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Nathalie Khayat’s studio isn’t especially quiet. Just down the road from the post office on Sassine Square in Beirut’s Ashrafieh, it opens onto the city’s soundscape; the dull roar of traffic, squealing tyres, honking horns, the drill of construction, passing conversations, the cries of street vendors, all the ambient sounds,…
If ever it is completed, Abu Dhabi’s Mastaba Project would be the world’s largest public sculpture. First developed by the celebrated art duo Christo & Jeanne-Claude back in 1977, a new book by Taschen documents the process of the monument’s construction. The craft of the builder was regarded as a…
Currently chairing the jury responsible for selecting, each year, one of the most prestigious recognitions of architectural mastery, the Pritzker Prize, Lord Peter Palumbo spends much of his life travelling the world, visiting the great works created by today’s shapers of space. For decades, Lord Peter Palumbo has had his…
Redman Whiteley Dixon have perfected the ‘turnkey’ yacht design experience, homing in on every detail from the yacht’s helicopter hangar down to the captain’s cufflinks. The designers of the graceful SY Quintessential, winner of this year’s World Superyacht Award for Best Catamaran take bespoke boat design to a new level.…
Dutch maestro Marcel Wanders is a brilliant designer but a chance meeting with him reveals that, despite his humility, it’s his unique outlook that has helped him become one of the most prolific product and interior design studios in the world today. When I meet Marcel Wanders on his visit to Beirut, I…
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 architecture has reached a time when many in…
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 immediately, you’ll get the sense that he…
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 of central Tokyo.…
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 making his mark on…
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 juxtaposition of aesthetics: Baroudi…
