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

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

Discover the leafy embrace of this Somerset retreat

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

daytrip.studio

In a new Wallpaper* summer series, architect Carlo Ratti explores Italy through the ordinary objects that define daily life. Fourth up: the Vibram sole, and how it helped the world find its footing

Carlo Ratti's on the Vibram sole

There is a recurring image in mountaineering magazines: a boot resting on a rock, the Alps in the background. The boot is always photographed in profile, never from below. No one turns over the sole. If they did, they would find a small yellow octagon bearing the name Vibram, and discover that they were looking at perhaps the most widespread Italian design object in the world.

We are in Via della Spiga in Milan, now in the heart of Milan’s fashion district, between Prada and Gucci. In the 1930s, however, it was still a street of artisans, where a certain Vitale Bramani ran a shop for alpine equipment. Bramani was a Milanese mountaineer, no engineer or chemist. He sold ropes, ice axes, carabiners. The paradox was already there: Milanese elegance and the brutality of the mountain, contained within the same man.

In 1935, six climbers died of exposure on Punta Rasica, in Val Bregaglia. Their leather soles, soaked with water, turned to ice. Bramani had led the expedition, repeating a route he himself had opened only a few weeks earlier. After that tragedy, he set out for a remedy.

He came across a Pirelli tyre, and saw in it a sole. He later developed his own tread, also drawing on the floors of Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele, one of the places he knew best. He translated it into vulcanised rubber and patented it. The name is a contraction of VI-tale BRAM-ani. The company remains family-owned, based in Albizzate, in the province of Varese, with a laboratory in Milan’s design district that we helped design.

The name Vibram contains a sophisticated idea: the control of vibration on the ground, a physical relationship with the environment mediated through the sole of the foot. The intelligence lies in the sole itself, visible to anyone who looks from below, yet unnoticed by almost everyone else.

Over the years, its range of uses has widened. With the invention of FiveFingers, that strange glove-shoe that separates the five toes and has since been copied everywhere, Vibram made the opposite move. From hyper-protection to near-nakedness. From the maximal sole to the minimal one. The five extensions of the foot transmit information from the ground in real time, returning the body to a more primitive connection with the terrain.

From tyre to bare skin, by way of vulcanised rubber: a very Italian exercise in sophisticated simplification. A primitive foot became the manifesto of the “paleo” tribe, somewhere between the hippies of the 1960s and the Flintstones.

Few people know that everyone from hipsters converted to the comfort of trekking shoes to the United States Marines is walking on a Milanese invention. Billions of people scamper about on Vibram soles without the faintest idea. It may be the most influential Italian design object in the world that no one sees, because it is always facing downwards. The question it raises is an interesting one: does design matter if no one sees it?

It matters all the same. Every step on a mountain path, every soldier’s march, every trail run is a dialogue between foot and ground. Mediated by the intuition of a Milanese shopkeeper-mountaineer who, in 1935, looked at a wheel and saw the future.

About 'Objectify' – a summer series from Italy by Carlo Ratti

Italy’s design canon has been told many times. The Bialetti moka pot, the Vespa, the Fiat 500, the Arco floor lamp: you know the list, and so does every airport bookshop and first-year design student. This column will discuss, poke, investigate, prod, ridicule and beatify the less glamorous Italian objects. They are the ones you ought to know, so that when you visit Italy, or spot apparitions of it on a friend’s social media, you can smugly point out: “Did you know the mosquito coil is a masterpiece of Italian design? The condom? The motorway toll transponder?” Objects so ordinary that Italians walk past them, or handle them every day, without registering that someone, with a mellifluous surname, designed them.

Proust wrote a seven-volume novel because a small cake dipped in tea, the madeleine, unlocked an involuntary flood of memory. For followers of the Italian version of this column, published weekly in Il Sole 24 Ore, the nation’s favourite Sunday read, perhaps these objects will have a similar effect. For you, anglophone readers peering at this somewhere between Rummidge and Euforia, they offer something else: beach conversation topics, an eye trained on unexpected places, and perhaps a few new madeleines for when you visit the peninsula yourself. After all, objects are never just objects. As the great Milanese designer Achille Castiglioni of Arco-floor-lamp fame once declared: “Objects should keep us company.” Especially during this scorching summer.

carlorattiassociati.com

In 1979 the press secretary of the British embassy in Buenos Aires, Randoll Coate, woke from a dream where his friend, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges had died. Writing to Susana Bombal (who had originally introduced them in the 1950s), he unveiled his idea: inspired by Borges’ short story ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’, he vowed to create a labyrinth in his honour whenever the day came.

True to his word, after the writer’s death in 1986, the maze maker’s design came to life in Argentina. Due to its success, Borges’ widow Maria Kodama began to propose Coate’s project to places dear to the writer. Venice, itself a winding labyrinth of a city, held a special place in his heart.

Labirinto Borges at the Giorgio Cini Foundation

In 2011, twenty-five years after Borges' death, the labyrinth opened on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore. Set in a weathered cordon steel skeleton to protect it from the elements, vivid green boxwood plants wind in long articulated lines, revealing the form of an open book, the writer’s surname splayed out in elegant type on each 'page', mirrored and intertwined.

Looking closer, images emerge: a question mark, a cane, a pair of eyes. 'The labyrinth’s perimeter asks us with its symbols and signs to remember the reasons why it was planted,' says Pedro Memelsdorff, the musical director of the Giorgio Cini Foundation. '[It’s] a monumental tribute to Borges for the future and for future generations.' Today, forty years after the writer’s death, thanks to the generous support of PwC Italia the labyrinth has been fully restored.

Restoring the original maze

'We might think of it as a mosaic, with the plants as the tiles that live or die,' says Renata Codello, the Secretary General of the Foundation. The process of creating and maintaining the maze is 'a constant action … always living and present.' 165 dead or severely damaged boxwood plants were removed, while the irrigation system responsible for maintaining the verdant green was inspected and repaired where faults were found. Only time will tell if the older plants accept the new ones; like a body after an organ transplant, things need to unite. In the 15 years since it was first planted change was inevitable, with this revisitation the 1,1150 metres of winding path have been trimmed and unified. Weeds painstakingly removed by hand, the soil revamped, refreshed, and enriched with additional fertilization.

Thanks to a collaboration with the Italian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired, the restoration also includes the addition of a tactile map at the start of the maze. Borges lived for the last years of his life in darkness, his sight gradually deteriorating over time until he went blind at the age of 55. So this small but powerful gesture creates another moving link to the author, allowing visitors to understand the structure of the labyrinth and feel its twists and turns before they take that first step into the unknown, and experience it for themselves.

The Labyrinth is now open to the public
visitcini.com

This past December, the German fashion e-retailer Mytheresa inaugurated its Maison Mytheresa concept with a Wes Anderson-esque ‘concierge’ in the historic ski resort, St Moritz. The ephemeral space, which ran throughout the ski season, was less store than private members’ club – a space for Mytheresa’s clients to gather for various activities, from styling sessions, talks and trunk shows to cookie-making classes (or simply indulge in Laurent-Perrier and Oona Caviar, who provided the refreshments). ‘An intimate escape into the Mytheresa lifestyle,’ the brand called it at the time.

Maison Mytheresa docks in the French Riviera

This summer, Mytheresa’s travels continued with the second iteration of Maison Mytheresa, taking over a mega-yacht on the French Riviera this June (after all, its top-spending clients likely winter in the mountains before heading to the Med for the summer months). Continuing a collaboration with Studio Boum – a London-based agency responsible for some of the fashion industry’s most memorable scenography – the yacht was reimagined as a private club, featuring vivid Mytheresa yellow parasols and sun loungers, branded life rings, fans and pool toys, as well as an edit of the retailer’s fashion offering scattered about the various rooms.

Like the first Maison Mytheresa, the two-week residency – which saw the yacht anchor at Saint-Tropez harbour and the Yacht Club de Monaco – featured a series of talks, trunk shows and parties, with involvement from brands including Missoni, Saman Amel, Roberto Cavalli and Aquazurra, among others.

‘Maison Mytheresa reflects our ambition to redefine luxury retail through unforgettable experiences that bring together fashion, culture and community,’ Mytheresa CEO Francis Belin tells Wallpaper*. ‘With this second edition, we are building on the success of our St Moritz edition, creating a travelling destination where clients can discover exceptional brands, connect with inspiring people and engage with Mytheresa in a way that feels personal, emotional and uniquely memorable.’

Elsewhere this summer, Mytheresa returns to the Hamptons with ‘Mytheresa Out East’, promising an escape from New York City with a customised Airstream that will travel around the East Coast locale, from now until August 6. The vintage trailer’s interior has been designed by Lulu and George, while guests attending the private shopping appointments on board will each get a floral display to take away in a Ginori 1735 vase.

mytheresa.com

Launched during Milan Design Week 2026, when the city overflows with temporary installations destined to disappear as quickly as they arrive, Nemo Lighting's new showroom (Via Santa Cecilia 4/A) quietly did the opposite. What designer Ron Gilad has created is anything but ephemeral; the project represents a radical rethinking of retail, transforming the showroom into an environment where light becomes something to inhabit rather than simply observe.

Nemo Milan by Ron Gilad

‘I tried to give the light the freedom to live,’ says Gilad. That ambition is immediately apparent, even before you step inside. There is, in fact, no traditional threshold. Above the entrance, two intersecting LED crosses (reminiscent of a pharmacy sign) display haiku dedicated to light. Visitors may walk through the large glass façade or ring a doorbell that makes no sound at all. Instead, it activates a light embedded within what appears to be a framed artwork, discreetly alerting the staff gathered around a large circular table on wheels. The same illuminated frame conceals a printer: objects refuse to be what they first appear, setting the tone for a visit that blurs the boundaries between function, illusion and play.

On one side, a wall-mounted shelf gathers an eclectic mix of objects, from the classic ‘Kuta’ lamp, designed by Vico Magistretti in 1972 to an AI-generated reinterpretation of Edward Hopper paintings. On the opposite side of the room, concealed niches hide unexpected discoveries – guests lift what seems to be an orange canvas with a wall lamp to reveal ‘Pivotante à Poser’, the celebrated lighting design by Charlotte Perriand.

Digital figures with human legs, fictional monks, pigeons and even a towel-bearing female populate the showroom, reinforcing Gilad's surreal narrative. Beyond the main area unfolds a sequence of rooms connected by distinctly Milanese arches. Here, historic classics converse across generations: ‘Parliament’, originally designed by Le Corbusier for Chandigarh's Parliament in 1963, faces the contemporary ‘Fox’ lamp, while ‘LBB01’ by Lina Bo Bardi illuminates a glass table beside ‘Cupido’, casting light onto an impossibly tall volume titled The Lamp Waits Alone Then Suddenly Remembers How To Be a Sun. Even after closing hours, dedicated videos transform the large windows facing Via Damiano into illuminated urban stages.

The spiral staircase leads downstairs into the technical world of brands Reggiani and ILTI Luce, but the surprises keep coming. Inspired by Milan's Duomo, the welcome area features a black daybed balanced on four miniature chairs facing a giant screen that frames a virtual view of the Madonnina, the golden statue crowning Milan Cathedral. Different marbles recreate shifting sunlight across the floor, while in another room, an enormous cabinet conceals countless drawers filled with lighting solutions.

‘For Ron and me, this is more than a showroom – it's a manifesto,’ says Federico Palazzari, CEO of Nemo Lighting and Nemo Group. ‘We simply wanted to create the most interesting lighting showroom in the world.’ More importantly, he argues, it is an antidote to today's fragmented attention span. ‘We work for people's eyes. Our goal is to invite concentration – not only on the product itself, but on how light is staged, experienced and understood.’ The result is a retail environment where curiosity replaces mere consumption, and every visit becomes an invitation to slow down, look closer and rediscover the pleasure of being surprised.

To the uninitiated, DS is an automotive outlier, selling a relatively low number of genuinely eccentric cars. Within the Stellantis portfolio DS sits towards the upper end of the market, below Maserati in the luxury and performance stakes but without the heritage and image. Like Maserati, it purports to offer a luxurious, individual experience but conveys a lot more eccentricity than it perhaps realises.

Wallpaper* recently travelled to Nice to experience the company’s newest model, the DS No.7. A replacement for the brand’s best-selling DS 7 Crossback, it joins the idiosyncratic flagship DS No.8. There’s also the elegant No.4 hatchback and the DS 3, the current iteration of the car that spawned the entire sub-brand back in 2009 when it debuted as the Citroën DS3.

Any actual connection to the Fifties ‘goddess’ is tenuous at best. With so many other brands looking to get the old band back together to roll out a show of their greatest hits, DS is to be congratulated on eschewing overt retro symbolism and actually setting out to do something different.

If you squint, you get a sense of the Citroën DS’s forward-focused massing – the car had a wider track at the front than at the back – in the way the No.7 appears to taper towards the rear. But ultimately, the ‘DS’ name is about evoking the past, not slavishly recreating it, whilst adding in a dose of contemporary French luxury.

The latter is expressed through an unconventional approach to interior elements, material choice and overall cabin ambience. It’s a mechanically crafted aesthetic that draws in part on French Art Deco style and the country’s luxury fashion brands. DS is a premium brand, rather than a luxury one, sitting a few notches above its Citroën siblings in the marketplace.

Accoutrements include a 14-speaker audio system by French firm Focal, pearl-stitched Nappa leather, electric rear view mirror, plush leather seats, laser-etched metalwork inside and angular forms outside. The aluminium dash and door trim bear Guilloché patterns, usually seen in high-end watchmaking, to create an additional visual texture.

Outside, vertical-horizontal LED running lights give the car a distinctive visual signature, matched with a sharply chamfered rear end. The production car is an evolution of the Aero Sport Lounge Concept created in 2020 (which would have been shown at the Geneva Motor Show had it not been cancelled by Covid).

At 4.66m long it has an extra 7cm over its predecessor, although the glazed roof and rear windows are both substantially bigger, making the interior much brighter. It’s not pretty, but that’s not really what DS is aiming for. The big Citroëns of old weren’t pretty cars either, but they did have class and presence, setting them apart from other more conventional offerings.

As the company reminds us, 22% of the European auto market is now taken up by premium sales, and it’s this pie that DS wants a part of. The old DS7 sold around 200,000 units in nine years, a not insignificant number, but small beer in comparison to a BMW X3, which sells rather more than that each year. Still, President Macron loved his.

The DS No.7 is a good deal better looking that the DS7, with a more chiselled profile and a much better interior. DS has cannily – or confusingly – pitched the car right in between the C and D segments in the SUV market so it can describe the car as ‘D-sized luxury at a C-sized price’.

The waters are muddied still further by the existence of no less than 11 variants, a testament to the innate flexibility of the platform but also something of a bet hedge by DS to cover everything from plug-in hybrids to FWD and AWD electric versions.

On the road, the latter trumps the PHEV every time, both in terms of power and refinement. The PHEV is not especially sporty, with an intrusive but uninspiring engine noise, but it does offer an impressive range of up to 1,040km (646 miles).

The Long Range BEV model doesn’t do badly either, with a WLTP rating of 740km (459 miles), or 480km at highway speeds (298 miles). Charging speed is limited to 160W, well down on the new standards. Only the BMW iX3 (805km) and Volvo EX60 (810km) promise to go further.

The high driving position, nicely weighted steering position and welcome poke of the BEV model make for an easy, unflustered drive, with suspension that’s adept at soaking up road imperfections (even if not’s the hydro-pneumatic ‘magic carpet’ ride of the original DS).

There is Gallic charm and class to be found here, resulting in a likeable, accomplished car that wears its individuality on its sleeve. We’re less keen on the boldly stated ‘DS Automobiles’ writ in chrome across the rear. It’s understandable – even manufacturers like Aston Martin and Porsche have reverted to spelling out their names to help hammer home brand recognition in newer markets. Ironically, these days strategy is almost inverted – cars wear prominent badges so that the unaware don’t mistake them for brand new and unfamiliar imported car.

The DS No.7 is an elegant outlier, cannily assembled to convey a quirky yet opulent richness and even more carefully priced to keep these qualities aligned with the competition.

For too long, the DS brand was writing stylistic cheques it couldn’t cash, promising an alternative take on mass-market luxury without managing to follow through on the aesthetics. These cars will always be a bold choice, but with the No.7, DS style finally matches the hype.

DS No.7 starts at £38,920 for the Hybrid Pallas model, rising to £66,690 for the E-Tense AWD Long Range La Première edition, DSAutomobiles.co.uk, @DSAutomobiles

Goya, a Thai tower in Phang Nga, offers more than meets the eye. At first glance, it is a flurry of sunset-coloured towers that cascade towards the sky, stopping at different heights. This alone is enough to grab a passerby’s attention, yet its material make-up is what is truly striking: elephant dung.

Explore a Thai tower made from elephant waste

Humans’ use of animal dung to build is nothing new – it dates back millennia to the dawn of animal domestication – but here’s a contemporary take. Architect and artist Boonserm Premthada (his acclaimed Elephant World project won Best Sanctuary in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2021) began the project by looking at what elephants left behind – their waste comprises grass, leaves, and fruit. Elephant dung has been used to make paper, fertiliser, insect repellent, and even coffee (undigested coffee beans that have passed through the elephant’s system make for a smooth flavour, apparently – the resulting Black Ivory Coffee is the world's rarest and most expensive).

Turning the animal’s waste into bricks allows it to be more than a construction material; it becomes a symbolic nod to the connections between animal, earth, human, and architecture. Each elephant-dung brick is handmade, baked in sunlight, and measures 33cm in diameter and 5cm in thickness. The tower took a year to complete.

The bricks are produced in five colours, mimicking the pattern of a Rocket Lolly. They're then threaded onto a central steel rod and stacked to create a pattern. Upon entry, visitors can climb the stairs and see the cylindrical columns rise around them as they venture through the curved walkways, getting views of the landscape beyond.

The tower's context is central to the project. In southern Thailand, elephants and people have lived alongside one another, shaping the forests and settlements. Today, elephants remain deeply embedded in the identity of places such as Phang Nga. In the heart of the region is a limestone mountain, shaped like a reclining elephant. Titled Khao Chang (or Elephant Mountain), it’s where, according to local legend, a male elephant fell and turned to stone.

A new local landmark rooted in elephant lore and heritage, Goya Tower is named after a female elephant born in the area, and stands at the entrance to Matalay, an extensive resort project there.

Goya offers a beautiful, contemporary example of how buildings can be created to be deeply in tune with the people, environment, and community in an architectural circle of life.

boonserm_premthada.com

Some might like it hot but the rest of us find plus-30°C temperatures an ongoing trial, especially in spots where the installation of air con is simply impossible – centuries-old townhouses and Tube stations, we’re looking at you. Here’s our guide to the best in pocketable airflow management to help you beat the heat.

Dyson HushJet Mini Cool fan

Dyson’s new HushJet personal fan came to market just in time for 2026’s wave of hot weather. Resembling an attachment-free electric toothbrush, the handheld gadget weighs in at just 212g, even though it incorporates a six-hour battery. The HushJet distils the company’s 17 years of experience working in the fan and cooling industry down into a tiny device.

Using Dyson’s own brushless DC motors, it’s capable of spinning at speeds of up 65,000 rpm. There are five airflow modes plus a battery-sapping Boost setting for really hot spots. Available in three colourways – Ink/Cobalt, Carnelian/Sky and Stone/Blush – the fan docks with a USB-C charge stand and will soon be offered with a universal mount for attachment to practically anything.

Sony Reon Pocket 5 personal cooler

Something a little different, from Sony. The Reon Pocket 5 is best described as a personal air conditioner, a ‘wearable thermal device’ that sits on the nape of your neck and stays in place with a special neckband. A stainless-steel cooling plate makes skin contact, chilling you in just the right spot to lower your overall temperature.

Hot air is expelled out of the top of the unit (there’s even a slightly longer vent piece to be used in conjunction with a suit). The Reon Pocket 5 can also be used to heat you up, a terrifying prospect at the time of writing, but potentially a handy addition to a winter wardrobe.

Torras Coolify Cyber Fold Neck Air Conditioner

Another outlier for those looking to move on from the traditional hand-held fan. The Torras Coolify Cyber Fold is a neck air conditioner, a collar-like device that slips onto the back of your neck and nearly instantly delivers a cooling blast of air towards your face and neck.

Inside the foldable Coolify Cyber are four individual fans to distribute air evenly without bothering anyone else. Control is via an app and there are also onboard temperature sensors that power the unit’s Auto cooling mode. All-in-all, it’s a little bulky and prominent, certainly enough to raise a few eyebrows. But you won’t care about that.

Shark ChillPill

We can vouch for the efficacy of Shark’s new ChillPill. Launched earlier in 2026, this twin-cylinder design has come into its own in recent weeks, during the UK’s heat waves. Shark’s compact device not only works as an efficient high-speed fan but comes with two additional modules that can be swapped out instead of the fan unit.

The first is a mister, which distributes the contents of a modest water reserve in a haze of ultra-fine, cooling mist. The second is a cooling plate, with a much smaller surface area than the Sony Reon, but pleasing to press against the neck, wrist and forehead when the heat gets too much. Finally, the ChillPill’s clever design allows the fan to be angled variously to establish perfect airflow.

JisuLife Ultra2 Portable Handheld Fan

The Ultra2 from JisuLife presents far more conventional form factor. Although it can’t haul air quite as powerfully as the Dyson, the Ultra2 spins at 43,000rpm, equivalent to a wind speed of 17m/s. The speed controls are represented by a percentage display, effectively giving the fan 100 different levels of airflow, while the big 9000mAH battery gives it plenty of endurance.

In addition to the fan functionality, JisuLife has imbued the Ultra2 with extra tricks, such as attachments that allow it to be used to clean out electronics, blow up inflatables and even as a flashlight and emergency beacon.

Printworks Fantastic portable fan

The simplicity and ubiquity of the fan format means you either need to radically innovate (as per Dyson or Shark) or risk your product drowning a sea of identikit challengers in the cutthroat online marketplaces. Fantastic is cheap and cheerful but transcends its Tik-Tok ad/Dropship roots with a set of nicely chosen colour options and a very simple premise; once charged up, Fantastic is free to move to wherever you are.

With colours including Green, Cerise, and Petroleum, Fantastic has three speeds, can be manually moved around 360 degrees and – it is claimed – will ‘operate in absolute silence’. If true, it’s a gamechanger that could solve both video-call miscommunications and the travails of light sleepers.

Muji Rechargeable Handheld Fan

This is what the archetypal hand-held fan looks like, so if that ticks your box, why not? With this model – ultra-affordable, utterly simple in design and with USB-C charge compatibility – Muji hasn’t set out to make the best or even the most distinctive solution. Instead, it potentially knocks out all the above options thanks to its folding practicality and familiar, unfussy design.

Photographed amid a bed of snow during the Ontario winter, an elevated cabin-like structure emerges. The residence, titled Silver Heights, is nestled within the patchwork of Carolinian forests in the Trent Hills area. Architect Peter Braithwaite designed the home with a smooth façade and crisp angles, a gentle contrast to its context of rolling hills.

Inside the Ontario cabin, Silver Heights

Silver Heights is minimalist and elegant in its design, its simplicity so soft that photography looks like renders. It seemingly floats within its context.

The area offers an abundance of pristine nature – popular for outdoor activities – and access to the Trent-Severn Waterway, which can be seen from inside the residence.

The physical and visual connection to the landscape was at the core of the client’s design vision. The young family wanted a home that could welcome the outdoors in, while also offering a calming space for respite.

‘Rather than siting the home at the apex of a hill and thus maximising the view, it was decided to place the building slightly down the drumlin slope,’ says Braithwaite. ‘This positioning was intended to challenge how occupants felt within and around the building. Rather than sit the building as an object on the land, we intended to have the building become part of the slope – creating a more gradual, immersive experience with the land.’

The main volume offers a contemporary take on a hipped roof. Its ridged design blends into the rest of the facade, creating the illusion that it is one continuous piece. It looks almost like a bold, two-dimensional graphic gesture.

Meanwhile, the material palette was considered for its robustness to withstand the unpredictable Ontario climate. The architect settled on concrete, black metal, and rusted steel. White cedar adds warmth and a Scandinavian sensibility.

How the house is perceived on arrival was at the forefront of the architect’s mind. ‘Visitors begin their journey along a meandering path through a small stand of trees, across the drumlin apex, then down toward a well-marked, weathered steel entry,' he says.

'Once inside, you are guided along a view-focused corridor which culminates at a partially raised platform, maximising a feeling of connectedness to the land,’ continues Braithwaite.

The project offers visitors moments of spatial compression before the space opens up into a large, airy room that displays the landscape. Explains the architect, ‘This deliberate processional sequence was intended to transform the act of arrival into a measured experience of revelation.’

This skilful interplay of intimacy and openness carries a powerful emotional resonance. The elevated volume creates the sensation of floating within the view rather than merely observing it – encouraging a connection to the vastness of the landscape beyond.

peterbraithwaitestudio.com

Last summer, Peugeot joined the retro wave of 1980s-inspired auto design with the announcement of the forthcoming E-208 GTi. The all-electric performance hatchback is nearly here, albeit with a rather more muted roar than the original 205 GTi, the car that kickstarted the enthusiast community’s obsession with compact performance back in 1984.

Peugeot has been unashamed about the influence of the old upon the new, describing the original car as a ‘sporty yet subtle design… that set the template for every GTi model that followed’. Matthias Hossann, the company’s design director, describes how this the debt to motoring pleasure came about.

‘Designing E-208 GTi was really a question of balance,’ Hossann says, ‘Our philosophy was that we didn’t want to go too far in one particular direction, so it’s a balance between performance and elegance. We didn’t want the exterior design to be too overstated or to show off too much. If you love cars, you will look at E-208 GTi and immediately see that it’s a GTi because of its stance. If you’re not an expert, you will still see a beautiful 208.’

Unlike other contemporary retro efforts – the Mini, Fiat 500 and Renault’s 4 and 5 spring to mind – Peugeot’s approach to homage is rather more muted. Like the original, the E-208 GTi is wider and lower than the regular model it is based upon. The subtly flared wheel arches are finished with a pinstripe red-line graphic, just like the original, while there’s a new front spoiler and gloss black aerodynamic diffuser at the rear.

‘We have more than 200 years of history; heritage is our backbone and we are super respectful of that,’ admits Hossann. ‘But Peugeot also looks to the future. The reason we’re still here after 200 years of history is that we’re dedicated to producing carefully designed products for the new generation of customers.’

Back in 2018, the company showed the e-Legend concept, inspired by another classic Peugeot – the 504 Coupe – as another example of how the past is carried through to the present.

‘With both cars, we took heritage but pushed it into the future,’ the designer says. ‘It's always interesting looking at past colours and shapes, then we tweak it and move it into the future to make it a proper Peugeot. Once again, it’s a question of balance. With E-208 GTi, there was no question of doing a purely retro design. But we did want to keep our heritage. We're really proud of that, but we wanted to twist it with innovation and push it into the future.’

The large 18-inch wheels are another nod to the original 205 GTi, especially the Speedlines fitted to the 1.9-litre model. ‘The centre curve of the wheel is like the 1.6 and the exterior shape is more like the 1.9,’ says Hossann. ‘It’ll remind people who know all about 205 GTi of that car and people who don’t know about that will still say it’s a good rim.’

The new E-208 GTi will be available seven colours, a few of which are directly taken from the original 205 era. They include Okénite White, Elixir Red, Miramar Blue, Nera Black, Cumulus Grey, Selenium Grey and Agueda Yellow. Inside, red is very much the dominant colour as these images attest. Peugeot’s signature compact steering wheel uses leather and Alcantara and the 208 GTi is generously splashed around.

‘On the seats, we have a finish like we used to have in the 205 GTi with two materials: Alcantara and special red textiles, with a central red line that extends across the seat and backrest,’ says Hossann. The devil is very much in the details; just like in the original, flashes of red, elevated materials and uprated bodywork have come together to signify a heritage of performance.

‘I think E-208 GTi is a good example of using the right proportion of our heritage but taking it into in the future,’ Hossan concludes. ‘This is the overall mindset that we have in the design studio when we’re working on the next generation of Peugeot models.’

Peugeot E-208 GTi, more information at Peugeot.co.uk, @Peugeot

The Dairy, the newest development by Echlin in London, offers that covetable but extremely rare combination: it brings together a central, yet very quiet and discreet location; a highly design-led interior; and a slice of Notting Hill history, set in a reimagined 19th-century former working dairy facility. The result is not only prime real estate, but also a carefully thought-out selection of eight homes.

Explore The Dairy by Echlin in London

The project was led by developer Black Treacle, with architecture by Frost Architects. Echlin conceived the interiors, sensitively restoring and reworking the industrial building's fabric to retain its character as much as possible, and adapt it confidently and delicately to the 21st century.

Keeping that balance was important to the design studio. 'Industrial buildings have an inherent sense of theatre – the scale, the light, the layers of history. They resist formula, which is exactly what makes them so compelling to work with. At The Dairy, our team's approach was to reveal and reinterpret that heritage rather than overwrite it,' said Samuel Pye, creative director at Echlin.

The result is a gentle composition that straddles rawness and sophistication, defined by neutral colours with bold accents and a material palette of exposed brick, steel and hard edges. The period structure's existing tall ceilings and big windows add drama to the interiors and ensure each apartment is completely unique, with its own personality.

There are barrel-vaulted ceilings and Crittall-style windows, but also a peppering of warm woods (oak herringbone flooring, for instance) and curated art that soften the atmosphere and create a play between rough and smooth. Limestone and quartzite surfaces in bathrooms and kitchens add texture and coolness.

Caring for the historic building was important to the team in more ways than one, explains Pye: 'Industrial reuse is one of the most sustainable models we have. The most successful examples treat industrial living not as a style, but as a framework for longevity.'

Featuring generous proportions and carrying a sense of restrained elegance, the Dairy's eight apartments have now started going on the market.

echlinlondon.com

thedairynottinghill.com

Rimowa has added Ink Blue to its Original collection, giving its quintessential grooved aluminium suitcase a new permanent colourway. The shade joins the Cabin, Check-In L and Trunk Plus sizes, extending the brand’s long-running experiments with colour anodisation.

Rimowa dresses its travel icons in Ink Blue

Used for centuries in writing, drawing and dyeing, ink becomes the conceptual starting point for a deep midnight blue finish, applied through the German luggage maker’s anodisation process. Rather than coating the surface, the technique works the pigment into the aluminium itself, giving the suitcase a uniform metallic depth while preserving the character of the material.

The launch is accompanied by a campaign starring American actress Sydney Lemmon, who travels to Shanghai in search of love, following a trail of ink-written calligraphy through aquariums and karaoke lounges across a blue-tinted city, with her Rimowa in tow.

The collection carries the familiar Rimowa hardware: the stage-free telescopic handle, multiwheel system, TSA-approved locks, an updated Flex Divider with a zipped storage pocket, and a newly engineered ergonomic handle with a damper mechanism for a smoother closure. Naturally, all suitcases are backed by a lifetime guarantee.

Ink Blue also extends beyond luggage. The Groove collection adds Small and Large Cross-Body Bags and a Zipped Pouch in smooth Italian calf leather, while seasonal accessories pick up the same tone through denim: a reversible bucket hat with travel pouch – a first for Rimowa – packing cubes and a toiletry pouch. An anodised aluminium card holder completes the line.

Prices start at €1,200 for the Original Cabin, €1,500 for the Check-In L and €1,950 for the Trunk Plus, with the collection available through Rimowa stores worldwide and online.

If you've ever experimented with gardening but were unsure where to start, head straight to this new London greenhouse pavilion, which has just launched within the Barbican Estate. Titled The Veggery and erected, not only to inspire the public to explore seeds and plant growing, but also to mark the closure of the 2026 London Festival of Architecture, the project was created by Studio Folk Architects and Raskl, with the help and support of NLA and the Culture Mile Business Improvement District.

Explore The Veggery, a new London greenhouse pavilion

The project was awarded to the architecture practice and the design-and-build studio through a competition. The fun structure appears as part-folly, part working allotment, featuring a playful structure, which is, however, practically minded and lined with shelves that hold a variety of plant pots for seed growing.

The greenhouse pavilion sits on a hexagonal footprint. It features a vaulted polytunnel roof, water butts that double as columns, and a turnip finial at its very top. The form is meant to straddle the worlds between the traditional greenhouse typologies often found in English countryhouse farms and estates, and the Barbican's brutalist architecture forms – in particular its barrel-vaulted roof.

Patrick O'Keffee, co-founder and director of Studio Folk Architects, said, 'We’re really excited to see The Veggery installed in its new home, and become an extension of the Barbican’s iconic public realm for the summer.

'We’ve worked hard with the project team to develop a programme of activation that aims to foster a sense of shared ownership. It’s a space that does a lot – a greenhouse, an event space, a classroom and a spot for lunch – so we hope everyone can find something they enjoy in it.'

Giant paper collages produced during workshops with students from the neighbouring City of London School for Girls adorn its translucent façade elements, nodding to historic stained glass motifs. The aim is for the pavilion to become a place for community and social gatherings as much as for plant knowledge.

Dan Rose, director of Raskl, said: 'Raskl has been proud to work alongside Studio Folk, LFA and Culture Mile BID to bring The Veggery to life at St Giles. Organisations like the Culture Mile BID set ambitious goals for the public realm, and projects like this only succeed when design and delivery are worked through together from the start.

'What makes it most exciting is the site itself – a working church, a school with its own growing programme, and a community that will actually use the space long after the festival ends. We're glad to have helped turn a strong idea into something they can all make their own.'

studiofolkarchitects.com

raskl.co.uk

In 2024, when Acne Studios collaborated with French perfume house Éditions de Parfums Frédéric Malle to create its first-ever fragrance, the aim was simple: to distil Acne's creative language – avant-garde, cheeky and casually cool – into a bottle.

The result was a suitably unconventional fragrance that blended aldehydes (the synthetic compounds that give perfumes a clean, metallic quality) with a gourmand heart of rose, peach, and vanilla, and a deep sandalwood-and-musk base. It is a fresh, almost laundry-like scent with a delicate, slightly sweet edge; or, as the brand describes it, ‘a neoclassical perfume with an irreverent twist; at once vibrant and comforting, magnetic and radical’.

Now, Acne Studios and Frédéric Malle are expanding their olfactory offering with a bath and body collection meant to be worn in conjunction with the fragrance, amplifying the original scent (which was already celebrated among perfume aficionados for its potent sillage). The Body Wash is a silky lather that leaves a delicate perfume in its wake, while the Body Milk is formulated with hydrating shea butter and natural oils to likewise leave skin baby-soft and lightly perfumed.

For perfumer Suzy Le Helley, creating the Acne Studios par Frédéric Malle perfume and its companion bath collection was an exercise in pushing herself as a perfumer and the industry at large. ‘This perfume is, for me, one of the first aldehydic gourmand fine fragrances on the market, and that is something I am very proud of,’ she says. ‘It is also very unique in terms of performance: it is very long-lasting, very powerful, and has a strong sillage.’

To develop the final scent, Le Helley worked closely with both Frédéric Malle and Acne's Jonny Johansson, both titans in their respective fields, to come up with a product that blended the subversive, niche style of both brands. ‘What I enjoyed most was the freedom and trust that were given to me by both Frédéric Malle and Jonny Johansson,’ says Le Helley. ‘This project allowed me to explore new facets of my creativity, pushing me to experiment and take risks.

‘I wanted it to create a unique comfort zone. It is, first of all, a fragrance for yourself, but we worked carefully on the technical aspects of the perfume, its strength, and its longevity. People who smell it on you should also be transported into your luxurious cocoon of comfort – like a beautiful Acne Studios scarf.’

Think of this new book from Gestalten as more of a travel monograph than an homage to a famous brand, even if it’s the qualities and cult following of the latter that facilitated these gorgeous spreads of global imagery. Land is a book dedicated to the life-altering perspective offered up by Land Rover Defender ownership.

Subtitled From Workhorse to Cultural Object: The Land Rover as Design Icon, the book is divided into three sections, with the first focusing on those specialist workshops around the world that have decided to make the Defender their focus. As well as full restorations and EV conversions of this classic British workhorse, there are plenty of firms out there that will uprate and upgrade a Land Rover to deal with anything. We’ve covered a fair few on these pages, but Land will introduce you to many more.

It’s followed by a digression into Land Rover’s role as a contemporary cultural object, manipulated and modified by designers and artists. Finally, there’s the Adventure section, a slice of contemporary travel porn that fuses a host of contemporary obsessions, from van life to drone photography, to wellness, off-grid living, personal growth and a general sense of an aesthetically driven life.

Land – From Workhorse to Cultural Object: The Land Rover as Design Icon, €60 / £60, gestalten.com, @gestalten

Fire Island Pines has retained its lustre as an enclave of sun, sea and sex, all wrapped up in modest but alluringly contemporary architecture by pioneers like Horace Gifford. An enduring association between privacy, modernity and contemporary queerness took hold of the Brookhaven hamlet early in the twentieth century, but it was the 1950s and 1960s that cemented its role as a decadent summer destination for New York’s gay community.

One of Gifford’s many residential projects in the hamlet, 122A Ocean Walk, is now up for sale through Compass. One of over 60 homes Gifford completed in the area – where he himself lived, this 1965 house is next door to Gifford's Lipkins House (1970), famed for its high-tech multicoloured lighting.

The house was originally built for the interior decorator Yale R.Burge, the son of Russian-born antiques dealers who trained at L’Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. A founding member of what would become the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID), Burge was also GQ magazine’s first dedicated home furnishings editor.

After Burge’s death in 1972, the house was taken on by protégé and business partner, Angelo Donghia. Donghia commissioned Gifford to expand the house. According to local architectural history site Pines Modern, Donghia and Gifford clashed after the interior designer was offended by having to meet with Gifford's deputy. Subsequent owners included the fashion designer Derek Lam, who commissioned Neal Beckstedt Studio to further expand, restore and update the property.

Like many of Gifford’s projects, the house has direct oceanfront access, with an elevated walkway leading to the beach and the Atlantic visible from all the principal rooms thanks to the glazed façade. The cedar cladding has been updated with black stone floors and bathrooms, and new interior joinery that expands the practicality and function of the space.

Located just a short walk from the Fire Island Ferry, the house is a remarkable survivor made all the more desirable through continuous maintenance and upgrades. Fire Island Pines continues to offer a sanctuary for contemporary architecture, but this particular property offers the practicality of contemporary architecture with a direct historical connection to the area’s cultural heart.

122A Ocean Drive, Fire Island Pines is offered at $2.995M. The listing agents are Esteban Gomez and Perry Goldsmith, @TheCreativesAgent, @Compass

London's Serpentine Galleries has appointed the Italian design studio Formafantasma to a newly created advisory role intended to embed 'environmental thinking across its programme, operations and organisational culture'.

Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin, who work between Milan and Rotterdam, have taken up the title of 'Lead R&D Fellows, Ecology', in a three-year partnership that signals a shift in how the art institution approaches environmental responsibility. Rather than contributing a single exhibition or project, the duo will work across the organisation, examining everything from curatorial processes and exhibition-making to daily operations, resource use, labour and the gallery's civic role.

Serpentine and Formafantasma

The collaboration will begin with a research phase, during which the designers will map the Serpentine’s processes and systems and identify where they can best intervene. They plan to 'prioritise approaches that can begin locally and scale systematically'. A parallel public programme will communicate the findings and activities that emerge.

'We look forward to collaboratively reimagining the civic role of institutions, from curatorial processes to questions about space, resources, labour and ecology, and to creating new platforms for dialogue that acknowledge urgency while insisting on knowledge, complexity, and accountability,' said Trimarchi and Farresin, in a statement announcing the appointment.

In 2020, the duo presented ‘Cambio’ at Serpentine North, a research-led exhibition examining the ecological, political and economic dimensions of the global timber industry. While that project examined the environmental consequences of an entirely separate sector, this fellowship turns a critical lens on the institution itself – its day-to-day operations and long-term strategy.

'Our partnership with Formafantasma extends ecological thinking into our systems, our spaces, and our everyday practices, probing the complex, and often contradictory, role an institution like ours plays within the ecological crisis,' Serpentine's chief executive Bettina Korek said.

Artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist added: 'Formafantasma’s practice critically engages with the ecological responsibilities of design, examining materials across time, from their histories to questions of future survival within contemporary living conditions, and following “Cambio”, we can’t wait to start this new chapter together.'

Thinking beyond art and culture: an urgent shift

The appointment of a design studio by an art institution reflects a broader tendency among cultural organisations to draw on expertise from beyond their traditional disciplines. Earlier this year, Whitechapel Gallery appointed the economist Mariana Mazzucato as its economist-in-residence, while Fondation Beyeler in Basel created the role of botanical curator for Rahel Kesselring.

It also comes as museums and galleries face growing pressure to address their environmental impact. A 2024 survey by research body Indigo found that 72 per cent of UK cultural audiences believe cultural organisations have a responsibility to influence society on the climate emergency, while only 16 per cent think they currently place great importance on that role. A 2021 report by climate action charity Julie's Bicycle estimated that the global art world's carbon footprint – including institutional activity and visitor travel – amounts to around 70 million tonnes each year.

The sector has started to measure its own progress. The Gallery Climate Coalition, whose members include more than 2,000 commercial galleries, non-profit organisations, cultural institutions and artists' studios across more than 60 countries, set a target of halving members' carbon emissions by 2030. Its 2025 report indicates that 79 per cent of organisations that began monitoring emissions in 2019 are on track to meet that goal, but warned that the largest players account for a disproportionate share of emissions. According to the coalition, the biggest 22 per cent of organisations generate half of all emissions, while the top 0.04 per cent account for around 5 per cent – roughly 140 times their proportional weight. It claims that wider adoption of measures already implemented by its 'leading members' could save five million tonnes of carbon annually by 2030.

As arts organisations face mounting pressure from both public opinion and financial constraints – against a backdrop of a cost-of-living crisis, tightening budgets and increased scrutiny of public spending – they are increasingly being challenged to demonstrate their wider civic relevance and responsiveness to societal concerns. The Serpentine’s decision is an example of such responsibilities being reflected in internal governance, not just public programming.

Faro Santander, a major new cultural destination about to launch northern Spain, has just announced its opening date – 8 September 2026 – and unveiled its majestic home, a period building redesigned by Chipperfield Architects. The historic Pereda Building in Santander, which was until recently the headquarters of Banco Santander, is nine years into its transformation journey to host the expansive art collection of the bank’s philanthropic foundation and invite visitors into its masterpiece-laden galleries.

Explore the new home for Faro Santander

The Pereda Building is an instantly recognisable, listed landmark, known by locals as a key point on Santander’s seafront. Chipperfield Architects has been hard at work, refreshing and reimagining the former office building into a thoroughly contemporary space for culture. Now, spanning ten storeys, the building will house the Banco Santander Collection and its thousands of artworks.

The interior – some 10,000 sq m of usable floor space – now includes 3,000 sq m of galleries across five floors. Respecting the original structure while refining and upgrading it for 21st-century art standards, the renovation sees the building awarded an Outstanding BREEAM certification, with a score of 92.96 – 'the world’s highest registered by a museum or cultural space', the museum's representatives explain.

Beyond simply restoring a historic structure, or creating a high-profile home for a private art collection, the project has a strong civic face too, David Chipperfield reminds visitors: 'Architecturally, it boasts a complex and multi-layered history.' The building has been part of the city's history for centuries, its oldest parts erected in 1795 and added to, reworked, and expanded over time. A major 1961 renovation by architect Javier González de Riancho was one of its more recent chapters.

'We focused on rethinking the spaces and connections a public building needs, while recognising that the real significance of the project lies in the institution’s commitment to openness, culture and participation,' says Chipperfield. He adds: 'The project is the result of a shared ambition to reimagine Banco Santander’s former offices as a civic and cultural space for the city.'

Daniel Vega Pérez de Arlucea, director of Faro Santander, concurs: 'The transformation was about pursuing our vision of creating a cultural centre that is open to everyone – somewhere that is welcoming and accessible, with wonderfully diverse and high-quality spaces, where every visitor can enjoy a truly unique experience.'

farosantander.com

davidchipperfield.com

Subtlety, thy name is not Lamborghini. The Italian master of automotive self-expression has unveiled the Urus SE Performante, the new flagship variant of its high-performance SUV. It supersedes the Urus SE, which in turn superseded the Urus S, which trumped the plain old vanilla Urus, originally released in 2017 and getting steadily wilder and more unhinged with each subsequent incarnation.

That’s not to say that Urus Mk1 was in any way subtle. In the 2010s, Lamborghini realised that it was lagging behind its peers in the race to SUV-ify the essence of its brand. The 2002 Porsche Cayenne, countless AMG, M-spec and S models from Mercedes, BMW and Audi respectively, and the 2015 Bentley Bentayga had been huge sales successes for their respective companies; the 2020 Aston Martin DBX and 2023 Ferrari Purosangue followed inevitably in their wake.

It’s also not without significance that Lamborghini has been part of the VW Group since 1998, giving it access to engineering and manufacturing know-how from a number of other brands. Cleverly, the Urus platform was shared with the original Bentayga, as well as the Audi Q8, Volkswagen Touareg and Cayenne.

The technology has since forked in various different directions, with an all-electric Cayenne making use of the Premium Platform Electric also used in the Audi Q6 e-tron. Like the Q8, Touareg and Bentayga, the Urus SE Performante has a hybrid system, with the ability to drive in pure electric mode. Yet somehow, Lamborghini has managed to make the Urus feel distinct and different, an embodiment of the brand's rebellious, outlier character.

These platform shenanigans are largely invisible to the consumer, such are the levels of customisation and tweaking between each brand, and, of course, the dramatically different design languages used inside and out. In this respect, the Urus takes the cake as the most authentic representation of its brand ethos, all slashes, creases, spoilers, wings and splitters – there’s so much going on that it’s surprising to find an actual family car underneath it all.

With the model getting a little long in the tooth, the SE Performante is a final flourish, dialling the design input up way past 11 in order to tap the howling extroverts that make up the Urus customer base. Described by Lamborghini as the ‘most sportive, the most performant Urus we have ever created’, the SE Performante gave the team at Centro Stile Lamborghini an aesthetic workout, overseen by design director Mitja Borkert.

Lamborghini’s dedicated studio was set up 21 years ago by Walter de Silva, one of the masterplanners of VW’s management of its spread of distinct, individual brands. Acknowledging that design – preferably outlandish – is a key reason why people buy into the Lamborghini brand, Borkert says simply, ‘We are not form follows function – we are form follows adrenaline. We give adrenaline a shape.'

The car makes its media debut accompanied by an AC/DC soundtrack, with the camera rolling fetishistically across the uprated details – a new 'power dome' bonnet, the deeper shark-nosed grille that bleeds into the carbon front splitter, an even wider front and rear, and new 23-inch wheels, topped off by a carbon fibre roof that swoops down to a prominent rear wing.

Inside, the Urus follows the Lamborghini playbook, with moody black Alcantara and red stitching, aviation-inspired control surfaces and the ambience of fighter jet. Or starship. It’s a fantasy environment come to life, something that comes across in the intense CGI imagery accompanying the launch, some of which looks as if it has been lifted straight from a games console.

Interior trim is Nero Cosmos, 'the darkest, blackest black microfibre that we offer', further adding to the Urus’ litany of Spinal Tap-style excesses. Launch colours include Giallo Crius yellow, Bianco Monocerus white, and Verde Hydra Matt green.

Borkert lists out the brand signifiers – 'For me, it's important that a Lamborghini has a pointed front, like a shark' – and the most dramatic components, like the widest rear diffuser ever offered on the Urus, as well as the plethora of carbon fibre – even the steering wheel. That contributes to a modest but handy weight saving of around 32kg.

There’s also a nod to the Lamborghini family history – its wilder side, at least. 'There’s a little bit of Countach influence in the taillights and the hexagon elements,’ Borkert explains, while the ultra-light Huracán STO influenced the red elements in the seats and horizontal lines on the bolsters.

'I like always to talk about the mission of a project,’ Borkert explains. ‘When we start a new Lamborghini, we define the mission with the interior, exterior and UX team. I told them this was the sportiest version, like in the racecars of the 1970s with the black front bonnet, less reflection – it looks cool – that's why the bonnet looks that way. It's the same for the interior – it is more […] like a deep, driver-orientated cabin where you take away all distraction.’

Appropriately enough, the Urus SE Performante is being billed as the fastest Super SUV in the world, with 0-100 km/h (62mph) taking just 3.3 seconds, and 200 km/h coming up in 10.8 seconds. The top speed is 312 km/h (193mph). All important figures for the typical Lamborghini customer.

Despite all this visual, aural and mechanical drama, the SE Performante will have to be as simple to use day to day as any other Urus – it is, after all, a family car, despite its mighty V8 and track-focused Corsa driving mode. Whether a contemporary SUV is focused on off- or on-road performance, they’re usually driven as symbols of potential, not practicality. The new SE Performante is no different.

Lamborghini Urus SE Performante, price tbc, Lamborghini.com, @Lamborghini

Today (8 July 2026), British designer Faye Toogood unveils her latest collection. ‘Bone, Roll, Slump’ comprises furniture pieces that have an air of the archaeological about them – objects that feel found or unearthed rather than made.

The first chapter, ‘Bone’, centres on a dining collection inspired by mudlarked bones and fossils. At its heart is the ‘Bone Table’, a monolithic superellipse carved from solid oak. Asymmetrical in form, it is available in an eight-seat version or a smaller, more circular table for six.

Rather than being lacquered, the oak is oiled, preserving its natural texture and allowing the material to age gracefully. Four circular piercings punctuate the tabletop, recalling the oversized timber plugs once used in traditional joinery. They expose the oak's vertical grain while anchoring the surface to its stout, rounded legs. The swollen, sculptural profile of those legs, shared by the table and its chairs, reference knucklebones – once used in games and divination.

The ‘Bone Chairs’, meanwhile, stand on two solid legs, adopting a primal stance. Beneath their tactile exterior lies a timber frame sculpted with wool, coconut husk and natural latex – upholstered in bouclé as standard, with other fabrics available. The family comprises a dining chair, an armchair and an oversized ‘Jumbo’ armchair.

Where ‘Bone’ feels excavated, ‘Roll’ is more contained, while retaining the collection's preoccupation with weight, volume and organic geometry. Three-drawer consoles and single-drawer bedside tables take the form of rounded timber lozenges resting on stout, trunk-like bases or, alternatively, cantilevering from the wall. The grain follows the curvature of each piece, while finishes include golden oak, rich walnut and ash stained in ‘Chalk’, ‘Putty’ or ‘Malachite’.

The collection concludes with ‘Soft Slump’ – asymmetrical, bagel-like lounge chairs which appear to collapse gently into themselves. The effect is achieved through an unconventional construction: rather than stretching upholstery taut, around four metres of fabric are gathered and cinched, a bit like the drawstring of a duffel bag, creating deep folds. Set atop either hand-forged, dimpled steel legs or industrial castors, Toogood insists these are also the most comfortable chairs she has ever made.

'Bone, Roll, Slump' is unique, intriguing and pleasingly tactile – a quality that makes it feel both contemporary and somehow elemental.

Pieces from the collection can be purchased from Faye Toogood’s website.

Today, two seemingly disparate worlds collide: the vibrant universe of British-Nigerian artist and designer Yinka Ilori MBE, and Dunelm, the UK's largest homeware retailer. As of today (8 July 2026), the pair are launching a summery new collection, available online and in selected stores.

Anyone familiar with Ilori's work will know that his visual language is joyous, often built around vibrant shades and geometric patterns (as seen in his recent London exhibition, ‘Joy Through Resistance’, and his Milan Design Week collaboration with Veuve Clicquot). That sensibility runs throughout the 40 pieces in the Dunelm collection, which spans furniture, bedding, lighting, rugs and soft furnishings, with prices ranging from an accessible £9 cotton jacquard hand towel to a £799 king-size boucle ottoman bed.

Ilori felt a personal connection to Dunelm's origins as a market stall in Leicester, having grown up around his parents' local supermarket in north London. ‘What struck me about Dunelm's beginnings was their love for community,’ he explains. ‘Growing up in a working-class environment, community was everything for my family. There were similarities with this and Dunelm's beginnings as a market stall – how they sought community.’

That focus runs through the collection. Many pieces draw on the diverse communities that shaped Leicester's textile industry across the 20th century, with floral patterns referencing national flowers from countries including India and Pakistan, in a nod to the city's Asian, African and Caribbean cultures. This commitment to authenticity extends to the campaign photography, which features real Dunelm employees.

Shop the collection

A handful of pieces have emerged as favourites among the design team and Ilori himself. The ‘Sweet Flows’ swivel chair (£299) is a colourful, pattern-rich armchair that he says ‘instantly makes you want to smile’. ‘Home interiors can be quite serious, so I chose a colourful palette and vibrant pattern that is immediately engaging. It sparks joy and stands on its own as a piece of art. It's also really comfortable!’

The ‘Bell LED’ lamp (£65), meanwhile, feels ‘very playful and nostalgic’, Ilori continues. ‘It's a classic and timeless piece that would feel at home in the 70s or 80s. There are also elements that feel quite art deco.’

The ‘Net Floral’ duvet cover set (from £16) reimagines the classic British net curtain with floral motifs, while the ‘Gerbera’ cushion (£26) combines crewel wool embroidery with a geometric floral pattern. The ‘Kaleidoscope’ floral round rug (from £135) is a handmade, 100 per cent wool piece with a textured, bobbled finish, and the ‘Half-Log’ sideboard (£599) brings a sculptural silhouette to life with a warm oak finish and chrome legs.

Both Ilori and Dunelm frame the collaboration around the shared belief that good design shouldn't be reserved for a select few. ‘I think it's important we design objects that are rich in storytelling, that speak to people in different ways and that celebrate unique ideas,' says Ilori. 'I hope this collection brings joy into people's everyday lives.’

Yinka Ilori's collection for Dunelm is available to shop from today.

The USA’s World Cup dream may have come to an end last night, but the tournament’s sense of wonder is still drawing crowds in New York City. Looming above Rockefeller Plaza is a giant replica of the Fifa World Cup trophy. Rather than gold, however, it is built from more than 1.3 million Lego bricks.

It is the latest in the Lego Group’s portfolio of spectacular mega-builds, following projects such as the life-sized Formula 1 cars unveiled at last year’s Miami Grand Prix. The brick-built World Cup trophy is one of the largest Lego models ever constructed, rising 8.47m (27ft) tall, weighing approximately 4.2 tonnes and comprising 1,363,402 bricks (for comparison, the recently revealed Lego Sagrada Família, the largest set by piece count in Lego’s history, had a mere 12,060 bricks).

Over eight months, at the Lego Group's model production facility in Kladno, Czech Republic, a team of 59 designers, engineers, model builders and assembly technicians spent more than 7,000 hours recreating the trophy. Hidden beneath its Lego-brick exterior lies an internal steel skeleton weighing around 3.5 tonnes, providing the strength needed to support the massive installation.

Getting it to Manhattan was an engineering exercise in its own right. The completed model had to be dismantled into 16 sections before being shipped across the Atlantic and reconstructed at Rockefeller Plaza. The largest transport pallets measured 230x230cm, while the heaviest individual section was around two tonnes.

The final brick was placed yesterday (6 July 2026) by Brazilian football legend Cafu, who was joined by supporters representing nations competing in the tournament. Their ceremonial finishing touches officially opened a new ‘Lego Fan Zone’, where visitors can participate in building challenges, contribute to a football-themed brick mural and design personalised minifigures at the Lego Store on Fifth Avenue.

Not quite the real thing, but the Lego trophy is its own fitting piece of World Cup theatre – built brick by brick from contributions across the globe, for everyone to enjoy.

Tylko wants you to listen to music. Truly listen. Away from the screens and digital scrolling of playlists, but instead encouraging taking the time to give a composition a rare glimpse of full attention. But how do we break free from these digital crutches? The Warsaw-based furniture company has the answer – and they're entering the world of hi-fi, with Tylko Sound. The new speaker system is created to slot perfectly within the company’s customisable shelving systems, and sit neatly within a home.

Tune in to Tylko Sound

'People stopped really hearing music. That kind of listening – intentional, attentive – has quietly disappeared from most homes,' Says Ben Kuna, co-founder and CBO of Tylko. 'Music is one of the strongest carriers of emotion, yet we’ve stopped making space for it in our daily lives. With Tylko Sound, we wanted to bring it back.’

The idea emerged while architect Paul Cournet, of multidisciplinary Rotterdam Practice Cloud, helped develop Tylko’s Berlin showroom. During the process, he kept returning to a simple observation: Tylko’s modular shelving was already a grid built for sound, yet nobody had designed a speaker specifically to live inside it.

The Tylko team worked with Rotterdam-based architect and Form Follows Frequency, a studio working with acoustics and design. Together, they made sure that the speaker's sound wasn’t compromised. Instead, they created a structure that became part of the system.

The collection includes the Tylko Coax Speaker with and without Bass Reflex, and the Tylko Subwoofer. The entire system is designed to be adapted. It can start as a single speaker, which can then be added to a collection of subwoofers to create a home stereo system.

Handcrafted in Poland, the speakers are made from Baltic birch plywood, the same material used throughout Tylko’s furniture collection. It is finished in high-gloss lacquer and available in Signal Red, Mint Green, and Chalk White.

Tylko Sound also marks a new entry point into hi-fi. Although blending furniture with a speaker is a standout feature, they also made sure the design of high-quality listening was more accessible. ‘For less than €700 per speaker, Tylko Sound proves that stepping into hi-fi no longer requires a premium-budget investment,’ says Kuna. The collection rethinks the relationship between sound, furniture, and space.

Tylko Sound is a limited-edition product currently available in selected European markets: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. Prices start at €491 to €970 tylko.com

The Range Rover Long Wheelbase Autobiography is one of the current summits of JLR’s project portfolio, a model range that looks set to expand ever upwards into the luxury ether in the coming years. For inspiration, the company would do well to look at this one-off version of the LWB model, created by automotive modification specialists Urban Automotive and Visionnaire, the Italian ‘meta-luxury’ interiors brand.

The occasion is the launch of Visionnaire London at 171–175 Brompton Road, five storeys of immaculately curated interiors and accessories. The car itself, which made its debut at the Knightsbridge store, is a fully customised one-of-one edition, inspired in part by the Adele armchair by Marco Piva, the architect and designer who is one of Visionnaire’s regular collaborators.

That gives the interior a certain uplift from the usual smoky matte black / nightclub neon aesthetic, with elements like embroidered leather, bronze details and bespoke quilting. It’s not quite the gentleman’s club of old, more like the smartly crafted but slightly Boho style of Soho Farmhouse. Cream and green Alcantara upholstery reference the Italian craftsmanship of the Adele armchair in form and material.

The exterior is slightly shoutier. Urban Automotive favours the SUV and SUV clients aren’t shrinking violets, especially if they’re investing in styling elements that make their already unavoidable cars even more distinctive and unique.

The Range Rover has been given carbon fibre ‘Widetrack’ bodywork with a two-tone finish. Not only does this give the car a lower, more aggressive stance, but it includes a bonnet and front and rear bumpers in carbon fibre.

The entire project was overseen by Aro Omar of Arowonen, a multidisciplinary designer who has helped translated the Visionnaire aesthetic into the automotive realm. The dustbin lid-sized wheels rather let the side down, as well as give the Range Rover’s off-road abilities a bit of a downgrade, but they certainly align with the tastes and desires of many of the brand’s customers.

According to Matthew Welch, Managing Director of Urban Automotive, ‘the future of luxury is no longer defined by status or excess, but by individuality, craftsmanship and the pursuit of the truly exceptional. Our collaboration with Visionnaire was a natural meeting of minds, bringing together two brands that share an unwavering commitment to bespoke excellence and timeless design.’

Urban Automotive, Urban-Automotive.com, @UrbanAutomotive
Visionnaire London, 171–175 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, Visionnaire-home.com, @VisionnaireHomePhilosophy

Nothing has announced the launch of the Ear (3a), an upgrade and enhanced version of its entry-level Ear (a). Available in black, white and signature yellow, the range is also joined by a new pink – much hotter than that used on the recent Headphone (a).

The Ear (a) already delivers impressive sound for the price, but the new model brings another piece of distinctive technology, very much aligned to the playful spirit of the Nothing brand. The new Audio Snapshot function uses 32MB of onboard flash storage and the earbuds’ inbuilt microphone array to capture audio directly and instantly.

Nothing is describing the function as a way of capturing an audio snapshot for recall and sharing, whether it’s lecture notes or a gig. Activated by pinching both earbuds at once, the Ear (3a)’s Snapshot function buffers to capture a bit of sound before and after the trigger point.

You’ll find an archive of your recordings in the Nothing X app, which also allows for transcription, effectively bringing the kind of functionality seen in standalone devices like the Plaud Note Pro into the personal audio space. The onboard memory can also be used to record calls – where legal – with up to two hours retained and stored in the app.

The Ear (3a) gets other upgrades, including a new 12 mm dynamic driver for more resonant bass. The earbuds are certified for Hi-Res Audio Wireless via Sony’s LDAC audio technology. The Nothing X adds further customisation via an eight-band equaliser and the ability to share audio profiles.

Those microphones also drive the Active Noise Cancellation system, with an improved transparency mode. If you like added audio processing, the onboard Static Spatial Audio adds additional reverb to create a more spatial listening experience.

The case has been redesigned with a revised charge status light and there’s even a new XS ear tip for smaller ears. The Ear (3a) is rated for up to ten hours of playback on the earbuds alone and an impressive 42 hours when used with a fully charged case (you’ll have to switch off the energy-sapping ANC though – the respective figures are six hours and 25 hours with ANC enabled). Five minutes of charge should give you an hour’s worth of playback.

Describing the little charge case as a colourful ‘party pill’ (no winks and nudges here), Nothing peps up its range with what looks like another winner.

Nothing Ear (3a), $99 / £99 / €99, Nothing.Tech, @Nothing

Beachman Bikes has unveiled the Aviator, a new line of three distinct electric motorbikes inspired by the ‘café racer’ sub-genre of racing machines developed back in the 1950s and 1960s from modified production bikes.

The electric era has given fresh impetus to the motorcycle market, encouraging those who would never normally consider a motorbike over, say, a scooter, to dip their toes into the world of performance two-wheelers. Beachman Bikes, based in Toronto, is rolling out the new Aviator in three distinct configurations in order to accommodate the varied legal status of e-motorbikes and bikes around the world.

First up is the Aviator Class 2 E-Bike, with a 55-mile range 2.8kWh battery or an 80-mile range 4.3kWh variant. Limited to 20mph top speed on the road or 35mph off-road, the E-Bike variant is offered in a variety of colour combinations, has space and pace to accommodate a passenger, as well as integral lockable storage. It’s pitched at first-time riders who want a step up from a conventional e-bike.

It’s joined by a Light Motorcycle version, with increased power, performance and capacity and therefore the requirement for insurance, registration and licence plates in the North American market, as well as a valid motorbike licence. Top speed is 45mph, with the same two battery options.

These two models will be followed soon by a flagship performance version of the Aviator, equivalent to a 125cc motorcycle. Range will top out at 125 miles and the available performance will easily match highway speeds.

According to Ben Taylor, who co-founded Beachman back in 2016 with Steve Payne, ‘Our new Aviator represents our next chapter – it reflects everything that we have learned from building some of the best two-wheel electric bikes in the world.'

The new range is based around an all-new frame, with an upright riding position, beautiful detailing and carefully deployed colour palettes. The craftsmanship is self-evident, from the leather saddle to the minimal controls and dials. Optional customisation is offered through a range of standard retro colours that can be applied to the ‘tank’ storage area, the leather bench seat, handlebars, grips, and saddlebags.

‘One of the biggest benefits of the new frame design is the built-in storage,’ says Taylor. ‘On a traditional gas motorcycle, that space is occupied by the fuel tank. With the Aviator, we were able to turn it into a lockable two-gallon storage compartment that's perfect for gloves, snacks, groceries, or whatever you need for the ride. It's one of those practical features that make everyday riding a lot more enjoyable without needing saddlebags or a backpack.’

Integral theft-protection systems bring added peace of mind and there’s a welcome absence of screens or apps to keep the riding experience pure and simple.

‘Our goal has always been to build beautiful machines that inspire people to get outside, explore their surroundings, and enjoy their ride,’ says Taylor. ‘The Aviator embodies that philosophy by combining thoughtful craftsmanship with powerful modern electric technology that feels approachable for new riders and rewarding for experienced ones.’

Beachman Aviator E-Bike, from US$5,499, Aviator Light Motorcycle from US$5,999, BeachmanBikes.com, @Beachman

In the woods above the well-known French spa town of Evian, a new concert hall, La Source Vive, is shaped like a horse's hoof and is as finely tuned as a Stradivarius.

Fifty years ago, Antoine Riboud, then CEO of Danone Foods, created a classical music festival here. When he hired Mstislav Rostropovich as artistic director, the great cellist requested a new concert hall, something between a Russian dacha and Yehudi Menuhin's tent in Gstaad. In response, the maverick French architect Patrick Bouchain created La Grange au Lac, a large, rustic wooden space with chandeliers, inaugurated in 1993.

Explore the new Evian concert hall

Fast forward to 2017, when another French philanthropist and music lover, Aline Foriel-Destezet, was looking to build a concert hall of her own. She saw La Grange au Lac, was charmed, and hired Bouchain. After searching for a location, they chose to place the new building next to Bouchain's earlier creation. 'My life has been exceptional, because 30 years apart, I received pretty much the same command from two different people,' says the architect, 'and both gave me the same freedom.'

Bouchain told Foriel-Destezet he wanted to work with a partner, someone who would do the heavy architectural lifting while he acted as artistic director. He had become friendly with Philippe Chiambaretta, whose firm, PCA-Stream (behind Paris' Stream Building), employs a design approach based largely on science and exploration. The two men's offices were minutes apart, and they frequently met over coffee to discuss theories and ideas.

The first step was a much-needed restoration of the 1,000-seat Grange au Lac, which would now be devoted to symphonies. Then the architects created a smaller, complementary building with 500 seats, for chamber music concerts and musical recordings, La Source Vive. The architects also tore down the existing foyer and replaced it with a new one that leads to both concert halls, a wood-and-glass structure that references a Novarina-Prouvé building in Evian. Together, the buildings form a complex named Les Mélèzes (for the surrounding larch trees), with a programme of music and performing arts throughout the year.

Music was the driving element for La Source Vive's design. 'It's interesting for an architect to have this type of command, where you're not only looking, but listening, too,' says Chiambaretta. He and Bouchain worked closely with violinist Renaud Capuçon, the current director of the Rencontres Musicales d'Evian festival, who told them he wanted a sound that was 'warm and silky', citing favourite venues such as the Vienna Musikverein. A key member of the team was the internationally renowned acoustician Albert Xu, who passed away at age 89, just as construction started.

La Source Vive's footprint was imposed by nature; since the team wanted to avoid cutting down any trees, they chose a round clearing that was practically bare. The number of seats determined its volume, as another rule in acoustics is about 11 cubic metres of volume per audience member – enough space for the sound to bounce around.

The design was an iterative process, guided by acoustic parameters such as reverberation time – ideally 1.8 seconds. Concert halls come in two main forms: a rectangular shoebox or a 'vineyard', with seating surrounding the stage. La Source Vive became a hybrid of the two, an oval shape with a conical roof. Bouchain made models out of wood or plaster, while Chiambaretta’s studio created a 3D digital model, inputting different shapes and materials to simulate sound quality and sightlines. 'The form resembled a brain, and we had scans, like MRIs, where we could know the reverberation time for each seat,' says Chiambaretta. 'It was crazy.'

At every stage of construction, acousticians from Meta captured sound at different points in the room and compared the results with the architects' predictions. 'Each time we remeasured, correcting the model to be sure the sound would be perfect,' says Chiambaretta. 'Because we knew if we screwed up, if we ended up with two seconds of reverberation, Capuçon and Aline would kill us.'

Specialised artisans used age-old techniques, such as plastering the walls with trowels. 'All the great concert halls of the 19th century are in plaster,' says Bouchain, a master of materials. The unpainted plaster is sculpted with squiggly lines that resemble an electrocardiogram, closer together at the bottom than at the top, for optimal reverberation.

Chiambaretta compares the building's shell to an onion, layered with plaster, concrete, a wood frame, and finally the envelope in oiled copper, an aesthetic choice that allows it to blend into the surrounding woods. Above the stage, acoustic aluminium panels open like a camera aperture, exposing an oculus in the ceiling. That way, says Bouchain, 'the musicians can rehearse by daylight rather than artificial lighting'.

Two-person seats like little sofas are made from orangey-beige leather (rejected by fashion houses due to small imperfections), and padded for comfort and sound quality. They can be moved around, even close to the instruments, offering an accessible experience for the hard-of-hearing.

Six months before opening, everyone who worked on La Source Vive was invited to a special concert to thank them and test the sound in the presence of an audience. This was followed by a 'technical' concert and more tweaking of the interior – like an instrument, the room's sound can be tuned from one concert to another. In mid-June, the venue had its first challenge, hosting a concert for world leaders gathering at the G7 summit.

And on 24 June, the Rencontres Musicales season finally opened at La Source Vive with a quartet that included Capuçon and superstar cellist Yo Yo Ma. The sounds of Brahms and Schumann were warm and silky, just as requested. As the musicians left the stage, Yo Yo Ma thanked the two architects, sitting in the front row.

Afterwards, Chiambaretta reflected on the experience. 'It was a good lesson to work with musicians who are used to playing together. That’s rare in architecture, where we’re usually competing. But Patrick couldn't have done this project without me, and I couldn't have done it without him.'

pca-stream.com

Small is finally beautiful again. Fiat has its new small micromobility strategy, while Renault is rapidly downsizing and getting rave reviews in the process. Then there are tiny machines like the Microlino, the Citroën Ami and even the amiable Amble One are upending the contemporary idea of what small scale transportation looks like.

If there’s one voice that’s currently missing in action from this transition, it’s Smart. The progenitors of the tiny two-seat city car, thanks to the 1998 Smart City-Coupé, the company will be taking the wraps off its long-awaited Smart #02 at this year’s Paris Motor Show in October.

We travelled to Rome to get a sneak preview, courtesy of the Smart Concept #02, an elaborate, high-specification teaser for the production model.

Why Rome? It turns out that the city is something of a hotspot for Smart ownership over the years, something to do with the narrow, twisting streets, general scarcity of parking spaces and the Roman desire to always be somewhere as quickly as possible.

The short trip from the airport certainly confirmed the company’s claims – we’ve never seen so many Smarts in the wild within such a small slice of city, bumper to bumper, bumper to curb, whistling through traffic, tucked into tiny spots. Apparently, there are still several thousand in daily use across the city.

Given that the modern iteration of Smart is just as much a part of Chinese manufacturer Geely as it is Mercedes-Benz (Smart was originally purely a Benz off-shoot), the #02 must navigate urban culture and expectations in two very different parts of the world.

China is a very screen-focused market, where cars are a liminal space between home and work, providing connectivity and separation from the environment you are travelling through. In European cities, the most successful small cars have amplified the sense of being in the city, rather than being insulated from it.

The Rome event also marked the debut of the concept interior, as well as technical details of the new ECA platform that sits beneath this most diminutive of electric machines. Inside, innovations that should translate into production include the wave-shaped dashboard, a bench seat and oodles of oddment storage around the cabin.

Elements that probably won’t survive to the showrooms include the exterior straps with their gold fasteners and the exaggerated, Smart logo-strewn grille. This gives the little car the feel of an upscale designer accessory, a trinket for the town much like a fancy bag.

As other manufacturers are discovering, the one-size-fits-all global automobile is something of a phantom, with more and more market-specific models further bisecting the epic amount of choice available to the consumer.

Once upon a time, differences were marked in trim levels and colour choices; these days, it’s different strokes for different folks as Europe stays wedded to its SUVs, China prefers MPVs and the US, well, the US is still deep in the mythos of the pick-up truck.

With that in mind, you can consider the Concept #02 to be pretty China-centric in its styling, colour and trim. The original Smart Car was only available as a special import into the country but still garnered a cult following (although not quite as much as Italy, where c600k were sold).

The new model is expected to do even better, although it’s the European market that embraced Smart more than any other – a German reinterpretation of Italian sensibilities, filtered through Chinese finance and ambition.

The ECA platform promises much, with agility, safety and range prioritised. Although on the one hand, Smart’s team asks ‘why should cities redesign themselves around the car, when cars can re-shape themselves for the city,’ other Geely teams – not to mention Mercedes – are perfectly content to ramp up the scale and power of passenger cars.

But we’re here to revel in the smartness of Smart, and all the clever details that made the original so different. The #02 will have a similarly tight turning circle – 6.95m. It’ll pack a 35kWh battery, twice the power of the rather woeful first generation Smart Fortwo electric drive (which couldn’t even manage 70 miles). ‘It’s not designed to be a hero of long-distance travel,’ the Smart team admits, but a low three-figure range is enough for even the most colossal Chinese conurbation.

Smart Europe CEO Wolfgang Ufer doubles down on the European focus. 'European cities have always been the natural home of the Smart two-seater. Long before mobility became a challenge in urban areas worldwide, smart had already created solutions around the realities of city life… Urban mobility does not need to be more complicated. It needs to be more intelligent, more desirable and better aligned with how people actually live and move through cities.'

Look beyond the chunky, Lego-style influence, the accretions and accessories that resemble automotive charm bracelets, and that soft luxe white-and-gold colour scheme and sci-fi wheels and tyres, and you'll see a pretty accurate representation of the finished Smart #02. The first deliveries aren't expected until some time next year, when Smart will once again be fighting fit in the most challenging automotive arena of all.

Smart #02, available 2027, more information at UK.Smart.com, @Smart_Worldwide

Ghraoui is one of the oldest luxury chocolate houses in the world. Its story began in Damascus in 1805, and encompasses centuries of cultural heritage and dedication to quality and craftsmanship amidst global change and political upheaval.

The House of Ghraoui takes its name from the prominent Middle Eastern family whose trading business, in the early 19th century, specialised in sugar, coffee, tea, and fruit. Their chocolate enterprise began in earnest in the 20th century, when Sadek Ghraoui, head of the family’s fourth generation, visited France in 1931. His experiences there inspired him to introduce luxury chocolates to the Middle East.

With great business acumen and knowledge of his customers he realised that a marketing strategy was called for to tempt the Middle Eastern market, who were used to Arabic sweets, to try a new European confection. He placed other desirable goodies, such as silver scissors and golden letter openers, within the beautifully made chocolate boxes to add to their allure.

Discover Ghraoui's mouth-watering delights

Ghraoui chocolates were soon well known and highly esteemed, and they became a prized luxury gift. Appreciation of Ghraoui delicacies was not confined to the Levant region, but spread into Europe too. During the 1930s and 1940s, their products were sold in fancy London emporiums such as Fortnum & Mason, Selfridges and Harrods, and In Paris, at luxury food stores Fauchon and Hediard.

The Ghraoui story is bittersweet tale of Damascene heritage and of resilience, as it moves through decades of political turmoil in Syria, and the rise and fall of the family fortunes. Despite this, the Ghhraoui’s kept their legacy alive. Sadek’s son, Bassam Ghraoui, rebuilt the business from a single remaining shop, and in 1996 he founded the Ghraoui Chocolate Company and opened a modern factory near Damascus. This was forced to close in 2012 because of the Syrian civil war, but in 2017, the brand was reborn in Hungary, with Ghraoui’s flagship store located on Budapest’s prestigious Andrássy Avenue, (a UNESCO World Heritage Site)

Ghraoui chocolates are a unique fusion of traditional Middle Eastern ingredients and modern European chocolate-making techniques. They feature fragrant Levantine flavours including orange blossom, rose, apricot, and pistachio, and Ghraoui also offer other delicacies such as dates, fruit confits, and marron glacé. The confections are hand finished and elegantly presented in a range of gorgeous boxes befitting a luxury gift.

Ghraoui products are available in Budapest, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha, as well as Beirut and Amman, and in London they have made a proud return to Harrods, within the magnificent Chocolate Hall.

ghraouichocolate.com

During his career, Frank Lloyd Wright built only one house in Tennessee: the Shavin House, perched on Missionary Ridge in Chattanooga. Now, this unique piece of American architectural history is on the market.

The home, at 334 North Crest Road, was built in 1949 after newlyweds Seamour – a building materials salesman with an appreciation for modern design – and Gerte Shavin decided that, rather than buying an existing home, they would channel their savings into commissioning a residence from the era's most celebrated architect. They paid roughly $33,000 for the house and its Wright-designed built-in furniture, a considerable sum for the time.

Wright designed the home in his Usonian tradition – a design philosophy centred on the idea of the ideal American home: modest in scale, with open interiors, abundant natural light and a strong relationship between architecture and landscape. The Shavin residence embodies these principles, built from native Tennessee Crab Orchard stone and Louisiana cypress.

Wright himself never set foot on the Chattanooga site; construction was overseen by Marvin Bachman, one of his apprentices from Taliesin, Wright’s home, studio and school complex in Wisconsin. Bachman died in a car accident before the project was finished, but the house was nonetheless completed in 1952. It remained in the Shavin family for more than seven decades – Seamour, who also served as the home's general contractor, lived there until his death in 2005, while Gerte remained part-time until 2020.

Signature Wright touches are everywhere: a hidden entrance that reveals the main living spaces only after entry, clerestory windows, mitred glass corners that dissolve the visual boundary between interior and exterior, and a massive stone fireplace centerpiece. A dramatic cantilevered carport roof extends outward from the main building, while inside, Wright's signature built-in seating, shelving and cabinetry unify architecture and interior.

The Shavin House does depart from Wright’s usual style in one notable way: while many of his houses tuck into their surroundings, this one commands the top of Missionary Ridge, with sweeping views of the Tennessee River, Lookout Mountain and downtown Chattanooga. This distinctive character earned the home a spot on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993, and it became Chattanooga's first official local landmark in 1995.

With its entrance to market, the Shavin House offers the chance to steward one of fewer than 100 completed Usonian houses in existence. While it may not carry the fame of Fallingwater or the Robie House, many consider it one of the finest surviving examples of Wright’s residential philosophy.

The Shavin House is on the market with Sotherby’s International Realty for $1.6 million.

In a new Wallpaper* summer series, architect Carlo Ratti explores Italy through the ordinary objects that define daily life. Third up: the condom, the only piece of industrial design that everyone owns, and no one shows off

Carlo Ratti's 'Objectify' explores the condom

In almost every Italian home, there is at least one: forgotten at the bottom of a bedside drawer, long past its expiration date. It may be the only piece of industrial design that everyone owns, and no one puts on display.

We are in Padua, in the second half of the sixteenth century. One of Europe’s most important centres for anatomical research at the time. It was there that a professor named Gabriele Falloppio – yes, the one after whom the fallopian tubes are named – is conducting what may be the first clinical trial in the history of preventive medicine.

The object: a linen sheath soaked in wine, guaiac and mercury, shaped to cover the glans and tied with a little pink ribbon. The pink, Falloppio notes in his De Morbo Gallico, published posthumously in 1564, was chosen to make it 'more attractive to the ladies.' The volunteers numbered eleven hundred. The result: 'I call upon the immortal God as witness that none of them was infected.'

In its original form, the condom was to the bedroom what the diving suit was to the early underwater explorers: an enclosure that guaranteed no watertight seal whatsoever. Innovation, therefore, began almost immediately. First goat intestine. Then, once a miraculous new material arrived from the colonies, drawn from the rubber tree, came latex.

But back to the object. The modern condom is a masterpiece of minimal design: a cylinder of latex just 0.07 millimetres thick, rolled onto itself and sealed inside an aluminium sachet. No other object is so thin, so functional, and so universally embarrassing to buy.

The sachet itself is an exercise in semiotics: it must communicate safety, discretion and a certain eroticism, all within the footprint of a postage stamp. Falloppio had grasped something fundamental: design must seduce before it protects. The pink ribbon of the sixteenth century and the glossy packaging of 2026 answer to the same logic - the logic of desire.

Of course, some will object today. Between the pill, cycle-tracking apps and PrEP therapies, the condom seems to be losing ground, a relic of a more anxious age. And what consolation is it, they might say, for Italian design to claim a five-century-old invention while elsewhere artificial intelligence is being built?

But perhaps that is not the point. If, in the middle of the sixteenth century, without latex and without germ theory, a man in Padua could imagine an object at once so clinical and so seductive, then we can do it again.

And on this warm midsummer night, as the scent of jasmine drifts through the open window and the zampirone mosquito coil burns slowly in the corner of the living room, let us remember that the most discreet of everyday objects was invented by an Italian. With a little pink ribbon. To make a good impression. To make bella figura.

About 'Objectify' – a summer series from Italy by Carlo Ratti

Italy’s design canon has been told many times. The Bialetti moka pot, the Vespa, the Fiat 500, the Arco floor lamp: you know the list, and so does every airport bookshop and first-year design student. This column will discuss, poke, investigate, prod, ridicule and beatify the less glamorous Italian objects. They are the ones you ought to know, so that when you visit Italy, or spot apparitions of it on a friend’s social media, you can smugly point out: “Did you know the mosquito coil is a masterpiece of Italian design? The condom? The motorway toll transponder?” Objects so ordinary that Italians walk past them, or handle them every day, without registering that someone, with a mellifluous surname, designed them.

Proust wrote a seven-volume novel because a small cake dipped in tea, the madeleine, unlocked an involuntary flood of memory. For followers of the Italian version of this column, published weekly in Il Sole 24 Ore, the nation’s favourite Sunday read, perhaps these objects will have a similar effect. For you, anglophone readers peering at this somewhere between Rummidge and Euforia, they offer something else: beach conversation topics, an eye trained on unexpected places, and perhaps a few new madeleines for when you visit the peninsula yourself. After all, objects are never just objects. As the great Milanese designer Achille Castiglioni of Arco-floor-lamp fame once declared: “Objects should keep us company.” Especially during this scorching summer.

carlorattiassociati.com

You’d be forgiven for not rushing to acquire a folding smartphone. While the form factor does have its fans, no manufacturer has yet made a convincing case for the doubled-up screen size, added weight, complexity, delicacy and cost that comes with these pocket tablets.

Like Samsung and Google, Honor has stuck to its guns and kept the dream of the functional foldable alive. Through excellent devices like the Magic V2, as well as the more practical but even less common flip-sized Magic V Flip2, the Chinese manufacturer has kept itself at the forefront of the tech, iterating, improving and refining with each generation.

The new Honor Magic V6 is the current state of the art. A companion for the brand’s latest Watch 6, it represents the current peak of this ever-evolving technology. For a start, the Magic V6 is 8.75mm when folded, barely more than, say, a Google Pixel 10 Pro (8.6 mm).

The large 6,660mAh battery is the largest offered in any foldable – usually an area of compromise with all the space taken up by the screens (for comparison, the Pixel 10 Pro has a 4,870 mAh battery and the iPhone 17 Pro Max offers 4,823 mAh). All in all, it weighs in at 219g.

Durability – the Achilles’ heel of the foldable – has also been improved, with IP68/IP69 dust- and water-resistance ratings. The Honor ‘Super Steel Hinge’ forms the core of the mechanism, specially designed to absorb impact when dropped and maintain the phone’s structural integrity. The processor is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform.

The other obvious drawback in foldable design is the visual crease down the centre of the main display. A special flexible glass minimises this like ever before, with both inner 7.95-inch display and 6.52-inch outer display offering high refresh rates and what Honor describes as ‘advanced eye-comfort technologies’ to salve the eyes of the addicted.

Honor’s MagicOS 10 is more of an acquired taste. Out in the wild for nearly six months, this new version of the in-house operating system is very AI-heavy, with dedicated agents for photos, settings and general contextual queries. Google Gemini is bundled in, along with a three-month trial of Google’s AI Pro. The over-reliance on cartoonish avatars is also a little grating.

The UI adopts (some might say copies) some of the transparent design details from Apple’s iOS26 Liquid Glass aesthetic. Once you’ve become adept at manoeuvring between the various split screen options, a foldable phone becomes a very effective piece of multi-tasking kit.

Can it replace a laptop? Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, it can come close, although as we know all too well, adding more and more tech to our lives rarely results in simplification.

These days, there are more and more alternatives, both new and on the second hand market, like the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, and the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, although one detects a certain ennui in the way in which these flagship devices are being sold; they simply don’t offer enough advantages.

There has even been the adventure of the triple-screen foldable, which turns out to be perhaps a screen too far. The very limited availability and take-up of the Samsung Galaxy Z TriFold and the Huawei Mate XT hasn’t encouraged a flood of imitators.

Finally, there’s the looming spectre of the iPhone Fold, as yet unsighted but much rumoured and certain to upend the desirability and reach of foldable tech should it ever actually appear. Unlike Apple, Google and even Samsung, Honor is unafraid to ramp up the bling and the sparkle when it comes to marketing its phones, with collaborations with Porsche Design and Jimmy Choo. The white, red and gold trim of the Magic V6 certainly stands out, for better or for worse.

Honor Magic V6, £1999.99 as one of several packages with other Honor tech (or £1499.99 until 31 July 2026, with Honor’s on-site discount) Honor.com, Community.Honor.com, @HonorGlobal

Until 5 August 2026, those purchasing the Magic V6 from some mobile providers (including O2) and Amazon.co.uk, have the chance to claim a bundle of additional Honor tech worth £549 post-purchase, including the Choice Projector Air Pro, Choice Headphones Max and Choice Watch 2 Epic

Few companies have a more rightful claim to being part of 21st century micromobility than Fiat. The Italian manufacturer effectively defined the small family car with the original Cinquecento, a design that continues to resonate through that car’s successful descendants.

With the subsequent release of the Topolino quadricycle in 2023, Fiat doubled down on the value of small scale, positioning the micro two-seater as a chic urban or beach accessory, complete with partnerships with the likes of Vilebrequin and yours truly at this year’s Salone del Mobile.

The company went further in Milan with an exhibition, Ciao Futuro!, which explored the past, present and future of the small car in the city. Now the company has reaffirmed its micromobility credentials with new products and partnerships.

At an event in Vatican City, Fiat revealed the Multiplina Concept, a four-seater quadricycle that harks back to the original Fiat 600 Multipla introduced in 1956.

This tiny machine actually sat six people, using the same platform as the 600 saloon. Fiat describes the Multiplina as ‘the missing link between a Topolino and a car,’ and the available rendering shows a compact monobox design that takes its cue from the original.

Back in 1956, there was nothing like the original 600 Multipla. The model, which was in production until 1967, was also available as a taxicab. Packaging was everything – even the spare wheel was carried inside the cabin.

The little 633cc engine put out just over 21hp, with a top speed of under 60mph. Foot to the floor, the 600 Multipla would reach 50mph in about 43 seconds.

Another old-school archetype enjoying a revival is the three-wheeled truck. Last year, Fiat Professional unveiled the Tris, an ultra-compact commercial vehicle that’s broadly similar to the iconic Piaggio Ape three-wheeler. Variants of the Ape have been in production since 1948, familiar as everything from micro-scale coffee trucks to farm transport in rural Italy.

Fiat and its partners have been here before in recent years, with the Fiat 500 Jolly Spiaggina Icon-e and Castagna Milano’s Fiat Topolino Spiaggina, all referencing the wicker seats and canvas-topped originals created for Italy’s smart set back in the 60s.

The Tris wants in on the action. Just 3.17m long, with handlebar steering and an open cabin, the electric truck has a 56-mile range. In keeping with the spirit of multifunctional micromobility, Fiat also showed a new Tris variant alongside the Multiplina Concept.

Decked out in blue- and white-striped canvas, the Tris Dolcevita is perfect for the Italian Riviera, a hotel transit and beach boulevard machine designed in the spirit of the original Spiaggina, or beach cars.

Topolino sales are on the up, and the tiny bodywork is ripe for reinterpretation and brand partnerships, as shown in the current line-up, which now includes the open sided Dolcevita, the striped Topolino Sport and a new limited-edition collaboration with the swimwear brand, the Topolino Vilebrequin Collector’s Edition.

‘Our mission has always been the same: to make mobility simpler, smarter and more accessible,’ says Fiat’s CEO Olivier François, ‘Today, with Topolino, Tris, and our vision for the future – Multiplina - we are building on our legacy and creating a complete ecosystem for the cities of tomorrow: joyful, ingenious, sustainable, and unmistakably Fiat.’

Fiat.co.uk, "

The south of France’s annual design competition and festival, Design Parade, celebrates a milestone anniversary in 2026, marking 20 years of its ‘Objet’ (Product design) competition, and 10 years of its ‘Architecture d’intérieur’ (Interior design) competition. The occasion was customarily revelrous with passionate speeches, a pétanque tournament, a retrospective exhibition curated by David Giroire, and a talks programme featuring India Mahdavi hosted by Matter + Shape beneath umbrella pines to a soundtrack of cicadas.

Design Parade 2026 at Villa Noailles

At the 1920s Villa Noailles in Hyeres, the ten ‘Product design’ finalists included ‘imprecise candle clocks’ that challenge our relationship to time by Matisse Vrignaud and Lundja Medjoub (winners of a residency at the Sèvres National Manufacture). Yohan Thomas’ efficient lamp that hacked its own design system bringing autonomy back to small-scale manufacturing. And Mexican designer Eduardo Altamirano’s hypnotic, minimalist open speaker won the public prize.

Tin Ayala (Ecuador), who remixed precolonial Andean ceramic huacos with characters from video games and comics suggesting pre-to-post-colonial continuities, won the jury’s ‘Product design’ grand prize. Meanwhile conceptual designer Shahar Livne (Netherlands), a former student of Formafantasma, examined colonialism through the lens of rubber, examining its human and animal cost.

Stanislas Colodiet, director of CIRVA (France’s International centre of Glass and Plastic Arts) and member of the ‘Product design’ jury this year, remarked that post-colonialism has gained more interest from designers in recent years, as well as how objects can shape new rituals. 'An object should have agency,' he says.

Colodiet will work closely with winner Ayala during an upcoming residency at CIRVA in Marseille, which is part of the prize; and was proud to reflect on the collaboration with last year’s winner Simon Dupety, whose installation of organic glass vessels and lamps formed a dystopian garden inside the Villa Noailles.

Transforming Villa Noailles through contemporary interior design

The ten ‘Interior design’ competition finalists each transformed a room in the villa. Winner of the jury’s grand prize, Valentin Bayoud’s hearth-inspired cocoon replaced fire with water, inviting shared contemplation. Water was central to Elen Rio’s Mediterranean garden with a dynamic basin and playful hosepipes; as well as Yohann Hubert and Carlotta Lagazzi’s (winners of the Nationale manufactures Mobilier national Prize) reimagining of a wrecked boat.

Julie Liger, Artistic Director of Design Parade, noticed an increase in ‘spaces that isolate you from the intensity of life, yet not to be alone – to be with friends and discuss, and to see and observe nature.’ Reflecting on her own pioneering participation in 10 years of the ‘Interior design’ competition, she’s seen the rise of environmentalism. Today it’s integral to how all finalists think, yet this year explored it with the most freedom and sophistication in the use of circular and natural materials.

As well as noting an almost ‘Baroque’ approach to craft and decoration, with designers showing intensive interest in materiality and taking craft back into their own hands. See Boris Cojean’s silky beeswax surfaces; Simon Searle and Victoire Lesthevenon’s local timber tinted with plant-based dyes (Public prize winner); Marion Moustey and Ewerton Alves’ aubergine curtains; and Clément Pasquier’s magical cork oak skin.

Liger sees the competition as an extension of the rich French heritage of interior design, and importantly one that, rather than in Paris, is rooted in the Mediterranean context of the south. Taking place during intense heat-waves across Europe, Design Parade’s question of how to live in the Mediterranean felt very relevant, as Northern Europe looks south for wisdom and innovation from shading, to water management.

An eco-system of design

Each year of the festival, the regional eco-system of design further strengthens. This year, visitors can discover new collectible design gallery Pour Vous and return to the Banane d’Or concept space in Hyères; be inspired by graduate presentations at the Camondo Méditerranée school and an exhibition on design and textiles at the Hôtel des Art featuring Sheila Hicks, Hella Jongerius and Muller Van Severen in Toulon.

They can also experience the work of Design Parade veterans of all levels in various places. During opening week, Edgar Jayet (5th Interior design winner, 2021) opened a recently designed home to curious visitors; pétanque played out at the sea-front Hotel Le Provencal designed by Rodolphe Parente (6th Interior design jury president, 2022, and 10th Interior design jury member); and lunch was hosted at Hotel Lilou designed by Kim Haddou and Florent Dufourcq (3rd Interior design finalist, 2018).

One day, dreams Liger, Design Parade will take to the streets with regional public commissions from designers, such as a fountain or landscaping. Perhaps more critically and environmentally engaged than ever before, this year’s Design Parade shows that it’s set on further expanding its impact through its community, as well as continuing to inspire surrealist imaginations through its enduringly playful spirit.

Design Parade is on view until 4 September 2026
villanoailles.com

The 60th Montreux Jazz Festival starts today. What better way of getting into the swing of this pivotal point in the musical calendar than by looking back at some of the greatest poster designs created to promote the event?

This year the artwork has been undertaken by Swiss fashion designer Kévin Germanier, while the Swiss-Iranian photographer Anoush Abrar has completed a new photography monograph, The Elegance of Time, capturing some of the key participants over the years.

Germanier is in good company. Over six decades, the Montreux team has been able to tap some top talent to create the annual poster, as well as finding elegant and timely representations that epitomise the graphic style of each era.

Past contributors include Keith Haring (who also worked on a poster with Andy Warhol), David Bowie, Jean Tinguely, Milton Glaser, Tomi Ungerer, Sylvie Fleury and Julian Opie.

The 60s and 70s in Montreux poster design

Set on the shores of Lake Geneva, the modern festival has been directed by Mathieu Jaton since 2013. The event was started in 1967 by Claude Nobs and represents the intersection between jazz and contemporary music in all its forms.

Some of most significant names in 20th and 21st century music have performed over the years, including but not limited to Etta James, Quincy Jones, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Ms. Lauren Hill, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, James Brown, Kendrick Lamar, Leonard Cohen, Marvin Gaye, Miles Davis, and Nina Simone.

The 80s at Montreux

Germanier’s poster has been formed from more than 60,000 glass, wood and plastic beads and sequins, embroidered onto a velvet canvas. The vivid, densely layered piece was worked on by six artisans and was inspired by the non-literal, abstract tradition of Montreux poster design.

The 90s in Montreux Jazz Festival Posters

‘My favourite Montreux posters are those that represent the Festival in a non-literal way, Germanier says, ‘Music isn’t just a saxophone or a guitar – it’s a feeling. I tried to convey that explosion, that emotion that moves both your body and your heart. I wanted something generous, dynamic and vibrant.’

Montreux Jazz poster art in the 2000s

The 60th Edition features performers as diverse as PinkPantheress, Loyle Carner, Billy Cobham, Van Morrison, The Roots, Raye and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, part of a total of 700 concerts, DJ sets and events over the fortnight, all housed with the Montreux Music & Convention Center, newly reopened this summer after a multi-year renovation.

Montreux Jazz Festival posters from 2011 to the present day

The 60th Edition of the Montreux Jazz Festival runs from 3 to 18 July 2026, MontreuxJazzFestival.com, @MontreuxJazzFestival

The Elegance of Time, Montreux Jazz Festival by Anoush Abrar, CHF 60, MontreuxJazzShop.com

La Fantaisie in Paris has handed over one of its 73 rooms to the Hungarian artist Szabolcs Bozó, whose vibrant creatures and fluid, folk-inflected forms now occupy Room 607 for a nine-month residency. Running until 22 February 2027, the project continues the hotel’s ongoing artistic series, which previously saw a takeover by French contemporary artist Ben Arpéa.

Tour La Fantaisie’s Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó

Bozó’s work has always carried the cadence of a spontaneous drawing and the nostalgia of a childhood memory. Rooted in Hungarian folk traditions and shaped by a self-taught visual language, his paintings, sculptures and installations are populated by zoomorphic figures that orbit somewhere between dream, fable and playground.

The walls of Room 607 have become an in-situ canvas, layered with works made directly for the space, while the existing artworks have been replaced entirely with pieces by Bozó. Handmade cushions and bespoke bedspreads woven with his signature animal-like motifs bring the collaboration into the soft furnishings; large-scale soft sculptures introduce a more physical sense of play; and hand-painted lampshades cast the room in a warmer, stranger glow.

A booklet for guests offers an introduction to the artist alongside the works available to purchase, while a selection of co-branded objects is also available and is exclusively sold at La Fantaisie, featuring caps, stickers, playing cards, and trays.

The Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó spans 42 sq m, sleeps up to three guests and overlooks the hotel’s garden. It comprises a large walk-in closet, a plush bathroom with a bathtub and shower, and a sofa bed which can be turned into an additional sleeping quarter. Designed by Martin Brudnizki, La Fantaisie is already a botanical exercise in colour, pattern and exuberance, with boutique rooms, a glass-roofed restaurant, garden terrace, street-facing café, rooftop bar and spa in Paris’s 9th arrondissement.

‘Coinciding with my exhibition Antidote at Semiose, my collaboration with La Fantaisie brings together familiar elements from my studio, but also new materials, including fabric and everyday objects, allowing guests to experience my work in an even more tactile way. Paris as a location has always been close to my heart, with my first show taking place here,’ says Bozó of the opening.

La Fantaisie is located at 24 Rue Cadet, 75009 Paris, France. Rates for the Art Suite by Szabolcs Bozó start from 1,000 EUR inc. breakfast (approximately 862 GBP)

A walkway is an unlikely reason for improved college enrolment, yet when Farrell Wray Architects designed the first iteration of a flyover gallery in Australia for the Caroline Chisholm College in Braybrook back in 2015, they saw the renovation of the quadrangle landscape increase school sign-ups and a new sense of optimism and pride for the institution.

Discover an Australian gallery for a gum tree

After much positive feedback, the firm was asked to reimagine the Marcellin Flyover Gallery, an existing open-air walkway bridge between two buildings at Marcellin College in Victoria, to increase its functionality and visual impact.

With a senior school teaching and learning building to the east, which was the first structure on the site, erected back in 1963, and a junior school building to the west, the walkway is used to seamlessly travel between both areas.

However, this project required more than a simple spruce-up. Rooted between both buildings is a large gum tree, which the firm felt compelled to preserve. Founders of the firm, Ellie Farrell and Brad Wray, decided to craft an ellipse for the tree to branch through, framing its natural beauty.

Farrell and Wray particularly liked the contrast of the geometry of the ellipse against the organic freedom of the garden. ‘A series of early sketches evolved in quite an organic way, which led to questions about the relationship of the organic nature of the tree versus how to approach an architectural response around it. We were interested in not attempting to create a parody, but rather a contrast between formal geometry and the organic sort of geometry of the tree,’ says the architects.

One of the biggest challenges the architects faced wasn't working around the tree’s branches, but more navigating its trunk and what lay beneath – the root system. They explained, ‘Before any works had commenced on site, we had a tree root scan undertaken.

'As a result, we had to be flexible in where the four final column locations would be. We also had to be flexible in what we found upon digging in the ground, as there was a really small tolerance to the number of roots that could be cut and removed before the tree is dramatically affected or actually could die.’

Like with previous projects, the walkway was designed to act as somewhat of an emblem for the school, something which spoke about the school’s history and origins. The architects nodded to St Marcellin Champagnat, after whom the school is named, specifically his Hermitage building in France.

Using this as a primary reference to design the Marcellin flyover’s main elevation, they used two a-proportional archways to create an opening with edge details that look like they've been carved out.

Now, ‘Gallery for a Tree’ is not only used as a walkway but also adorned in the school’s work, showcasing art in specially created ‘art boxes’ placed across the flyover.

farrellwray.com

The Museum of Architecture's newest activity, a bonsai treehouse exhibition set in a leafy central London park, has something for everyone. There is delightful miniature architecture, reminiscent of a fun, adventurous dollhouse; green spaces to elevate the soul and provide some cool shade; and workshops for visitors of all ages, to both explore architectural model making and concepts, and bonsai tree growing. Opening this weekend (4 July – 31 August 2026), the show is the perfect antidote to the UK capital's current hot summer spell.

Tour this bonsai treehouse exhibition in a central London park

The display is arranged at the heart of a small park, a green square in a quiet corner off Connaught Village. The mini treehouses and their plant pairings are set on plinths, offering a breath of fun and fresh air to the lovely, traditionally laid out residents' patch.

It all started with an idea the Museum of Architecture was working on a few years back, centred on a giant treehouse. The idea soon evolved into a miniature version, and indeed, not one but many, the institution's director Melissa Woolford explains.

'The range of practices joining “Bonsai Treehouses” this summer is really exciting – from some of the most established names in architecture to brilliant younger studios, every one of them has embraced our brief. Each bonsai in the collection is unique, and we asked every architect to respond to that individuality: to design for the specific tree in front of them, not for a treehouse in the abstract. The results are surprising, thought-provoking, and genuinely fun to discover.'

Architectural participants include larger and established studios such as Foster + Partners, Haptic Architects and White Arkitekter as well as boutique and more emerging ones – among them EcoLogic Studio, McCloy + Muchemwa and Macro Micro Architects.

The variety in approaches to the treehouse designs is also wide and entertaining. Each practice was given a bonsai tree to work with, and Foster + Partners, for example, found inspiration in mycorrhizal fungi – 'the buried networks through which trees quietly sustain one another across a forest floor', they explain.

Nothing could have materialised, however, without the help of Peter Warren, founder of Saruyama Bonsai, who collaborated with Woolford and the architects and brought his valuable expertise in bonsai-growing to the table.

He said: 'I have brought trees from my own collection to this exhibition – each one shaped over many years, and every one with its own character. I was very curious to see which trees would be chosen, and how each architect would respond to the particular form in front of them. I hope visitors will be delighted by the pairing of tree and miniature built structure.'

The exhibition will be complemented by a programme of creative workshops for all ages. Offerings will include treehouse making, treehouse gardening, and a bonsai masterclass with Peter Warren himself.

Bonsai Treehouses Exhibition is on 4 July to 31 August, 9am-6pm, Oxford Square, a short walk from Connaught Village at Connaught Street and Albion Street.

Advanced booking strongly recommended

museumofarchitecture.org

Haute Couture Week represents the rarified pinnacle of the fashion calendar, taking place each year in January and June or July in Paris. To be considered a couture house – and show as part of the official schedule – you must adhere to a series of rules set by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM). Notably, garments must be made to order for clients using a dedicated couture atelier of over 15 staff and 20 technical workers, with participants showing more than 50 designs twice a year (several of fashion’s biggest names, including Chanel, Dior and Armani, have couture arms, and present during the week). The FHCM also chooses a series of guest designers to show each season, while off-schedule events take place across the city – including the presentation of high jewellery collections in showrooms in and around Place Vendôme.

Held this season from 6-9 July, the A/W 2026 edition of Haute Couture Week looks set to be defined by a pervading newness: Pierpaolo Piccioli and Duran Lantink will show their first couture collections for Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier respectively, while Olivier Theyskens – formerly of Rochas, Nina Ricci and Theory – will debut his new label, Boloria. Meanwhile at Chanel and Dior, Matthieu Blazy and Jonathan Anderson, respectively, will host their sophomore haute couture collections, after lauded debuts earlier this year. Rounding out the schedule are shows from Schiaparelli, Armani Privé, Viktor & Rolf, as well as a debut on the schedule from London-based label Standing Ground.

In anticipation, we break down all the moments to look out for at Haute Couture Week A/W 2026.

There will be debuts at Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier

On Wednesday 8 July, there will be a duo of debuts at two of haute couture’s major houses: Balenciaga and Jean Paul Gaultier. At the former, Pierpaolo Piccioli will show his first couture collection for Balenciaga, taking the mantle from Demna, who reinstated the house’s haute couture arm in 2021 (the Georgian designer’s couture collections were critically acclaimed in their subversion of the historic medium, with memorable moments comprising haute couture ‘jeans’ and runway appearances from Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa). Piccioli is no rookie when it comes to haute couture, though: his memorable collections for Valentino were some of the most lauded of recent times.

At Jean Paul Gaultier, Dutch designer Duran Lantink will host his first haute couture show at the house, having presented two ready-to-wear collections at Paris Fashion Week in recent seasons. Expect the unexpected from the boundary-pushing designer: his debut was a polarising take on the French house’s codes, featuring bodysuits printed with the naked body. ‘I’m trying to break free of what’s considered good taste,’ he told Wallpaper* in our March 2026 Style Issue.

As well as sophomore shows at Chanel and Dior

Last season was marked by its blockbuster debuts: there was something of a fashion arms race as Matthieu Blazy at Chanel and Jonathan Anderson at Dior showed their first couture collections (both for the houses, and personally, having previously worked at Bottega Veneta and Loewe respectively, which do not have couture offerings). Both presented different – but equally beguiling – debut collections, with Blazy striving for impossible lightness (memorably, a pair of ‘jeans’ were cut from featherweight organza) and Anderson conjuring a series of bold sculptural forms, inspired by the contours of Magdalene Odundo’s ceramics, which bloomed with floral adornment. ‘You realise that that's why we love clothing – it's this idea of the make,’ Anderson said of his first experience in the medium. ‘Couture is really a dying craft; it’s nearly instinct. There are only a few houses doing it. So in a weird way, it’s about protecting that.’

London label Standing Ground will join the schedule

The acclaimed Irish designer Michael Stewart, who started his label Standing Ground in 2022 after graduating from the Royal Academy of Art, has never been one to stick to the typical fashion schedule. In fact, he hasn’t shown on the runway since 2024, preferring instead to either present via cinematic lookbooks or simply work directly with the clients who purchase his designs. This season, Stewart will show as a guest of Haute Couture Week on the evening of Monday 6 July, a decision that tracks with the designer’s vision: his elongated, columnar silhouettes are painstakingly constructed by hand and to the wearer’s body, in an echo of the couture atelier. Winning the Savoir Faire award at the 2024 LVMH Prize, expect a continuation of his distinctive aesthetic, which marries the graceful forms of ancient standing stones with a more futuristic sensibility, where body-clinging contours and ectomorph-like protrusions have an HR Giger-esque bent.

Fendi will show in Rome

Maria Grazia Chiuri will host her first haute couture show for Fendi not in Paris – where the house has shown traditionally, and did so under previous creative director Kim Jones – but in Rome, the home city of both the designer and the house. Taking place on 9 July (many editors will fly straight from Paris to Rome for the show), it will unfold at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – a nod to both Chiuri’s longtime collaboration with the art world, and the location of a new exhibition, ‘After, a Creative Journey. Fendi / Karl Lagerfeld 1985’. Marking just her second outing for Fendi, after a debut ready-to-wear show in Milan in February, the event will see guests move straight from show to exhibition preview, ahead of the latter’s opening to the public the next day, on 10 July.

Olivier Theyskens will reveal his new label, Boloria

The Belgian designer Olivier Theyskens, who began his eponymous label in the mid-1990s before roles at Rochas, Nina Ricci and Theory, is often seen as one of fashion’s most prodigious talents, forging a darkly romantic aesthetic that borrowed from historical costuming with an industrial edge (Madonna was an early fan, wearing a memorable corseted yellow dress for the VH1 Fashion Awards in 1998). On the eve of Haute Couture Week, 5 July, Theyskens will make his return, debuting Boloria, a new label led by the designer. Fellow Belgian Willy Vanderperre shot the teaser images for the brand, which is based in Antwerp and intriguingly funded by Weareone.world, a Belgian company that runs the Tomorrowland music festivals. What to expect? ‘[The] distinctly Belgian values – sensitivity, integrity, emotional resonance – that have always inspired Theyskens’ work and approach to fashion,’ said a statement when the news was revealed earlier this year.

A landmark Maison Martin Margiela auction will take place

For the wealthy few, Haute Couture Week is one for shopping: fashion house’s top-spending clients attend to shows to select the looks that they will purchase over a given season (they are then remade to the exact measurements of their body, and oftentimes in an edition of one). But, for those after something even rarer – or, at least, a definitive piece of fashion history – an unprecedented auction will take place on 9 July at 2pm in Paris, featuring 200 pieces from legendary Belgian designer Martin Margiela’s personal collection (known for staying entirely anonymous, he founded his highly influential eponymous house, Maison Martin Margiela in 1988, before leaving in 2009). Held in collaboration between Paris’ Maurice Auction and London’s Kerry Taylor Auctions, it will span clothing, photography and ephemera. ‘These objects are like holy relics of fashion; they’re part of a great mythology, which is a real dream for an auctioneer,’ Kerry Taylor Auctions’ Alex Baddeley told Wallpaper*.

READ: This auction sees Martin Margiela’s personal archive go on sale for the first time: ‘These are the holy relics of fashion’

Madrid is a long way from the sea, which is partly what makes new bathhouse Riela’s founding image so persuasive. Its name comes from the old Spanish rielar: the shimmer of moonlight on water; light broken across a surface, something seen indirectly.

Riela Bathhouse, Madrid

Designed by Barcelona-based architecture firm Oficina Satélite, Riela takes that idea and brings it into the city. Inspired by Roman thermae, Japanese onsen and Russian banya, the space has been conceived as a modern setting for an old ritual: a 75-minute, self-guided circuit through heat, steam, water and cold. Guests move between a Finnish sauna, a hammam, a mineral hot pool, cold plunges, and a heated granite stone.

The venue avoids the usual language of urban wellness, with its beige softness and scented neutrality. Instead, Riela feels darker, more mineral and cinematic. Backlit glass bricks cast a greenish glow through the corridors, giving the rooms the quality of something submerged. Rough walls hold the light rather than reflect it. Granite from Madrid quarries gives the pools and benches a certain local weight, while wood is reserved for the sauna, where it brings warmth and recovery.

Oficina Satélite sought to achieve the sensation of stepping out of water on a summer day in Menorca, when the body is slowed and the skin is alert, soaking in light from several directions at once. That idea is visible through Riela's glass-block corridors glowing like diluted moonlight; pools sunk into rough, shadowed rooms; granite benches held against walls of pale green opacity.

‘Riela is a place where people and emotions coexist. As in Turkish baths or Russian banyas, there is social exchange: the space is open, free, non-intrusive. But that exchange happens in an environment of low light, where you don’t feel exposed; you feel held,’ say Marc Castaño and Laia Rafel, founders of Oficina Satélite.

Guests can book individual session passes or opt for a monthly membership. The hot-cold circuit is designed to stimulate circulation, support recovery and help regulate the nervous system, with regular use linked to better sleep, improved mood and greater resilience to stress. Expansion plans for Riela are already underway, with a second, much larger Madrid location on the horizon before the concept ventures into Barcelona, Paris and London.

Riela is located at Calle de Apodaca, 20, Centro, 28004 Madrid, Spain

Sadly, you won’t be able to buy the concept car shown here. This white and red monster of an EV rally machine is strictly for display; it heralds the announcement of a new capsule collection uniting French fashion brand Lacoste with Alpine, once the sporting side of Renault and now a standalone brand (which already has a partnership with Gucci in the bag).

The result is ‘Beware of the Crocodile - Alpine Lacoste A290 Rallye’, a cartoonish blend of iconography that pushes the respective boundaries of each brand into edgier, more eye-catching heritage. The collaboration is also marked with a short film, The Test, featuring Lacoste ambassadors, actor Pierre Niney and Pierre Gasly, BWT Alpine Formula One Team driver.

The basis for the concept is the A290 Rallye, the performance-focused variant of the Alpine A290, itself a clear derivative of the Renault 5. The Rallye model is aimed at customers who want to get into electric motorsport.

Happily for the partnership, Alpine’s historic racing heritage dovetails perfectly with Lacoste’s status as the preeminent expression of sporting style and luxury. Founded by the French tennis player René Lacoste in 1933, a ferocious player nicknamed ‘the Crocodile’, the company has remained at the intersection of high fashion, sportswear and design.

The Lacoste x Alpine collaboration ably conveys this cross-pollination with just the right amount of strength, style and playful fury. The vehicle itself is straight out of the rally paddock, with a widened track, hefty spoilers and exposed carbon-fibre elements. Finished in bespoke white paint with hints of blue (redolent of Alpine landscapes, apparently), it has a purposeful, minimal appearance.

Inside, it’s more of a fashion-forward environment. Red envelopes everything, ‘as if the driver were literally stepping into the crocodile's mouth’, according to the two companies. As Lacoste proudly points out, there are no fewer than 290 crocodiles incorporated into the design, from semi-submerged creatures on the parcel shelf to a scattering of logos across the dash, a veritable bask of toothy menace.

Seat and door panels are finished in Lacoste's emblematic petit piqué fabric, with embroidery by Potencier, the workshop responsible for the embroidered crocodile logo that graces Lacoste polo shirts. 3D printing is also deployed throughout the interior, both for weight-saving, but also to express branding elements wherever possible.

All this design synergy has also resulted in a capsule collection. Comprising of polo shirts, T-shirts, accessories and co-branded objects, the Lacoste x Alpine Collection illustrates two French brands eager to join hands to promote their core values.

As Lacoste CEO Eric Vallat, notes, ‘by bringing together our heritage, expertise and creative standards, Lacoste and Alpine have imagined a project that celebrates French ingenuity through a shared vision of performance and elegance’.

Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars, Lacoste.com, @Lacoste

The BMW X5 has a lot to answer for. Usually cited as the first true SUV of the modern era of behemoth family cars, the first X5 was designed in BMW’s Californian studios and swiftly became the front-runner in a crowded field of elevated and oversized passenger cars that still dominate the global automotive landscape.

Times they are a changing, however, and whilst there’s still no shortage of fire-breathing, fossil-fuel burning SUVs out there, the form factor has proved especially attractive to electrification. There’s plenty of space for a sizeable battery, for a start, along with the retention of the sense of safety and status that an SUV conveys. In a self-proclaimed lifestyle vehicle, the switch from ICE to EV is relatively downside free.

The latest X5 is the model’s fifth generation. It continues BMW’s current push towards a new, highly efficient form of electrification, following on from the i3 and iX3. It’s also the first X5 represented in the Neue Klasse design language.

Interestingly, the X5 is being billed as the ‘first BMW model engineered to support five drive systems’, namely BEV, PHEV, diesel, ICE and Hydrogen. Barely ten years ago, the trends was towards visual diversification between powertrains. X5 shows how far the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction.

The iX5 is the most interesting machine here, the first pure EV X5. In 60 xDrive configuration, it has a WLTP range of up to 525 miles, along with ultrafast 460 kW DC charging. All models share the monolithic Neue Klasse exterior design language, with the new era’s compact kidney grille.

Light signatures are also very distinctive, with what BMW is calling the ‘double-X’ daytime running lights, while other new elements include the ‘Winglet’ door handles and the ability to have all four doors power operated.

The simplified and more architectural Neue Klasse forms can only go so far towards minimising the X5’s considerable size. Unlike iX3 and i3, the larger X5 starts out more proportionally challenged, with a taller front and rear elevation and more space above the wheel arches. Specifying the largest available 23” wheels goes some way to normalising the looks, but overall the car’s scale is hard to disguise.

All that space is put to good use inside. The X5 gets the new generation interior, complete with Panoramic iDrive – a ribbon of information beneath the windscreen – and the choice of an optional Passenger Screen. The main screen isn’t exactly small, continuing the asymmetric design approach seen in the other Neue Klasse cars, and the graphics and responsiveness are top tier.

The powertrain agnostic will have plenty to choose from, although the straight up petrol version will only be available in certain markets. The bold can opt for the BMW iX5 Hydrogen, the company’s first ever hydrogen-powered production vehicle.

Performance options are available in the form of the plug-in hybrid X5 50e xDrive and X5 M60e xDrive, both of which feature 3.0-litre six-cylinder petrol engines paired with an electric motor. The flagship BMW X5 M60e xDrive offers a total power output of 612 hp, with a 0-62 mph sprint time of 4.5 seconds.

Standard features on top of the range models include a panoramic sunroof and sports seats, while the BMW Individual programme will take customisation as far as your wallet allows. There are also oodles of unique M Sport styling additions for the BMW X5 M60e xDrive model, including M Yellow double-X headlights, spoilers, different illumination for the grille and quad exhaust pipes.

Driver assistance systems are also upgraded, with the optional Motorway Assistant supporting hands-free Level 2 driving with automated lane changes, provided you glance deliberately at the relevant wing mirror for confirmation.

All new X5s get Driving Assistant Plus as standard, with adaptive cruise control and ‘AI-supported’ parking space detection and manoeuvring. The Parking Assistant Professional package brings remote-control parking functionality via your smartphone.

We’ll be driving the new X5 variants in due course.

BMW X5 and iX5, UK market launch in Spring 2027, more information at BMW.co.uk

Over its three-century life, LSO St Luke’s has taken on many forms. Originally built in 1733 as St Luke’s Church, the building later fell into ruin before being restored and transformed into the London Symphony Orchestra’s headquarters in 2003. Since then, it has welcomed world-renowned artists including Elton John, Annie Lennox and Bruce Springsteen, while also becoming a valued community hub.

Now, following a multi-million-pound upgrade, the Grade I-listed venue has opened a new suite of facilities, giving one of the capital’s most distinctive cultural landmarks a new lease of life.

Inside the new LSO St Luke's

The works, led by Levitt Bernstein, build on the practice’s original transformation of the building in the early 2000s. Rather than reinventing LSO St Luke’s, the project carefully enhances its existing character. The qualities valued by the orchestra have been retained, while technical infrastructure, acoustics and public spaces have been upgraded to support a wider range of creative work

‘Every intervention has been shaped by the need to respect the historic character of the building while making it more appropriate for contemporary use,’ states Arts Studio Director at Levitt Bernstein, Mark Lewis

Central to the transformation is a new bespoke Audio Control Room, designed to meet the highest standards of recording, mixing and post-production. Featuring an impressive Dolby Atmos 7.1.4 reference monitoring system, ATC speakers and an Avid S4 console, the space gives LSO St Luke’s a world-class technical backbone.

Linked to every performance space in the building, the Audio Control Room allows the venue to accommodate a broad range of uses, from orchestral recordings and podcasts to broadcast projects and commercial content. The main Jerwood Hall has also been upgraded with new acoustic measures to significantly improve sound quality. Alongside this, the enhanced Clore Rooms and Master Control Room provide premium digital and broadcast recording facilities, including a camera gallery for high-definition capture.

‘We now have the facilities we need to support our work properly,’ says Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, Kathryn McDowell.

Careful attention has also been given to how people arrive, move through and experience the building. The aim was to make the underground spaces feel more natural, warm and welcoming,’ says Lewis. Improvements include changes to the main entrance, enhanced external lighting to the façade, more accessible spaces and the introduction of gender-neutral facilities.

‘We wanted to make the building more appropriate for the needs of today,’ says McDowell.

For the managing director of LSO, these changes have shifted how the former church can be used. ‘The project has opened the building up in a completely new way, making it more connected, accessible and better equipped for the needs of artists, producers, and filmmakers’

With its historic shell, LSO St Luke’s is a striking music venue rooted in the past yet designed for the future. Like the London Symphony Orchestra itself, it brings together heritage and innovation, creating a place where history and music meet. ‘LSO is a historic orchestra with a contemporary heart and this building is exactly the same.’

In early July 2026, after circa 30,000 units built, the last petrol-powered Alpine A110 is set to sashay off its Dieppe production line. Debuted in 2017 at the Geneva Motor Show, the rear mid-engine, rear-wheel drive, lightweight and low-slung two-seater was an instant hit with critics, including this one. As I commented back then: ‘A delight in all departments. Design, performance, handling and overall feel-good factor are sky-high in this wonderfully pared-back but still high-quality sportscar.’

The car was also significant for resurrecting the long dormant Alpine brand – which traces its roots back to the early 1950s and a French garage owner in Dieppe called Jean Rédélé, who tinkered with Renaults to make them racier. With some of his greatest rally successes taking place in the French Alps, when Rédélé created his own brand in 1955, he named it ‘Alpine’ in recognition.

The A110 nameplate has serious history too. First produced as a similar two-seater sports car from 1963-1977, the original version has a wonderfully curvaceous body embedded with four round and distinctively arranged headlights created by the Italian car design master Giovanni Michelotti.

Owned by Renault since 1973 and merged with Renault Sport in 1976 with some motorsport success in Le Mans and elsewhere, the Alpine brand was mothballed in 1995 but slowly brought back to life via various concept cars in the early 2010s.

The modern A110 references the original’s form language and front face too, but in a suitably 21st-century way via Anthony Villain, Alpine’s current design director. Not a great deal has changed since the 249hp A110 launched nine years ago for just over £50,000, aside from an infotainment system upgrade and the addition of Apple CarPlay compatibility.

Some faster (and more expensive) editions were created – including the £75,840 300hp A110 GTS model driven to Le Mans for this article – but the basic formula remains the same. Keep the weight down – the basic 2018 A110 was just 1103kg, and the GTS is still only between 1119-1140kg depending on options (in a world where many cars regularly exceed two tonnes). Make it low, compact and agile – the A110 is 1252mm high and 4181mm long – and let a modest but fun 1.8-litre petrol unit do the rest.

As a test of that formula, taking the annual pilgrimage from the UK to the 24 Hours of Le Mans race seemed like a fine idea. It is a journey that has been undertaken for as long as the race has existed, starting back in 1923, due to the involvement of British racing teams such as Bentley and more.

London to Le Mans in an Alpine A110

Kicking off the 700-odd mile round trip from south London, it’s optimal to keep the A110 on regular roads without speed bumps – its sporty suspension will let you know about some asphalt imperfections – but where they cannot be avoided, it’s far from a deal-breaker, and not ‘crashy’ like some German rivals. The A110’s seats, although bucket-style racers, also have sufficient padding to keep its occupants in fine fettle for such a long drive.

But the proper fun starts when the roads clear, especially once through the Channel Tunnel and into France. The 300hp 1.8-litre petrol engine makes a cracking sound when clicking through the automatic gearbox via tall aluminium paddle-shifters, and 0-62mph in 4.2 seconds is easy. Press the orangey-red Sport button attached to the south-east edge of the steering-wheel hub and everything tightens up and becomes louder, which lots of the (mainly young and male) fans lining the route on the way to Le Mans liked a lot.

As soon as the A110 GTS popped out of the Le Shuttle car train in Calais, the unofficial Le Mans paparazzi were quick to photograph the little French motor alongside far more expensive and bigger-engined McLarens and Ferraris. This crowd response was repeated time and again along the route down to Le Mans, from kids at the side of the motorway or on top of bridges spanning it – videoing, photographing and urging you to just rev the perky engine further.

It should be noted that along the same route there were also French police pointing a different type of camera at the exotic automotive convoy, hoping to catch those straying over various variable speed limits. Which kept the mind focused on driving, at least.

Within those emotional bookends, the A110 GTS handles with an easy and controllable charm through twisty roads, and feels sublime accelerating up to top-end French motorway speeds and its 6300rpm max power.

It’s not a perfect car, though. Luggage space is limited to a little bit of storage room behind the seats, for a slim laptop case, and a tiny rear boot that will only house a soft weekender bag after a gentle downward shove. However, due to the A110’s rear mid-engined layout, there is also a shallower and wider luggage space at the front that might take a small aircraft carry-on bag or two.

Partly due to its keep-things-simple focus, the outgoing A110 only offers a small hole between the front seats behind your elbow to store a drink – and it’s not really cupholder-shaped – and the old-school USB slots alongside a phone jack underneath the floating centre console make charging modern mobile phones tricky. You’ll need a USB-C converter or a power bank for longer journeys.

Still, the A110 is a fine example of a small petrol sports car that does just what it should: turn heads, rev sweetly, propel you forward with confidence and aplomb and handle brilliantly – while putting a big smile on your face (and that of most people who see it). With only 40 or so left in UK dealers at the time of writing, plus a few more around the world, now could be a great time to invest.

It’s not the last A110, though. The next one, due in 2027, will be an all-electric two-seater coupé followed by a 2+2-seat version. With Villain involved in its design and Alpine’s engineers promising a still-low (if slightly higher) kerb weight, we’re hopefully confident the racing spirit of this car will not be lost.

Alpine has motorsport provenance in spades, both historically and now. Its A424 is competing in its final season of the World Endurance Championship – within which the 24 hours of Le Mans race is the most famous round – and its drivers performed decently in the mid-June race, finishing sixth and tenth in the Hypercar category.

Alpine is still involved in Formula 1 too, where it is currently underperforming but future-focusing its racing efforts, due to F1’s greater standing as the pinnacle of motorsport and the related larger (social) media attention. In the last few weeks Alpine announced that, from the 2027 season, its cars will race under a new name – ‘Gucci Racing Alpine Formula One Team’.

This headline sponsorship would suggest the world-famous Italian luxury fashion house finds Alpine as credible as those Le Mans fans lining the French auto routes. And the vehicle should look spectacular in Gucci’s iconic colours.

In an automotive world where so many historic brands have lost their way, Alpine seems like a great example of a marque with a compelling story past, present and future – and its management is spending time and resources to tell it convincingly.

Literally the last public interaction I had, while filling up the A110 at a random London petrol station before its collection by Alpine, was with a very regular elderly gentleman pulling in to pump up his car’s tyres and saying, unprompted, ‘What a beautiful car.’ He’s right. It is, in every sense.

Alpine-Cars.co.uk, @AlpineCars

If you love vintage furniture and British heritage design, this one's for you. Pre-loved furniture marketplace Vinterior is joining forces with British design house Liberty London on a five-piece capsule collection, launching today (1 July 2026), which pairs meticulously sourced midcentury and modernist furniture with fabrics drawn from Liberty's archive.

The collaboration is led by Liberty's head of design for home and interiors, Genevieve Bennett, who selected each furniture piece with specific fabrics in mind. The result is a tightly curated edit that bridges the design philosophies of both brands: Vinterior's commitment to circular furnishing and Liberty's century-and-a-half tradition of textile innovation.

Our favourite pieces from the collection include a ‘Cassina Maralunga’ two-seater sofa, originally designed by Vico Magistretti for the Italian manufacturer Cassina, now upholstered in Liberty's ‘Shadow Stripe Weave’ in ‘Amalfi’, a pattern drawing on Futurist and Vorticist influences. Equally covetable is an early 1970s ‘Alky’ chair, designed by Giancarlo Piretti and produced by Anonima Castelli, finished in Liberty's ‘Zig Zag Velvet’ from the ‘FuturLiberty’ range, a jacquard velvet referencing early 20th-century design and the energy of jazz-age dance.

The collection also features two 1960s Vico Magistretti ‘Carimate’ chairs, sourced from Vinterior's archive and dressed in Liberty's densely embroidered ‘Mount Stitch’ fabric in ‘Acacia’, a woodland and mountain-inspired print that pops against the chairs' red frames. A 1960s Swedish ‘Lamino’ footstool is covered in Liberty's ‘Cravat’ fabric in ‘Scarab Lacquer’, chosen to complement its curved silhouette, while a vintage 1960s beech standard lamp is finished with a bespoke Liberty lampshade in ‘Ottoman Spot’ velvet, a design inspired by a 19th-century artwork unearthed in the Liberty archive.

‘[Liberty’s] designs have outlasted trends for over 150 years, and the pieces in this collection have done the same. That's the spirit this partnership is built on: timeless design, beautifully made, built to last,’ says Vinterior founder and CEO Sandrine Zhang Ferron.

‘We were naturally drawn to fabrics from our FuturLiberty and The House of Liberty collections, inspired by the same 1960s-70s periods as the selected furniture pieces – each fabric felt perfectly aligned in history and aesthetic,’ adds Bennett. ‘Sculptural, curved silhouettes juxtapose dynamic geometrics, charming scenic landscapes and bold textures.’

With just five pieces available, this collection is unlikely to stay on the market for long. Shop the furniture below for a rare opportunity to own a timeless piece of design history, reimagined for the present.

Shop the pieces

A cooling evening breeze is much appreciated after stepping out of the Tube exit at Notting Hill Gate. What is even more of a relief in the summer heat is that Kinz, a new Lebanese brasserie in the district, is only a few steps away.

Locals in the area may recognise the building from a previous incarnation. Designed by Sir Edward Maufe, it was a branch of Lloyds Bank. With tall ceilings and exposed brick walls, it has the restrained and almost clinical elegance that Maufe was known for. Yet, once you’re inside Kinz, his 1930s architectural severity is balanced with a warm and inviting atmosphere.

If you think the interior is reminiscent of Palestinian restaurant Akub, you are not mistaken. Founded by Rasha Khouri Bruzzo, co-owner of Akub, alongside brothers Jad and Karim Lahoud, Kinz blends authenticity and modernity in both its aesthetic and its food, highlighting the multifaceted flavours of Lebanese cooking.

‘The project is rooted in the food and traditions I grew up with – the small details, rituals and flavours that are passed down at home rather than written down. Kinz takes its name from the Arabic word for “treasure” and is our tribute to those treasures: cherished recipes, generous cooking, and the spirit of Lebanese food as it’s meant to be shared today,’ says Khouri Bruzzo. ‘It’s a place designed to feel as natural for everyday visits as it does for long, lingering meals.’

Wallpaper* dines at Kinz, London

The mood: a trove of authenticity and modernity

The interiors were spearheaded by London-based Fare Inc. Working with the pre-existing architecture, they implemented pockets of warmth by injecting colour. This is seen with the bright teal in the entrance deli space, which is broken up with a neutral tone in the central area. The ochre-hued bar and mezzanine glow from the far end. ‘Refined zones are needed in such a large space to create a more inviting atmosphere, yet we still wanted to highlight the original architecture of the space with pared-back tones that complement it throughout the main room,’ explains founder Annabel Harrison.

Above the heart of the dining area is a wine-red, oversized lantern that acts as a modern ‘sun’ for what feels like a courtyard-style space, albeit indoors. ‘The lantern [helps create the feel of] an elegant terrace, accentuated further by striped banquette seating and iron dining chairs,’ says the designer. ‘The red was chosen to add vibrancy to the otherwise delicately finished ceiling and original metal braces of the bank.’

The bank vault is converted into a wine room. A space that was built for security has been softened to allow for intimacy. ‘Lighting has been really important here, so there is pretty much no overhead lighting, only very low-lit wall lights and soft LED highlighting the wines. The walls and ceilings are drenched in Roman Plaster paint, which has softened the swathes of concrete and the steel beams, and we have a single, glass-grape pendant over the sharing table, for a playful nod to its purpose,’ says the designer.

The urban charm of Lebanon informed the practice’s design choices. Taking inspiration from Beirut’s metalwork, the studio designed iron screens to divide the retail and entrance area from the restaurant space, and continued this up the staircase and along the mezzanine edge to create a street-balcony feel. Harrison explains that they wove in squares of colourful seeded glass that glow in the sunshine and add a vibrancy to the space.

The food: a menu designed to be shared

The menu offers an array of flavourful morsels that showcase the best of the country’s flavours. Plates come out at similar times, creating a beautiful spread. To begin, we recommend the hummus, meat kibbeh (bulgar shells stuffed with spiced lamb and beef, with pine nuts and onions), and the spinach patayer, which are filled triangular pastries.

There are three salads, which add a refreshing zestiness to the savoury dishes. We suggest the fattoush, which is scattered with gem-like pomegranate seeds and fresh mint. A menu highlight is the warak enab – tender lamb cutlets resting on a bed of vine leaves and courgettes stuffed with fragrant rice and spiced lamb. But leave room for the flourless chocolate cake. It’s decadently delicious; you can’t go without.

The constant bringing and clearing of plates adds a sense of buzz to the atmosphere, giving Kinz the feeling of a welcoming local restaurant. It is easy to find comfort in the design’s small cultural details and the consideration of the menu, making you feel right at home.

Kinz is located at 50 Notting Hill Gate, London W11 3JD, United Kingdom

Since the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off, it is only to be expected that the world has gone a little football crazy. New York has become a new stomping ground for soccer fans, and to accommodate them, Crosby Studios has designed ‘Home of Football: Home & Away’ (tickets here), a pop-up exhibition created in collaboration with cultural platform Home of Football and arts collective Air Afrique. The exhibition is designed to serve as an interactive space that offers a new perspective on the sport’s enduring legacy.

Football memorabilia is reimagined in New York exhibition

Founded by Harry Nuriev, Crosby Studios is best known for championing a transformative spirit within spaces – from Clive Christian’s London flagship to a reimagined Parisian espresso bar. Located at High Line Nine in New York’s Chelsea Gallery District, the new exhibition is no different. Divided into six chapters, the showcase looks at the codes of sport, art, design, and fashion and how they intersect.

What marks out this exhibition from others is the new viewpoint provided. Designed through Nuriev’s architectural lens, the space is graphical, with acoustic elements to enhance the impact of the presentation. The colour palette alludes to a football field, with hues of mint green, while circles and curvatures integrated within the space nod to the shape of a football and the markings on the pitch.

Memorabilia was selected and curated by Air Afrique, with highlights such as Pelé's 1958 Brazil World Cup jersey and Ronaldo artifacts from Brazil's 2002 World Cup triumph. The presentation also includes more than 60 other match-worn jerseys, as well as trophies, and photographs of defining footballing moments.

Coupled with the display of archival pieces is a new retail concept, The Crosby Shop, a platform to present some of Nuriev’s favourite brands – among them Baccarat, Nothing, publisher Rizzoli, men’s grooming brand Obayaty, and olive estate La Terra Di Neena – including some that will be available in the US for the first time. The shop is also home to Balira Coffee, a café pop-up from former Real Madrid star Sami Khedira, a World Cup-winning player for Germany in 2014, who will make select appearances.

Says Nuriev, ‘This concept is about the clash between football, fashion, and art culture. It is a form of cultural transformism, translating the energy and visual codes of football into a new media format that feels open and accessible, not only to football fans, but also to people discovering this world for the first time. The green is a digital version of the football field colour, and the circles reference both the ball and the centre point of the field, becoming symbols of movement, gathering, and play.’

'Home of Football: Home & Away' is located at High Line Nine, Hudson Yards, 507 W 27th Street, New York, NY 10001 ,until 19 July 2026. Tickets are available here

For the first time in three decades, one of La Jolla's most celebrated architectural treasures is coming to market. The Thomas C Kravis, MD Residence – a remodel completed between 1976 and 1987 by the organic architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg – sits on Vista Del Mar Avenue, steps from the legendary Windansea Beach.

Although the home dates to the 1940s, its story truly begins in the 1970s, when physician Thomas Kravis purchased the property and turned to Kellogg (1934-2024) to reimagine it. At the time, Kellogg was at an early stage of his career – before the sweeping, almost sculptural fluidity that would define later works, such as the Doolittle Residence in Joshua Tree and the Yen Residence in La Jolla. Working within the constraints of a standard city lot, he demonstrated here that organic design doesn’t require a grand scale to make an impression.

The property announces itself through its stacked wood fascia, which frames the rooflines and signals something a bit different from the surrounding streetscape. Inside and out, Kellogg deployed his signature textured concrete – a recipe entirely his own – that originates at the interior fireplace and flows outward into the landscape through planters, water features, garden walls and seating areas. Natural wood and earthy tones lend the home a particular warmth, a quality that has made it a perennial favourite on the La Jolla Modern Home Tour.

The residence gained a further dimension in 1998, when the parents of the current owner – architect Yum Kee Fu and his wife Susan – undertook a two-year renovation that wove nature-inspired Asian detail throughout. Their most exquisite contribution is the upstairs suite, where artisan-crafted interior doors feature intricate wood inlays. The work was guided by Yum Kee Fu's philosophy that any design should 'create and meet the peaceful environment and peaceful nature of life'.

The residence comprises three bedrooms and three bathrooms, with ocean and sunset views throughout. The primary suite – accessible via an exterior stairway and complete with its own rooftop deck – functions equally well as a self-contained one-bedroom apartment.

The Kravis Residence is a home shaped by three distinct creative hands across five decades, each leaving its own mark. Available off-market, it is a rare opportunity to own a work of enduring architectural significance in one of Southern California's most coveted coastal neighbourhoods.

The Kravis Residence is listed with Keith York at Agents of Architecture.

A fan of the architect? Tour another Kendrick Bangs Kellogg California gem

We’ve all become very accustomed to a world where A hooks up with B to cross-pollinate their respective audiences, an ‘x’ association that goes beyond straightforward creative collaborations to tap into new revenue streams via a canny intersection of cross-demographic appeal and straightforward marketing.

On the face of it, 23-year-old American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo is no more a collab queen than any of her peers, but that doesn’t mean she’s not busy; recent commercial and ‘ambassadorial’ tie-ins include Sony, Glossier, AmEx, Casetify, Lancôme, and even chunky cup maker Stanley.

This is a roundabout way of introducing Rodrigo’s new collaboration with Lego, five sets that mark a sea change in the way the Danish play specialist works with external creative forces, as well as a canny way of connecting the Californian songstress with her fans young and old.

Wallpaper* spoke to Amy Corbett, senior design manager at the Lego Group, about the origins and execution of the new collection, the first time Lego has ever worked with a contemporary music artist.

Rodrigo has been hot property for several years, following the success of her first two albums, Sour (2021) and Guts (2023), global tours, three Grammys, and appearances at Glastonbury, Lollapalooza and her own forthcoming all-female festival Daisy Chain Fields in California. This year saw the release of her latest album, You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love, from which the singles ‘Drop Dead’, ‘The Cure’ and ‘Stupid Song’ have already been taken.

Diving into the infinite realm of the plastic brick might seem like an unusual creative decision, especially as Rodrigo has never said much – if anything – about her own Lego fandom. It’s not like she contacted the makers of her favourite childhood toy and requested they work together.

Instead, it was the canny marketing folk at Lego who recognised that the singer’s attitude, oeuvre, and personal style contained the perfect combination of powerful, playful and extensive reach. It's the perfect demographic split to tap into Rodrigo's legions of admirers, many of whom skew younger, with an added contingent of savvy adult pop fans who recognise a generational talent when they see one.

‘We look for passions,’ Corbett admits. ‘We look for what is going to drive our consumers to have a great building experience by creating something that they love. And, of course, music is a huge, universal passion.’ A Lego set requires a long lead time, from ideation and design through to manufacturing and distribution.

All in all, it’s a good 18 months of work behind the scenes before a set appears on the shelves. When the collaboration began, the third album was very much a work in progress. ‘We knew there was going to be something exciting coming,’ Corbett says. ‘Olivia is just a really creative powerhouse. She writes her own songs, she plays her own instruments and she’s such a great role model.’

The result is five new Lego Editions sets launching around the world on 1 August, and are already available to pre-order. Among them are Olivia Rodrigo’s Dual Guitar (43031), Olivia Rodrigo's Concert Moon (43029) and Olivia Rodrigo’s Flower Bouquet (11507).

The bouquet represents the first time the Botanicals series has included a collaboration. Introduced in 2021 as part of the Creator series, Botanicals became a standalone product line in 2025, neatly parlaying the themes of design, intricacy, and display into a series of sets that have become cult home objects among adult fans of Lego and tween builders alike.

The other two sets are Olivia Rodrigo’s Vinyl (43028), a 360-piece that serves as a portmanteau of hidden messages and callbacks, all of which will be seized upon by fans, and the 1,085-piece Secret Storage set (43030), a display item that includes a representation of her cherry red guitar (she favours both Fender Mustang and Jazzmaster, as well as a purple St Vincent-designed Music Master), the Guts tour megaphone and a lyric book.

There’s a high degree of fan-favourite winks and nods across all five sets. Whereas the more literal sets are rich with imagery and the all-important Easter Eggs, the 400-piece bouquet set is embedded with slightly subtler symbolism. Flowers and butterflies – an enduring Rodrigo motif – represent her mixed Californian-Filipino heritage, whereas the honeybee is a literal callback to the third track on the new album.

Lego's team searched high and low to find a flower with guitar-like petals for added authenticity, eventually settling on the African Daisy. Flower parts are also formed from stars and cupcakes, with a purple and pink colourway that also comes to the fore in set 43031.

This 1,228-piece set is a display model that mashes up an electric and acoustic guitar, unfolding to reveal a concert scene, with an internal pull-out dressing room (complete with burger). The set also includes two of the five unique Olivia minifigs that are being launched as part of the collaboration.

Corbett describes the collaboration as a three-way process, between Lego, Rodrigo and her legions of fans. To that end, the five sets tick off the tropes and lore that inevitably accompany contemporary global megastars, a mix of breadcrumbs dropped via social media, lyrical analysis and overt, in your face imagery.

The last naturally applies to Rodrigo's image and wardrobe, which is richly analysed and obsessed over. The five minifigs represent five different stage costumes, as evidenced in the Concert Moon set, which offers a recreation of the giant moon prop used during the Guts tour.

Rodrigo herself is happy to use Lego to continue playing a game she’s used throughout her career. ‘I’ve always loved hiding little details and meanings in my music and videos, so working with the Lego team to bring something that fans can actually build and explore together has been so exciting,’ she says. ‘There are so many pieces of my world inside these sets – little nods to songs, memories, outfits and moments that mean a lot to me.’

Officially, these five collectible sets are pitched at nine- to 14-year-olds, but if Lego has learnt one thing in the nearly three decades since it signed the lucrative Star Wars licence, it’s that any form of collectability explodes the idea of age ratings.

Working with Rodrigo also opens the door to limitless future musical partnerships; the company can rightfully expect to be besieged by creative directors and merchandise managers. More importantly, for the Livies, it could be the start of a whole new obsession.

The Lego Editions x Olivia Rodrigo sets are available to pre-order now and will be released from 1 August 2026.
Store.OliviaRodrigo.com, @OliviaRodrigo, Lego.com, @Lego

Utilitarian and unassuming from the street front, All Projects, a new gallery spearheaded by architecture studio EBBA, has recently opened its doors in Hoxton, east London. The project, housed in an old brick-clad warehouse, sits adjacent to the practice's own workspace – yet it is more than simply a showcase for its work. This flexible space has been conceived as a platform for multidisciplinary collaboration and creative cross-pollination across the fields of art, architecture, design, fashion and music.

Tour All Projects, a new gallery by EBBA

Working beyond the strict remit of building architecture has long been part of EBBA founder Benni Allan's thinking. The architect has been approaching his profession in broad and inclusive terms since the inception of his dynamic studio in 2017, and when we first met him in 2021 – as part of our profile series on London's exciting emerging architecture studios – he told us: 'We are not afraid of trying different things and use the process of making to help generate something that is least expected.'

Allan remains true to his word, and All Projects is an extension of his ambition. When the ground-floor space next to his studio became available, he snapped it up, spruced it up and launched it as a hub for creative expression – expressly beyond architecture.

All Projects' motto is that culture does not operate in a silo. The gallery aims to build upon 'EBBA’s record of collaborating with key cultural protagonists, including the listening bar Space Talk and music festival Houghton’, Allan explains.

The main space has been cleaned up and painted white in order to accommodate a variety of activities and exhibits. Film programmes can also be offered, projected against the crisp white walls.

That said, the gallery maintains its character and historic patina, with various existing surfaces refurbished and beautifully juxtaposed against contemporary additions – EBBA's own designs for anything from furniture to sinks and storage. Sleek metal designs meet with all-timber constructions that showcase the practice's feel and material palette.

All Projects launched with events by independent institutions such as bookstore Tenderbooks and the Architecture Foundation.

All Projects, Unit 3 Mill Row, Whitmore Estate, London N1 5RL

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