designed natural stone counter takes centre stage in the ground-floor kitchen, while the adjoining boudoir has been turned into a glazed sunroom to make the most of the garden views. Here, the full-length corner banquette is paired with marble tables by Foraine, Atelier Barda’s furniture and design division.

Equally eye-catching is the walnut woodwork, which ranges from wall panelling to the coffered ceiling, and links the various living spaces together. They are matched by a wide oak flooring pattern, designed specifically for the house. Its chevrons, as well as the tiered corner mouldings and sculptural stone fireplace, echo art deco’s strong geometries. So does the new terrace, with its semi-circle shape and white sweeping staircase.

Inspired in part by the objects of German painter Marianne Brandt and the garments of French couturier Paul Poiret, the interiors feature sculptural pieces such as Foraine's stainless steel 'Chabanel II' chair, placed next to the fireplace, or in the dining room, Les Objets Raymond Raymond’s 'Cement' stool, a fun three-legged concrete design made using a textile mould.

'Every added element had to be able to stand on its own, through its geometry, its proportions, the quality of its execution, while still receding before the whole,' explain the architects. Other finds include a yellow garden bench by Barbeau Desrosiers, accessories and vintage pieces by Bruises Gallery and Séjour Studio, sculptures by Karim Charlebois, as well as lighting by Lambert et Fils.

atelierbarda.com

How do you interact with technology in the quiet comfort of your own home? Anecdotal evidence suggests that too many of us simply take our scrolling habits home with us, distractedly swiping away through family meals or double-screening during boxsets. If we can’t give up our hard-won instant access to information, trivia and diversion, we can at least find ways of managing it.

Enter the home hub or home display. A category that barely existed a decade ago, these fixed-position second screens serve as portals to digital assistants as well as streaming devices, alarm clocks, kitchen timers and any number of hands-free, voice-controlled functions, as well as meshing and controlling smart home ecosystems. Amazon launched its Echo Show back in 2017 with Google following on the following year with its Home Hub.

Now it’s Apple’s turn to enter the fray. HomeView is Apple’s first-ever home assistant display, a characteristically polished device that foregrounds the physical design, the user interface and the close integration of Siri AI and Apple Intelligence.

If the design doesn’t wow you – and it should, especially when compared to the often rather plasticky offerings from its rivals – then Apple hopes the onboard intelligence and stringent privacy functions will encourage you to switch over to HomeView.

Featuring a seven-inch Liquid Retina display with adaptive brightness that goes all the way down to a soft glow for nightstand use, HomeView is finished in Apple’s signature aluminium. In addition to a wall-mounted version, the principal device sits on a domed speaker base, joined by a well-engineered stainless-steel hinge to adapt the viewing height. Right now, it’s available in silver, starlight, rose pink and space grey (Apple helpfully and predictably matches its USB cable colours to the case colour).

A lot of thought has gone into making HomeView intuitive. In addition to smart home management, streaming audio and making calls, the device has been tailored for use in multi-person households. If you have several Apple accounts on the go, HomeView has facial recognition, so it’ll bring up personalised content when you approach the device. Likewise, the proximity sensor keeps information bold and legible from across the room and switches automatically to a more detailed display as you approach.

What you have on your HomeView is very much up to you. As well as making Facetime calls and sorting through calendars, it can serve up photos from your camera roll and serve as the primary dashboard for smart home devices, from the thermostat and lighting controls through to doorbell cameras and more.

You’ll need a supported iCloud+ subscription to delve into the expansive options, which include new devices in the Apple Home Collection, but in principle it frees up the mind and hands from reverting to familiar scrolling patterns.

Access to the latest Siri AI model is the icing on the cake for those of us who have become used to simply asking random questions out loud, hoping that a suitable device is in earshot. Apple Intelligence is also used to add a layer of sophistication to HomeView’s syncing abilities, whether it’s continuing conversations across devices, recalling personal playlists, messages and calendar items, or simply being contextually aware of who is engaging with the device.

Another neat feature is the ability to dissemble online recipes into a series of bullet points, complete with handily placed timers, to save endless pinching and zooming around a web page.

The interface is clean and beautifully animated with extensive personalisation offerings. Clocks, weather panels, photos and more can be swapped in and out, with the friendly Snoopy IP also making a comeback.

The display contains two speakers with a bass woofer in the stand, making it a pretty decent option for listening to music and podcasts; Apple’s Handoff function seamlessly transfers the current song or episode from car or phone to the device. It can also sync with AirPlay-compatible speakers.

Apple’s inevitable arrival in this space has been achieved with typical panache, allowing those already immersed in the company’s ecosystem to carry on playing within its fragrant walled garden. For everyone else, the quality bar has just been raised.

Apple HomeView is available in silver, starlight, rose pink, and space grey for £299. HomeView Wall Mounted comes in space grey and silver for £299, Apple.com

This German house in the small city of Ludwigsburg offers a distinct proposition. House in Process, a residence for a family of four, is the redesign of an existing 1961 property. Yet what is different about this structure is that the architects, Stuttgart-based SOMAA Architektur & Innenarchitektur, worked with the owners to continuously develop the home between 2013 and 2026, eventually bringing it to its current form.

Explore the German House in Process by SOMAA

The aim was not to blindly 'replace the 1961 structure, but reread it', the architects explain. Their response focuses on wrapping the structure in a dark, calming envelope – a ventilated skin made of charred timber, following Japanese principles. The team adds that this 'surface follows the logic of yakisugi: fire is understood not as destruction, but as protection, depth and the ability to age'.

Gold-anodised window reveals and a brass front door stand out elegantly from this blackened exterior.

The property contains the main home and an additional independent apartment. The outside's bolder colours give way to light tones indoors, with lots of naturally coloured wood and refurbished existing surface fabric, such as white plaster walls and parquet flooring.

Overall, functionality rules, as rooms and operations were cut out and redefined around the family's daily life and needs.

The need to completely replace the ageing house's roof led to an opportunity – to work on a loft extension, which the architects crafted wrapped entirely in timber in a manner that proves warm and inviting, but also refreshingly minimalist. The team took its cues from studio founder Hadi A Tandawardaja's saying: 'Reduction is not renunciation, but the conscious focus on what truly matters.'

To ensure the German house is up to contemporary sustainability standards and the country's requirements for new buildings, the architects did a full energy assessment and retrofit during the redesign, too. The results led them to add wood-fibre insulation, an insulated pitched roof, triple glazing, an air-to-water heat pump and an in-roof photovoltaic system to support passive temperature control strategies and operational energy needs.

The property's outdoor areas were given just as much love as the interior, with the garden and decks carefully curated to bring in a welcome touch of green space to the family's everyday life. The later addition of a natural pool completes the constellation of al fresco living areas that become an integral part of the home's functions when the weather allows.

Importantly, this project was not a 'linear renovation story,' the architects hasten to point out. The close relationship the team nurtured with the clients and the luxury of time permitted them all to craft a different, slow type of architecture, which delved into not only the family's current needs, but also their future ones – building flexibility into the plan, too.

'The project shows that architecture does not only emerge through the design of a new object, but through the precise continuation of what is already there. A house can grow over years without becoming arbitrary. It can absorb layers without losing its legibility. And in the end, it can appear not as an addition, but as a house that has found its own way,' the architects conclude.

somaa.de

Lego’s regular forays into the infinite realms of pop culture are becoming more and more involved. Aside from the big-ticket licensing tie-ins – Minecraft, Star Wars, Pokémon, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc – there have also been high-profile collaborations with Pharrell Williams, Olivia Rodrigo, as well as various football and F1 stars.

Now the brick builders have reached out and added another creative to their closet. French electro duo Daft Punk are the newest sign-ups to the world of Lego, promising a fresh take on Lego’s blend of ‘music, culture and creative experimentation’.

So what will Daft Punk bring to the party? After all, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo officially disbanded their act back in 2021, having founded Daft Punk in 1993. The duo enjoyed a career that mixed highly performative anonymity, stunning live and video visuals, not to mention hit after hit after hit.

Few modern artists – let alone those working in the realm of dance music – have shaped, projected and sustained such a well-curated image as Bangalter and de Homem-Christo. It’s therefore unsurprising to find that Daft Punk™ (note the trademark) is very much a going concern, with creative director Cédric Hervet overseeing a host of posthumous projects that includes remixes, reissues, soundtracks, and high-profile partnerships with the likes of Fortnite.

Lego is the latest brand to come knocking. The collaboration was made concrete by a film featuring Daft Punk’s tracks ‘Voyager’ and ‘Human After All’. It’s a pairing that has its origins in a couple of Lego-related events, starting with the duo’s minifig cameo in the Pharrell Williams 2024 brick-built biopic Piece by Piece, followed by an appearance on the Lego Ideas fan creation site, with Daft Punk Concert, a set suggested by super-fan Patrick Harboun and his son.

That representation of the Daft Punk ‘pyramid’ stage set (from the 2007 Alive tour) will go into production next year, the first in what is hoped will be a series of related sets. It's only hinted at in today's launch film, which follows the Daft Punk robotic minifigures along a holographic red brick road through a neon-streaked landscape, leading to a concert venue that builds itself around them.

Wallpaper* spoke with Cédric Hervet about the scope and scale of the collaboration and what it means for the enduring power of the Daft Punk name.

Wallpaper*: What can the Lego Universe do for DP's legacy, given that the group only exists as a cultural force and not an active music duo these days?

Cédric Hervet: To me, Daft Punk never stopped existing. A legacy doesn't end when you stop making new work. Our creative outset with the Lego team has been to look at legacy not as something static, but an invitation to innovate and create. The music, the robots, the pyramid all live on through the fans, who keep making them their own. My role today is to look after that world and open up new territory for it. And that's exactly the spirit of Lego creativity: you build, you take it apart, you build again.

W*: Do you see any parity between the technology of the Lego brand and the way DP presented themselves over their career?

CH: For me, the common ground is imagination. Lego bricks are an extraordinary tool for creativity: you're handed some bricks, and it's up to you to build whatever is possible with them. That's also how Daft Punk started. Thomas and Guy-Man wanted to make electronic music, so they bought a bit of gear, figured it out, and created with what they had.

As a kid, just the Lego packaging or the pages of the holiday catalogues made me feel like I was stepping into another world. You wanted to know what was hiding behind a Lego City building. With Daft Punk, we always played on that: leaving people room for their own imagination, their own interpretation.

W*: What are you most excited about with this collaboration? The sets? The technology? The new audience?

CH: First, something very personal. I've always loved Lego toys, and I dreamed about this collaboration for years. I still have to pinch myself. I played with Lego bricks as a kid, I spent many hours being creative with my children using them and as recently as last winter I was still giving them Lego Advent calendars. They're 20 and 19 now, which tells you it hasn't aged a day.

I also sometimes ask them whether Daft Punk's music sounds dated, because when you're inside it, it's hard to have perspective. Apparently it still feels very current to them. And then there's the pyramid. I was lucky enough to work on the stage design for the Alive 2007 tour.

Every night, I watched the show from the side of the pyramid. I was the audience's audience. Seeing thousands of people dance with smiles on their faces for an hour and a half was the greatest reward. So, seeing that pyramid come back in bricks, imagined by a father and his son during lockdown, is the link between generations I'd been dreaming of.

W*: How did the collaboration come about - who approached who?

CH: To be honest, on our side, we had tried to approach the Lego Group several years ago. To me the connection was obvious, but the timing probably wasn't right yet. What really unlocked it was the fans.

The Lego Ideas Daft Punk Concert project won the Music to Our Ears challenge in 2020, then reached 10,000 supporters. This gave us an opportunity to see how naturally the two worlds fit together: ethically, aesthetically, culturally. The fact that fans made this collaboration possible is wonderful to me. Daft Punk's story is also a story of fans inspired by other artists.

W*: How do you see the partnership with the Lego Group evolving over time?

CH: We're only at the first few bricks. The Lego universe is vast, and just seeing the two little robots, GM08 and TB3, step into it means a lot to me. They'll get to live their own lives there. I really love the Lego tone, especially in its animated content. It's a lot of fun, and it reveals a different, slightly offbeat side of the characters.

You get a first glimpse of that in the AV. The pyramid set is a first step. Beyond that, I can't say more for now, but I can’t wait to see this partnership unfold based on what brought it to life: fans sharing with each other and passing on creative experimentation from one generation to the next.

Lego.com, @Lego, DaftPunk.com, @DaftPunk

Many of us already live with some kind of domestic digital companion, even if it is in the acceptable form of a smart speaker like an Amazon Echo or Google Nest Hub. But what if these inanimate objects were imbued with a little more character? Would interactions become less fraught, frustrating and functional (‘Google, what’s the weather like in London today’)? Might we all just slow down a little, snagged by the lure of a ghost in the machine?

OKA was founded by Wesley Chen and Hua Wang, a self-described ‘nomadic entrepreneur’ with a very specific reason for his approach to robotics. ‘I spent ten years designing mechanisms to make people come back to their phones,’ Wang says candidly, explaining how his new robotics venture OKA (One Kind Artifact) set out to be something different. ‘I watched Fritz Lang’s 1927 film Metropolis and it made me question why robots are still not a part of our lives, nearly 100 years later,’ he says over video from New York.

For Wang, the answer boiled down to two things; the expectations that a robot should be able to do everything a human could do, and the corresponding need for them to be human-scaled, large and mechanical. ‘I couldn’t imagine having such intrusive machinery in my house,’ he admits.

The answer is Mori, a ‘robot that belongs in a home’. At 30cm tall, roughly the same size as a desk lamp, Mori (Japanese for ‘forest’) is explicitly not an appliance, nor a Terminator-style humanoid that needs a whole afternoon to fold your laundry.

The most obvious visual metaphor is a mushroom, with an illuminated hat/cap above a bulbous fabric-covered stem. In between the two sits Mori’s ‘face’, two illuminated eyes and a button (camera) nose. Servos activate a discrete range of fluid movements, eyes dart left and right, eyelids flutter and the little robot offers a convincing portrayal of an introvert tucking itself away beneath its hat and hiding from the world. It’s a distinctly non-threatening piece character design, a static yet personable object that feels part Pixar, part Studio Ghibli, part Flos.

Switch Mori on and tap the stem to wake the device and an elaborate start-up theatre ensues, with the device appearing to run through phases of shyness and curiosity as it wakes. The illuminations cycle through a range of colours, responding to touch and voice, while the fabric body (25 per cent real wool and available in four colours) also incorporates sensors. Mori’s onboard AI will, in time, learn to recognise different people and environments, as well as run through actions in response to commands or taps. New 'personality' quirks and responses will continue to evolve and emerge.

So what’s it all for? Wang describes the device as ‘something to relax and calm you down’, with inbuilt relaxation programs triggered by resting a hand on Mori’s 'head'. In this mode, ambient sounds and lights are generated as part of a guided breathing session. These immersive sessions – forests, seashores, etc – are all accompanied by a swirling light show to help transport you into a different state of mind. Of course, Mori also functions as a regular light.

Ultimately, OKA wants Mori to be a piece of mindful technology, an object that becomes more and more in sync with the humans around it, thanks in part to the company’s ‘Attentive Intelligence Engine’. Think of it as an alarm clock with character, one that welcomes you home after work, with eyelids that flicker and droop as the evening turns into the small hours, perhaps encouraging you to finish up and go to bed.

This dependence on contextually powered AI also shapes Mori’s response to other stimuli, which it usually translates into movement and light, rather than speech and sound. In this respect, it’s more adjacent to a giant Tamagotchi than it is to an Alexa, but still a step down from a cat.

Mori is the first in what OKA hopes to be a suite of five such mindful ‘Artifacts’, each of which uses robotics and AI technology to offer a new spin on emotional response. Mori’s role is to ‘explore the relationship between humans and their immediate physical environment’, rather than chase diary dates or offer reminders for chores. No two Mori devices will ever be alike – put two or three together and watch them communicate in different ways.

Whether you treat it as animated nightlight, spirited sound therapist, or just a digital pet, Mori shows the potential of immobile yet highly engaged AI-powered objects. With OKA poised to reveal its portfolio of more animated Artifacts in the months to come, we’ll keep you posted.

Mori Founder Edition (limited to 500 units), $649, OKA, OneKindArtefact.com

The reveal of the annual Margaret Howell calendar serves not only as a reminder of the passing of another year, but an insight into the perennial British designer’s interests and inspirations; previous editions have featured archival posters from London’s Design Centre (2017), the textile works of designer Lucienne Day (2025), and the ‘British landscapes’ of photographer Edwin Smith (2015).

For 2027, the theme is altogether more personal: titled ‘Photographs by Margaret Howell’, the project will see each month feature an image taken by the designer herself on her Nikon SLR camera or smartphone, spanning various decades and capturing ‘places, objects and details’ – from beach walks in Suffolk to self-portraits in her Blackheath workroom. Without a specific theme, they instead offer a glimpse of how Howell sees the world: most notably, through moments of everyday beauty and a fixation with surface, texture and found objects.

‘It is always when you see something that’s either unusual or really beautiful,’ says Howell. ‘If you can capture that – quite often you can’t ... [If it] surprises you or excites you, you just want to take a photo.’

Coinciding with the calendar’s release, a series of images will be displayed in the designer’s Wigmore Street store in London, while a new book, titled Margaret Howell: Life and Work, offers a companion piece. Published by Japanese company Shueisha, the bilingual book explores Howell’s ‘pragmatic approach to living and designing’, featuring a series of images, including several shot by Howell herself. Her mantra, ‘good design is thoughtful and works well in everyday life’, provides the book’s common thread.

A continuation, of sorts, from Margaret Howell Houses (2006, also published by Shueisha), which has sold over 50,000 copies, the new book situates her work within her everyday life – most notably, her home in Suffolk, documenting the furnishings, objects and scenery which surround her while she designs her collections. Elsewhere, there is an exploration of the materiality which remains at the heart of her collections – including an insight into her work with British fabric producer Fox Brothers of Somerset – and her London Shirtmaking Workroom, which recently got an upgrade.

‘Photographs by Margaret Howell’ runs from 23 October – 15 November 2026 at Margaret Howell Wigmore Street, London. Margaret Howell: Life and Work and the 2027 Margaret Howell calendar are both available from 22 October 2026 at Margaret Howell Wigmore Street and from the Margaret Howell website.

If you were fortunate enough to be a member of the Medici court five centuries ago, you might spend your evenings playing a game of Goose. The amusement, considered one of the world’s first mass-produced boardgames, entailed rolling dice and moving pieces around a spiralling path, with the aim of being the first to reach its centre, while avoiding medieval hazards like wells, prison and death. Winning, of course, required a pinch of luck.

Ginori 1735, the Italian porcelain-maker, has been in business for nearly as long as the game of Goose – and for its latest collection of tableware and objects, the company wanted its customers to quite literally try their luck. Called Fortunae, the collection draws directly from early Goose boards, which featured auspicious illustrations of lucky charms, in addition to depictions of the game’s namesake waterfowl.

Ginori's offering includes an array of functional objects that are inspired by fortuitous symbols around the world. There’s an ashtray, bordered in lucky red glaze, that features a horseshoe illustration; dessert plates printed with a cornicello, the horn-shaped amulet that wards off the evil eye; and a small oval box topped with a celadon-glazed dragonfly, a good omen in many cultures.

Others items have more literal references to the game of Goose, as with one whimsical jar illustrated with a posy of four-leaf clovers and topped with an adorable gander-shaped lid. The centrepieces of the collection is a round tray can doubles as a resting place for trinkets or teacups, as well as an elegant board for your very own medieval dice game.

Fortunae arrives just in time for gifting season, but is perfect year-round for anyone in need of a wish or a bit of luck. But we wouldn’t judge if you wanted to hoard these pretty talismans for yourself – fortune, after all, favours the bold.

A reimagining and wholesale refurbishment of a village house built at the turn of the century, this residence by architects Anna and Eugeni Bach expands the original structure with a series of geometric additions and insertions. The result remains in keeping with the sober restraint of this small, upscale village near Girona, in Spain’s north-eastern corner, whilst adding a layer of materiality and functionalism that better serves the owners.

Explore this contemporary village house in Spain

The House in Fonolleres occupies a prominent site on the edge of the village, bounded on three sides by roads with a south-facing garden. This part of the house underwent the largest alterations, with a new full-width extension and veranda, above which is a large terrace. Another extension was made on the front façade to create a more generous entrance and an internal garage that was better suited to the size of modern cars.

Additional smaller interventions take the shape of the five bespoke circular canopies on the terrace, a new circular pergola covering the outdoor kitchen table and a triangular notch that cuts into the floorplan at master bedroom level to create what the architects call a ‘studiolo’ (an Italian Renaissance term for a compact study room). Tucked in behind the bedhead and flanked by a bookcase that spans two storeys, this niche is just one of idiosyncratic design touches that abound throughout the house.

The Barcelona-based architects worked alongside their colleagues Roger Molas and Nuria Gómez on a project that feels like it has evolved over time, much like many of the other houses in the village. Each of the new additions appears to stand alone as a discrete object, thanks in part to its formal, geometric design, with a unifying palette of natural materials.

Many of the additions are guided by the desire to expand the range of ‘shade and shelter’ available to the occupants, making the house more liveable all year round. Plaster, timber and ceramic finishes have been carefully chosen to present a warm, common language and earthy palette.

Shade is carefully placed according to function; planting on the circular pergola will eventually screen the breakfast table from the morning summer sun, while the built-in barbeque is shaded at midday.

Other quirky details reveal themselves through familiarity, from the hidden studiolo to the shallow end of the pool shaded by the new covered seating area. Throughout the 350 sq m house the rooms are modestly scaled, kept anchored by straightforward materials and meticulously crafted details, from the precision of the roof beams to the notched stone anchors for the timber columns.

AnnaEugeniBach.com, @eugenibach, @anna_k_bach

Monopoly can be the game that threatens family relationships. Yet, since its original conception by Elizabeth Magie in 1903, it has remained a popular household name for its thrill of deal-making and property empire-building without real financial risk. Now, your favourite board game just got chicer.

Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc on the Côte d'Azur is the inspiration for a new custom version of Monopoly. More than 150 years of Riviera history is packaged onto the square board. Instead of the board being divided into the traditional streets, stations and utilities of varying value, in the new game, each square is defined by a place, a service, or a moment of history from the hotel.

Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc's Monopoly board game

Players have the choice of six gold figures to move around the board, including the Eden-Roc buoy, the Autobianchi Bianchina Eden-Roc (the hotel’s 1960s cabriolet), the Queen Elizabeth rose (featured in the hotel garden), and a director’s chair (an ode to the Cannes Film Festival). Banknotes feature a wing of the hotel, Pavillon Eden-Roc, while ‘Chance’ and ‘Community Chest’ cards present opportunities such as a private tasting at Michelin-starred Louroc or a game of pétanque with the hotel's managing director Philippe Perd.

The hotel, which has a firm spot on The 50 Best Hotels 2026, has been an Antibes attraction since 1870. Its history inspired the game's illustrations by Haydée Otero, founder of Anisette Design, who used a palette of blues and greens, seen throughout the board and on the banknotes. The custom game, limited to 500 editions, preserves the traditional rules – let’s hope you draw the ‘get out of jail free’ card.

The game is priced €280 and is available from 20 October 2026, while supplies last, via edenrocrivieracollection.com and at the Eden-Roc Riviera Collection boutique

Apple Music has enlisted British producer Fred Again.. to help turn sound into something tangible for its new visual identity. Built around the idea of being ‘made by sound’, the redesign takes an experimental approach, using musical frequencies to create rippling, liquid forms. The results were achieved by playing music into a shallow bath of mineral oil and filming the resulting vibrations.

Fred Again.. and his collaborator Nest Acoustics developed a short musical composition that doubles as the brand's new sonic signature. Individual notes were played through a transducer, a device that converts audio signals into physical vibrations, causing the oil to ripple in response. The movements and refractions were captured on camera, providing the raw material for the new design.

The approach draws on Apple's wider design direction, particularly Liquid Glass, the translucent design language introduced across its software in 2025.

The redesign includes Apple Music's typography. A new wordmark pairs the recognisable Apple symbol with a customised version of Apple's own typeface, SF Pro. Bold, lowercase lettering gives the service a youthful energy, while a reworked musical note icon takes its shape from the forms captured during filming.

The project reportedly took months of experimentation with sound, materials and moving image. A companion film, seen above, documents the creative process, following the journey from the original composition through to the finished identity.

Fans got their first glimpse of the new logo last month at the unveiling of Apple Music Hall, the brand's new live music venue in London, but expect to see it roll out across all platforms this week.

Perhaps a little bit overlooked in the media frenzy surrounding the revival of the Citroën 2CV (and then further crushed by the inevitable attention given to dubious aerial stunts), the all-new Smart #2 is a city car that revives the spirit of the original. Smart has returned to its roots, putting the rebooted brand back into the heart of the environment it was originally created for.

As is increasingly the case for car makers, Smart spans the worlds of Europe and China. The partnership make the most of brand equity and manufacturing nous, with the design elements handled by Mercedes-Benz and the engineering overseen by China’s Geely Group. This arrangement, set up in 2019, kicked off with the Smart #1 in 2022, followed by the Smart #3 and Smart #5, with each model getting successively larger and, well, less ‘smart-like’.

The company hopes to put that straight with the return of the #2, announced last year and swiftly followed by the Smart Concept #02, which in turn has led to the final reveal of the production model at the 2026 Paris Motor Show.

Although it’s not quite as white and chunky as the concept, the Smart #2 should shoot straight to the top of the fast-growing micro-city-car segment. From the days of the original Swatch-inspired two-seater, Smart’s smallest model has always tried to cram a big-car sensibility into a tiny package.

Smart #2 is no different. Even though it’s not the first electrified two-seater from the brand (back in 2007 there was an EV that eventually evolved into the niche Smart EQ Fortwo EV), the new car joins a market awash with competitors, and not just in the ultra-compact and legislatively incomparable quadricycle category led by the Citroën Ami. In Paris, there were a number of new microcars on display, none of which quite managed to steal the spotlight away from Smart.

The main reason the #2 trumps its rivals is that it successfully continues the ethos of not compromising conventional car characteristics like safety, space and performance, whilst still offering a truly tiny 2.74m footprint. Sitting on the company’s Electric Compact Architecture (ECA) platform, the new car retains the original’s silhouette and four-square stance, with an interior configured to maximise space.

An S-shaped cockpit ensures passengers don’t get short-changed in the space department, with a bench-style front seat and split rear tailgate for added practicality. With a car this scale, the details are all important, with everything from the turning circle (just 6.9m) to the range (290km/180 miles on the WLTP scale) going into the pot to make this machine as practical as it is lovable.

The original Smart quickly became a cult car in congested European city centres and Smart wants to retain a piece of that action. To that end, it’s launching the #2 with a special Couture Edition (999 units in Europe and 999 units in China) inspired by the concept car. Featuring Atelier White Matte paint and a Platinum Gold roof, it’ll be shipped with the most upscale interior equipment package, including heated seats and a glass roof, along with a specially developed seven-speaker Sennheiser Sound System.

In the endless quest for the ultimate personal mobility machine, smart thinking is definitely back.

Smart #2, price tbc, more information at UK.Smart.com, @Smart_Worldwide