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The people who make the things, the places and the arguments worth reading about.
The young team of DGT is pushing architectural boundaries between theory and practice with their projects. From their award-winning proposal for the Estonian National Museum, they have moved on to design cultural and commercial spaces in Denmark, Poland, Japan and Lebanon. Contemporary …
Once upon a time, the world’s wealthy sent their daughters to Swiss finishing schools but by the 1960s, gender equality, women’s liberation and an emphasis on higher education for all prompted a decline. Nowadays only Villa Pierrefeu remains. It’s not about balancing a book on your head…
Much about Ahmed Mater’s world seems to reconcile opposing states of being. Somehow, the artist finds space for religion and science, anatomy and spirituality, technology and tradition, violence and morality, swarming multitudes and empty plots of land. Speak with Ahmed Mater and almost…
Japanese architect Tadao Ando makes masterpieces in concrete. Here, Official Bespoke takes a look at his recently completed Pringiers House in Sri Lanka. I remember the first time I saw a piece of Tadao Ando. I was visiting a friend in one of the lower-rise, village-like neighbourhoods …
The film on everyone’s lips these days is Julian Schnabel’s Miral. I finally watched it during the Doha Tribeca Film Festival where it received a standing ovation from an audience of Qataris, world cinema buffs, filmmakers and the media. The story of this extraordinary film is from a bo…
Over half a million visitors queued for hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City this summer to witness a monumental, retrospective exhibition of the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen’s astonishing body of work. Alexander McQueen was obsessed with beauty …
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” -The Queen, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” The dissonance of a Queen is a comparatively small ordeal to ov…
At 82, Frank Gehry has designed his first skyscraper and it has transformed Manhattan’s skyline. Official Bespoke tracked down the spirited architect to discover his side of this twisting, rippling tower. “I’m getting tearful,” says Frank Gehry when we ask him how he feels about finally…
An old and established family, the Sursocks have been a cornerstone of Lebanese affairs for generations. Lady Sursock Cochrane was born the only daughter to Alfred Bey Sursock and his Italian wife Donna Maria Theresa Serra di Cassano, yet she is far less interested in talking about her …
A darling of the red carpet and a purveyor of exquisite style and glamour, Elie Saab – the Middle East’s greatest fashion export – took time off from his busy schedule to talk to Bespoke. WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WORK IN FASHION? I think working in fashion was more my destiny th…
I recently had the pleasure of meeting Maria Hibri and Hoda Baroudi, the founders of Bokja Design, an edgy firm producing truly unique furniture. These vibrant and garrulous Lebanese women have literally taken the interior design world by storm. Their brand is the realisation of a juxta…
When she was awarded the prestigious Pritzker Prize for Architecture in 2004, Iraqi-born Zaha Hadid was not only the first Arab to win but also the first woman. Her work is both genius and thought provoking with multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry supposed to evoke the c…