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The people who make the things, the places and the arguments worth reading about.
In 2004, Studio Libeskind, with Zaha Hadid Architects and Arata Isozaki, won the redevelopment of an abandoned thirty-six-hectare plot that once held the Fiera di Milano. Their bold master plan seems quietly touched by the Middle East.
Many of us romanticise the lives of writers, that is, until we try being a writer ourselves. It was the Slovenian philosopher and cultural theorist Slavoj Zizek who said that writing is a form of self-torture, which immediately brings to mind those incredibly frustrating moments of writ…
Balmain’s latest men’s collection is both chic and decidedly sexy, a kind of hip-hop street culture meets high-society sophistication. And, it pulls it all off. With its thoughtful masculine look, it mixes up different styles without losing any of the brand’s signature refinement or att…
A seed was sown when a Paris-based tech company, founded by Lebanese data scientist Rand Hindi, turned down a lucrative US contract to build useful technology ethically. Now they seek to free us from digital enslavement.
Everyone knows Jonathan Ive, the Briton behind the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad, feted as design's answer to Steve Jobs. It is a good story, except no single stylist is that good; his collaborators remain barely known.
One ill-judged gesture, chopsticks left standing upright in a bowl of perfectly good noodles, turns a dinner date awkward, as our writer learns just how loaded the rules of the table can be.
Asked once whether he would give up eating if he could, our writer thought the question insane, unwilling to trade his quinoa salads for anything. Yet it lingers during the search for a quick, cheap Beirut lunch.
Raised among hardbound classics, airport paperbacks and Booker shortlists, and schooled at a Steiner school that forbade reading before six, our writer reflects on the eclectic library that shaped a lifelong love of stories.
Our writer learned to tell time by the grandfather clock that tick-tocked in the family living room, rewarded with a sturdy Timex. Then came the manned space missions, and Omega watches strapped to astronauts bound for the moon.
Holding around fifteen per cent of the world's natural gas reserves, Qatar is the largest exporter of LNG. As Austen might note, a nation in possession of such fortune is busily finding ways to spend it.
When it comes to Arab titans of business, we’re all familiar with the Ghosns, Slims and Hayeks of this world. I would assume you’re also aware of others like Lubna Olayan and Nemir Kirdar. You may even know that Steve Jobs is among our greats given that he was the biological son of a Sy…
In a world where powerful women are still too often defined by powerful men, former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is refreshingly her own person. John Defterios meets the architect of her country's economic reforms.