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The people who make the things, the places and the arguments worth reading about.
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 …
Modest and long overlooked, Lebanon's Youssef Tohme is about to be discovered. At Villa Tohme, a residential project in the hills north of Beirut, a narrow hallway opens astonishingly onto an ocean of space and light.
Based in London but forever bound for Saudi Arabia, the creative director explains the arts organisation's evocative name and how its work stays cutting-edge yet at times distinctly rural, neither fringe nor mainstream.
Mao Zedong launched a fashion revolution that designers can only dream of, persuading hundreds of millions of Chinese to abandon their old clothes and the world they represented for a single uniform vision.
As the year closes, we look back fondly on the trials, tribulations and inspiration behind each issue, with a candid peek at the mishaps and ironies encountered along the way, including one desert border.
Synonymous with brilliance and bravura, MV Agusta's powerful F3 marks a triumphant return to form. In an exclusive interview, Giovanni Castiglioni charts the marque's revival under the Castiglioni family, now debt-free and brimming with confidence.
Hailed as the Nabokov of contemporary Arabic literature, the prolific Alem proves surprisingly modest about her success. Popular is a tricky word, she says, preferring to be appreciated by more intellectual readers.
Beirut-born, Canada-raised and McGill-trained, master car designer Karim Habib not only dominates his domain but, through his team, is busy shaping the future kings of the road, one sketch at a time.
Flamboyant and astute, Princess Nora was King Abdulaziz's elder sister and trusted adviser. A lover of language, she lends her name fittingly to the Riyadh university reborn in her honour as PNU.
As the downturn began to bite, you could almost hear billions of belts tightening. Yet Rolls-Royce sales have surged, especially across the Middle East. Chief executive Torsten Muller-Otvos discusses the marque's history and its core market.
She sports no tamed bob or fingerless gloves. Wonder how to follow one of fashion's giants in a time of turmoil? Frida Giannini, winner of the Ultimate Fashionism Award, does it in her Gucci pumps.
Carole Cadwalladr visits Jimmy Carter and finds nothing of the grand residence one imagines for a former leader of the free world, but rather the unassuming home of a moderately successful junior accountant.