Royal Collection Trust (October 30, 2023) – Explore the art of the image-maker of the Tudor court in the Royal Collection. Watch the film to discover the importance of the drawings, paintings and miniatures in the Royal Collection.
Discover how Holbein rose to become Henry VIII’s court painter and find out more about the techniques he used. See a rare moment where Holbein’s preparatory drawing and finished painting were reunited. Hans Holbein was one of the most talented artists of the 16th century.
From his arrival in England in search of work he rose to royal favor, chosen to paint the portraits of Henry VIII, his family and leading figures, among them Anne Boleyn and Sir Thomas More. By his death, Holbein’s work was as admired by his contemporaries as it is today. His portraits inspired the next generation of artists in their depictions of Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.
DW Travel (October 29, 2023) – A visit to Paris without seeing sights like the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre or the Sacré-Cœur is almost unimaginable – despite the throngs of tourists. How can one of the world’s most visited cities become more sustainable, for Parisians and tourists alike?
Video timeline:00:00 Intro 00:27 Eiffel Tower 01:55 Louvre Museum 02:27 Sacré-Cœur Basilica, Montmartre 04:52 Seine riverbank 07:26 Pont Neuf 08:17 Bistro “La Timbale”, Montmartre
From the banks of the Seine to Montmartre, DW reporter Swati Bakshi takes you to places in the French capital where you can observe the city’s transition to sustainability.
TRACKS – Travel Documentaries (October 28, 2023) – Explore Canada’s natural beauty in this beautiful documentary, from high above Baffin Island, in the northern Canadian territory of Nunavut, we get a glimpse at the incredible Arctic wonders.
From the towering ice fields lining the waters of Eclipse Sound in the Arctic Archipelago, to the natural wonders of Sirmilik National Park.
Covering 1.5 million square kilometres, or about one seventh of Canada, the Northern Arctic Ecozone extends over most of the nonmountainous areas of the arctic islands and parts of northeastern Keewatin, western Baffin Island, and northern Quebec. It is among the largest arctic ecosystems in the world.
Winters pass in near darkness with the polar night measured in weeks and months rather than hours. Snow may fall any month of the year and usually remains on the ground from September to June. Extremely low temperatures and an average precipitation of about 200 mm per year characterize the climate. When not covered in snow, much of the landscape is typified by barren plains covered in frost-patterned soils and the occasional rock outcrop.
Lucas T. Jahn Films (October 27, 2023) – An exploration of 10 of the 18 Faroese Islands, from Viðoy in the north to Suðuroy in the far south. In total, more than 1000 km were driven during the 16 days.
The Faroe Islands is a self-governing archipelago, part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It comprises 18 rocky, volcanic islands between Iceland and Norway in the North Atlantic Ocean, connected by road tunnels, ferries, causeways and bridges. Hikers and bird-watchers are drawn to the islands’ mountains, valleys and grassy heathland, and steep coastal cliffs that harbor thousands of seabirds.
The Local Project (October 27, 2023) – Liz Gardner of creative studio Bodega Ltd. buys and renovates this heritage house as she had aspired to, having admired it from afar for many years.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Dream House 00:27 – A Hybrid Building In A Historic Location 01:08 – A Walkthrough of the Space 02:03 – The Process of Obtaining the Space 02:35 – The Original Live Work Space Brief 03:40 – Specific Requirements and Constraints 05:22 – An Interesting Material Palette 06:39 – A Focus on Lighting 07:34 – Creating an Accomodation Space
Perched on a hill in a leafy neighbourhood near downtown Minneapolis, the home illustrated a unique style of architecture and boundless potential to renovate. Liz had always felt a long-term draw to the property after witnessing it having been on the market and taken off years prior to her and her partner acquiring it. She describes the building as being dreamlike and perfectly contrasting the hustle and bustle of the city. To her, the dwelling is an anomaly – its style cannot be easily identified.
Exuding notes of Italian-style architecture and a twist of contemporary features, this physical state of the building mirrors the way in which her and her team inhabit it. Amid a location known for its historical heritage homes, Maison Bodega reflects both the past and the present. Looking to the future she, and partner Josef Harris, buys and renovates the house, transforming it into a home and creative space known as Maison Bodega. Taking various design cues from the existing architecture, the hybrid live-work space is a thoughtful blend of heritage and modern interior design sensibilities that caters to parties, workshops, family life for Liz, Josef and their dogs and, most recently, a house tour with The Local Project. Downstairs, the kitchen is undoubtedly a social space.
House & Garden (October 27, 2023) – Saffron Aldridge and Scarlett Supple welcome us into their Scottish farmhouse located on a remote Hebridean island. This traditional farmhouse has been restored as a joint effort between business partners Aldridge & Supple, and sits perched above a tidal pool gazing over the surrounding Hebridean moorland.
As we tour the interior, we begin to appreciate the calm and comfort injected into this remote homestead — a stark contrast to the vast landscape of mountains, moors and machair. With startling features, such as the farmhouse’s tall windows and double-height ceilings, Aldridge & Supple forged a symbiotic relationship between the surrounding nature and interior.
‘Your whole relationship is with the nature outside,’ says Aldridge. ‘It’s very important that the inside and the outside work together.’ Watch the full episode of ‘Design Notes’ as we tour Saffron Aldridge’s remote farmhouse nestled in the Hebridean hills.
Architectural Digest (October 24, 2023) – Today Architectural Digest travels to Lower Manhattan to tour the newly completed Perelman Performing Arts Center. An integral part of the new World Trade Center site, architects Joshua Ramus and David Rockwell were eager to give the arts a new home in the area.
Ramus calls the building a “mystery box” as the theater’s 3 auditoria ingeniously extend and combine to create over 62 stage-audience configurations, resulting in a different space each time you visit. But what makes this building so special is revealed at dusk when the chandeliers shine through its 5,000 marble tile exterior, causing it to glow.
As this unique space finally opens its doors, the ultimate hope for Perelman is to inspire artists to create profound work–in turn inspiring the public.
The Local Project (October 24, 2023) – Believing that architecture is about creating something permanent, Butler Armsden Architects built Valley of the Moon Retreat as a beautiful modern home that is everlasting.
Video timeline:00:00 – Introduction to the Beautiful Modern Home 00:48 – A Countryside Location 01:35 – Belonging to the Landscape 02:32 – The Layout of the Beautiful Modern Home 04:39 – The Exterior Material Palette 05:22 – Preserving The Surrounding Landscape 05:36 – Designing For Climate Changes
After remodelling the client’s city dwelling, the architect was tasked with creating a family holiday residence in Glen Ellen, a place the clients could retreat to and escape city living. As one turns onto the narrow driveway, the house tour begins with a picturesque trip to the modern abode. The architecture and interior design enables the family to create lasting memories whilst being connected to nature, which completely surrounds the beautiful modern home.
Nestled between the trees, the residence blends seamlessly into the landscape. However, as the house tour reveals, the façade of the beautiful modern home is relatively closed off until the breezeway is opened up to expose the valley beyond. As one walks through the breezeway, the large courtyard opens up to expansive vistas of the valley beyond, with a pool that offers an additional reflection of the natural surrounds. The architect ensures the family can either entertain and find moments of respite by introducing separate cabin-like pavilions that can be opened up or closed.
3 p.m. Wander through woodlands to a world-class museum
Start your weekend at the Burrell Collection, a glass-roofed art museum that rises out of a meadow in the city’s southern Pollok Country Park like a vast, gleaming greenhouse. The 9,000-piece collection was donated to the city at the close of World War II by William Burrell, a Glasgow shipping merchant, and opened in this specially commissioned building in 1983. The free-entry museum reopened in 2022 after a six-year refurbishment of its red sandstone, glass and wood interiors. Though it is busy, the Burrell offers a peaceful immersion in an unmistakably personal collection, drifting from Degas and Rembrandt to tabernacles, tulip-motif textiles and ancient Chinese roof tiles. The tapestries are especially wonderful, including the palatially sized “Wagner Garden Carpet” made by master weavers in 17th-century Iran.
Saturday
Papercup
10 a.m. Grab a brekkie roll, then discover a Glaswegian jungle
If it’s not raining, take advantage of clear skies with a botanic stroll in Glasgow’s affluent West End. Grab breakfast at Papercup, a small and friendly cafe that has original period details, like egg-and-dart molding and an ornate ceiling rose. Try the brekkie roll with a sausage patty (£5), or eggs on toast with a side of vegan haggis (£8.50). From the cafe, wander to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens, either directly, along Great Western Road, or take the more meandering Kelvin Walkway down by the River Kelvin, crossing the blue, steel Botanic Gardens Footbridge to emerge into the scented gardens on the other bank. Enter the domed Kibble Palace, a spectacular glasshouse in which to explore a jungle of orchids, begonias and ferns, among other leafy treasures.
Hoos
12 p.m. Browse Scandi home goods and woolly Scottish knitwear
Glaswegians have an appetite for sustainable shopping and for secondhand goods of all stripes. Hoos, next to the Botanic Gardens, stocks chic Scandi home goods, while the Glasgow Vintage Co., farther along Great Western Road from Papercup, has a thoughtful selection of second-hand Scottish knitwear alongside show-stopping coats and dresses from the 1970s. Up the hill on Otago Street, above Perch & Rest Coffee, Kelvin Apothecary sells a nice range of gifts including handmade Scottish soaps and wooden laundry and cleaning tools. In the cobbled Otago Lane is the chaotic Voltaire and Rousseau secondhand bookshop, with teetering, vertical book piles. Unlike many Glasgow shops, this store isn’t the most dog-friendly, because of the resident cat, BB, who supervises from his perch at the till.
Lionard Luxury Real Estate (October 20, 2023) – A luxurious villa of very ancient origins, among the most famous by Lake Maggiore, is for sale in the stunning town of Belgirate, on the border with Stresa.
Its exclusive position directly by the lake, its 1,700 sqm of internal surface divided between the main house and the outbuildings, the private beach connected directly by an underground passage and the pier for private use contribute to the uniqueness of this property that belonged to the family of Napoleon III. Dating back to the early 19th century, the villa was built in a late neoclassical style on the walls of a previous religious building for Mathilde Laetitia Wilhelmine Bonaparte, daughter of Jerome, Napoleon’s younger brother.
Subsequently passed into the ownership of the Russian prince Vladimir Andrevic Dolgorukij, the property was remodeled only at the end of the last century, while the big park that surrounds it has remained intact in its original design, conceived by Anatoly Demidov, husband of Mathilde and well-known enthusiast and builder of gardens, especially in Tuscany. Its convenient natural location, in one of the towns of the Piedmontese shore of Lake Maggiore, ensures an always pleasant microclimate, while its strategic exposure, slightly oblique to the coast, has been designed to improve the panoramic view from any internal environment, rooms included.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
Lucas T. Jahn
House & Garden
The New York Times (October 19, 2023) – Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, crackles with character. It’s a hub of grass-roots energy where 
Boomers Daily 