Tag Archives: Videos

Fashion: The High Cost Of Handmade Bespoke Shoes

Insider Business (February 4, 2023) – Handmade bespoke dress shoes take months to make. Shoemakers transform rough measurements of a customer’s feet into a one-of-a-kind shoe. One pair can cost over £5,000.

London has been a hub for shoemaking for centuries, and while the industry has shrunk over time, an increase in demand from Japan and the US has helped to reignite interest in this craft. So, why would someone buy bespoke dress shoes? And what makes them so expensive?

Columbia Views: A Journey To The Lost City Of Teyuna

DW Travel – Discover Teyuna! It’s older than Machu Picchu and not quite as famous. Known in Spanish as Ciudad Perdida or the “Lost City,” it is located deep in the jungles of northern Colombia. You need weather-proof clothing and sturdy shoes for the four-day trek to the archeological site.

Our reporter Joel Dullroy is making the adventurous journey to the Lost City. Join him on his trip! Background: The ruins of Teyuna were once settled by the indigenous Tairona people. Their descendants still live today in the Wika and Kogi tribes in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.

Inside Art: ‘Abstraktes Bild, 1986’ By Gerhard Richter

Sotheby’s (February 3, 2023) – Reminiscent of a landscape, or the strata of a Monet waterlily painting, the horizontal swathes of paint migrate across Abstraktes Bild in wave like-motion across the breadth of the canvas. Texture, colour and structure are here deployed with spectacular force, with the gliding scrape of the squeegee revealing the kaleidoscopic architectural structure of the artist’s underpainting.

It is a masterpiece created during the critical year of 1986, which saw the artist’s first large-scale touring retrospective and was also the year in which Richter first took up the squeegee as his principal compositional tool. He has only ever produced 24 Abstraktes Bild of this magnitude (with a width greater than 380 cm), of which half of these reside in museum collections across the globe.

Gerhard Richter was born in 1932 in Dresden, Germany. Throughout his career, Richter has negotiated the frontier between photography and painting, captivated by the way in which these two seemingly opposing practices speak to and challenge one another. From exuberant canvases rendered with a squeegee and acerbic color charts to paintings of photographic detail and close-ups of a single brushstroke, Richter moves effortlessly between the two mediums, reveling in the complexity of their relationship, while never asserting one above the other.

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Feb 3, 2023

World Economic Forum (February 3, 2023) – This week’s top stories include:

  • 0:15 This AI robot is revolutionizing farming – The robot can identify weeds and crops at rate of 20 plants a second. The robot then delivers either weedkiller or fertilizer directly to individual plants to an accuracy of within 1mm. It can treat up to 500,000 plants per hour. The robot was invented by US firm Verdant Robotics.
  • 1:24 This company cancelled all internal meetings – In January, e-commerce platform Shopify cancelled all regular meetings with 3 people or more and imposed a 2-week window before staff could schedule anything new. It also permanently banned meetings on Wednesdays and limited large meetings to a strict window on Thursdays. More organizations are trying a ‘meeting reset’, from Dropbox to Asana and Zapier. But why – and could your organization try it too?
  • 3:00 How to build a thriving workplace – Businesses often ask staff why they resign. So why not ask why they’re joining or staying? “Why would you wait until people have already committed to walk out the door to say, ‘If only I had a time machine, I would go back to the past and convince you to stay’? What I would much rather see employers do are entry interviews and stay interviews. Entry interview is just asking the same questions you would normally pose at exit at the beginning of the employment relationship: Why are you here? What are you hoping to learn? Right. What are some of the best projects you’ve worked on? Tell me about the worst boss you’ve ever had so we can try to emulate the good and avoid the bad.”
  • 5:22 ChatGPT is already being used for scientific research – ChatGPT launched to the public in November 2022. It gives in-depth, natural language answers to prompts, based on what it has learned from a huge database of books and articles. People have been using ChatGPT to perform an impressive range of tasks, from writing university-level essays to debugging code and filling in job applications. It has written fake scientific reports that have fooled scientists and has even been used to write a children’s book.

The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.

New Zealand Home Tours: Pouaka Waikura – Modern Farmhouse Architecture

The Local Project (February 3, 2023) – One of New Zealand’s best kept secrets, this modern farmhouse sits on a mountainous landscape surrounded by lakes and rivers, allowing the owners to insert themselves into the countryside.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Modern Farm House 00:36 – A Mountain Location 01:04 – An All Seasons Site 01:32 – The Layout of the Pavilions 01:58 – The Integration of Farm and Terrace 02:32 – A Unique Brief 03:07 – Designed for Multiple Styles of Occupation 03:47 – The Materials 04:43 – Balancing the Materials 05:13 – Combining Old and New 06:23 – The House from a Distance 06:47 – Getting Better with Age

Following the Australian and New Zealand idea of farmhouse layouts, Patterson Associates has designed Pouaka Waikura as a set of pavilions that faces the Shotover River. Built as small and simple pavilions, the house tour of the modern farmhouse begins from the stone driveway that leads up to the mechanical shed and into the porte cochère. Beyond this are the two main pavilions, the guest house and main house, which have been separated by a wide outdoor space that allows the owners to entertain and connect with the surrounds.

Employing natural materials for the modern farmhouse, Patterson Associates has used Corten steel panels on the exterior, which are left to rust naturally, while waxed black steel, naturally oiled timber and in situ concrete are used on the inside. The materials come together naturally with minimalist detailing. Moreover, the blending of the materials immerses the home into the site with colours of rust, browns, golds and greys, all while the in situ concrete anchors the home into the land.

Patterson Associates uses materials that will patina over time and offer a sense of growth and permanency. Further allowing the owners to connect with their surroundings, the modern farmhouse opens up through bi-folding doors and adds flexible living spaces throughout. Aside from architecture, Patterson Associates contributed interior design, and seamlessly blended personal items from the clients’ existing cottage home with newer colourful and eclectic pieces. In the kitchen the use of waxed black steel panels references the exterior Corten panelling, while Belgium bluestone is used for the benchtops and wall splashbacks, which reference the fingerprinting and natural patina of the black steel.

Additionally, the dark tones frame the large awning windows and offer a view straight down to Shotover River and invite a wealth of light inside the home. The architects have designed Pouaka Waikura with lighting design that helps to open the home up and allow for a greater appreciation of the southern alps and winding rivers. Furthermore, embracing indoor-outdoor living also ensures that the owners can feel a deeper connection to their settings from either inside the modern farmhouse, or by the courtyard and fire space that sits between the pavilions. Encompassing everything that its owners need and more, New Zealand’s best kept secret is a modern farmhouse that uses materials, colours, objects and landscape that will only get better as the years pass by.

English Country Houses: A Tour Of Wolterton Hall

House & Garden (February 3, 2023) – Peter Sheppard and Keith Day welcome us into Wolterton Hall, an 18th-century English country house in Norfolk, England. Both Peter & Keith have been steadily restoring and redecorating Wolterton Park since they bought the estate in 2016 — bringing the state rooms back to their original glory and creating beautiful, practical living spaces.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Boudoir: “The walls were covered with a green hessian” 02:30 – Saloon: “This is where we have our best parties” 05:29 – State Bedroom: “It’s really funny to have a state bedroom when your friends come and stay…” 06:17 – State Bathroom: “It’s not conventional to have a bath of this size” 07:30 – Kitchen: “You shouldn’t hide away beautiful things” 08:49 – Living Room: “This was the Walpole’s library” 09:57 – Picture Room: “A 20th-century collection of paintings”

Watch the full episode of Design Notes as we tour Wolterton Hall and Peter & Keith explain how they live in the Palladian rooms of the piano nobile, from the State Bathroom with its alabaster-panelled bath to the Saloon that looks out on 500 acres of parkland. #HouseTour #ManorHouse #CountryHouse #England #HomeDesign

Climate Change: Threats Of Ocean Acidification

The Economist (February 2, 2023) – As carbon emissions change the chemistry of the seas, ocean acidification threatens marine life and human livelihoods. How worried should you be about climate change’s so-called “evil twin”?

Video timeline: 00:00 The other carbon problem 00:50 How does the ocean’s deepest point reveal its past? 02:55 Why are baby oysters dying? 04:08 Is the ocean acidic? 05:21 What is causing ocean acidification? 06:01 Why are corals dissolving? / Will deep sea ecosystems survive? 08:35 A threat to human livelihoods 10:42 What are the ‘potato chips of the sea’? 12:04 What is the solution?

New Zealand Design: RK Residence In Wellington

The Local Project (January 31, 2023) – Inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home located in the seaside town of Eastbourne, Wellington, RK Residence by Seear-Budd Ross incorporates distilled detailing and minimal finishes.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Calm, Minimal and Modern Home 00:21 – The Idea Behind the Home 00:46 – The Location of the Home 01:08 – Natural Characteristics 01:39 – A Light-Filled Connection 01:57 – The Plan and Topography 02:11 – Utilising Timber 03:35 – Refinement and Detail 03:51 – Fisher & Paykel Integrated Appliances 04:16 – Favourite Aspects of the Home 04:40 – Simplicity, Craftsmanship and Atmosphere

Completing interior design and architecture, Seear-Budd Ross has created a family home that offers a calming atmosphere, as well as an interior space filled with distinct characteristics. Designed as two singular volumes, the front of the house is made to incorporate public entertainment and living quarters, whilst the second singular volume holds the private rooms.

Placed between the two volumes, the courtyard provides a moment of transition between each volume and an abundance of natural light. Still and meditative, the design of RK Residence was planned to include sweeping views from the back of the home to the harbour beyond. Whilst following the house tour inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home, the architects have used high-quality materials throughout – including bandsawn flooring and cladding, tumbled paving in the courtyard and honed stone in the kitchen.

With locally-sourced timber helping connect the home to its surrounding landscape, the architects have used New Zealand pine on the exterior cladding, whilst the interior employs macrocarpa timber, bringing a unique scent and texture to the home. Inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home, the architects have worked with Fisher & Paykel to fit the kitchen with appliances that have been refined down to their essence.

As such, integrated appliances have been employed inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home to impart a seamless look throughout – including the Fisher & Paykel ovens, integrated fridge and freezer and dishwasher drawers. Furthermore, the stove top and rangehood provides a unified look and supports the open plan entertaining space. Creating moments of simplicity through refined architectural and design choices, the architects have used the typology of Eastbourne to establish a natural characterisation throughout. Finished with neutral tones, both the exterior and interior reference the coastal surrounds.

The architects have imparted a meditative atmosphere for the owners to enjoy for years to come. Acting as a counterpoint holiday home to the clients’ rural home, RK Residence by Seear-Budd Ross is a journey of refinement that begins from the exterior and continues inside a calm and minimal modern architectural home.

West Africa Views: The Cliff Of Bandiagara, Mali

UNESCO – The Bandiagara site is an outstanding landscape of cliffs and sandy plateaux with some beautiful architecture (houses, granaries, altars, sanctuaries and Togu Na, or communal meeting-places).

Several age-old social traditions live on in the region (masks, feasts, rituals, and ceremonies involving ancestor worship). The geological, archaeological and ethnological interest, together with the landscape, make the Bandiagara plateau one of West Africa’s most impressive sites.

History: Mahatma Gandhi Assassination At 75 Years

DW News – 75 years ago today, Mahatma Gandhi, who led the campaign for India’s independence, was assassinated in Delhi. The former lawyer is often called the “Father of the Nation” and credited with leading a non-violent struggle for independence from British rule.

Gandhi wanted an independent, peaceful India that protected religious freedom. But that was challenged by growing Muslim and Hindu nationalism. In 1947, India gained independence from the British, but at the cost of Partition – Muslim majority Pakistan and Hindu majority but secular India, came into being. Religous riots followed and Gandhi went on hunger strike to oppose the violence.

On January 30th, 1948, he was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who believed Gandhi had been too accommodating to Muslims during the Partition. Around a million people turned out for his funeral. That was in 1948. But the India of 2023 is rather different. Hindu nationalism has been emboldened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi – leaving Gandhi’s legacy in tatters, as DW Correspondent Manira Chaudhary finds out.