Latest news with #Wallpaper
The Herald Scotland
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
The library at Eas Mor has been named among the best in the world
'150 Libraries You Need to Visit Before You Die' by Léa Teuscher, a London-based, sub editor with Wallpaper magazine, contacted the Eas Mor team unexpectedly; they were thrilled to receive the recognition. The library at Eas Mor was created in 2000 by Michael 'Albert' Holmes as a shelter from the storm. 'I just built it with a chainsaw and a set of ladders and thought I'd leave some pens and papers in there for a rainy day,' Holmes explains, 'and now that place will touch the soul. It's a living entity.' Holmes, who formerly worked in the building trade across the water in Ayrshire, bought the woodland from the forestry commission in 1998 for 'a song' with the dream of rewilding it. Years, tears and volunteers combined to slowly return it to a diverse and thriving ecosystem, with paths dug by hand and only a motorised wheel barrow to assist. (Image: Kim McAllister) Now visitors can enjoy woodfired pizzas in the solar-powered café at the base of the trail, filled with hand carved windowsills and hand painted murals, before followings paths through larch, sycamore, hazel and Scots pine on the route to the library. The views over the forest, out to the Firth of Clyde, Ailsa Craig and the mainland become more spectacular as the journey takes the visitor up the hillside to the top of a waterfall. Holmes believes the wide vista shows the curvature of the Earth at the horizon, and explains that around three o'clock in the afternoon the sun hits the waterfall sending rainbows across the wonder then, that by the time they reach the library, visitors are feeling poetic. 'Sometimes I sit in here and just cry, this place means so much to people,' Holmes admits, as he gazes around the space. He has added a small set of step ladders to allow people to pin their notes to the roof, and four small school chairs have been placed by the table. Bookshelves line one wall, visitors can add and borrow books on a trust system. Holmes says there was once a first edition of a Harry Potter book left as a token of thanks from someone who was particularly moved. (Image: Kim McAllister) 'There's a donation box here – you wouldn't believe how much we spend on papers and pens and pencils,' he smiles. 'But it doesn't matter. The library is here to teach people about ecology and sustainable living.' He adds that the previous night he had had a group of children in the library helping to tidy up as part of an award with the John Muir Trust. He is particularly keen that children with additional support needs be involved, and is investigating different types of transport to help people with mobility issues to reach the library. His big dream was to install a hydro power plant, but it took 15 years to find the right partners and investment. Now the turbines are in place and the peaty water from the top of the hill gives the charity a solid income stream. 'I have to brush the filters twice a day because peat is like a heart attack for the system,' Holmes shrugs, slotting the hard bristled broom back into its hiding place at the top of the waterfall. There have been many setbacks along the way, most recently Storm Eowyn in January this year which brought down hundreds of trees and required a crowdfunder campaign to help Holmes and his team take care of the damage. 'Seven solid weeks with a chainsaw – it nearly killed me,' he jokes. 'Not one tree hit the library, right enough.' (Image: Kim McAllister) Everything in the forest is reused, visitors can see details throughout the hike, like hand-carved signs and seats. Rocks hewn from the quarry are crushed for the pathways and the wood is turned into furniture and structures, like the 'bar' created by a circle of logs round a firepit, used for celebrations around events like the summer solstice. An amphitheatre is taking shape and Holmes has big plans for the field where the island road meets Eas Mor. 'We have planning permission for a 12 bedroom lodge, covered in turf and we want to have yoga and a pottery studio,' he says. 'You never own the land, you only manage it. This place found me. I love my trees – my primary objective is the protection of this habitat.'
Spectator
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Picture perfect: Locatelli at the National Gallery reviewed
I feel for Locatelli, the new Italian restaurant inside the National Gallery, whose opening coincides with the 200th anniversary of the gallery and a rehang which I can't see the point of because I want to watch Van Eyck in the dark. Locatelli must compete with the Caravaggio chicken, which is really called 'Supper at Emmaus' if you are an art historian or an adult. In the publicity photographs the chef Giorgio Locatelli is actually standing in front of the Caravaggio chicken. It looks as if Jesus is waving at Giorgio Locatelli but the chicken is unmoved. It stole all the gravitas. 'Locatelli is the National Gallery's new Italian master with the latest chapter of his beloved London restaurant,' said Wallpaper* magazine idiotically: Wallpaper*, of all magazines, should know better than to compare Bacchus and Ariadne with ravioli. Locatelli hangs in a mezzanine in the Sainsbury Wing, which is all mezzanine and one gilded staircase to heaven. It is fiercely generic in creams, beiges and golds and though I understand why they did it – they did it because it will remind the sorts of people who can afford to eat at Locatelli of their own houses in west London – I wish they hadn't. I know the British don't really do the visual arts, except motorcars. We have one perfect painter, J.M.W. Turner (working-class, of course), plus Frank Auerbach (a German-Jewish refugee who painted anguish), so the best of it is seascapes and screaming. Locatelli sprouts from another hinterland: poised and avoidant anti-art, a place without conflict or regret. It's a rental flat in W1, a neutral cashmere cardigan, the VIP area at Glastonbury and – and this is what is unforgivable – it is inches from the Renaissance. What's left of it, which isn't much, to be fair. Beige moleskin banquettes do not belong near Velázquez's 'Rokeby Venus', which a suffragette attacked in 1914, possibly because Venus is showing so much arse. (I feel the same way about MTV.) If you want to eat in a mock-up of Hans Holbein's 'The Ambassadors' or the 'Arnolfini Marriage' – and I do very much, I love a themed restaurant if the theme is more than nothingness and ease – Locatelli is not for you. It is, rather, for those who seek immaculate Italian cuisine. We eat a salad of Parma ham, pear and aged balsamic; burrata with spring vegetable and mint salad; veal tortelloni with gremolada and parmesan sauce; tagliatelle with beef and pork ragout; an immense rib-eye steak; a chocolate cake; a tiramisu. It is all sinuous and beautiful: Italian, not Flemish art then, and I prefer the Flemish school. I understand why the National Gallery wants a real restaurant, as the Royal Academy has. (José Pizarro at the RA is exquisite, as no one has ever said about the Summer Exhibition, which seems to be painted by people who have been on Jim'll Fix It.) They want to remake it as another polished lifestyle destination: that is the rehang. Yet there is something savage about the National Gallery, and not just because it is built on the site of the former royal stables so, were you a medium or Hilary Mantel, you would hear ghostly neighs as white Jesuses wave at you. Look around: where you find civilisation, barbarism will be close at hand. Art should not make you hungry: it should drive you mad. In 1987, a man shot Leonardo's Burlington House Cartoon of the Virgin and friends. I take a bite of impeccable tiramisu, and I understand.
Condé Nast Traveler
08-05-2025
- Condé Nast Traveler
A Pocket Guide to the World's Modernist Architecture
The below is an excerpt from the writer's new book, Modernist Travel Guide, which features nearly 400 of his favorite works of modernist architecture to visit in 30 cities around the world, from Antwerp and Buenos Aires to Sao Paulo and Stockholm, and was recently published by Sight Unseen. For more than 20 years, I have been fascinated by modernist design and architecture. In order to see and document unique examples of 20th-century architecture and design, I began traveling to these jewels of creativity, photographing them and sharing their histories both on my Instagram account, @okolo_architecture, as well as in magazines like Wallpaper, World of Interiors, and Prague-based Dolce Vita, where I've been an editor since 2009. Adam Štěch Instagram Adam Štěch is a Prague-based theorist, journalist, and curator in design, architecture, and the visual arts. He is the author of two books, Inside Utopia (Gestalten, 2017) and Modern Architecture and Interiors (Prestel, 2020). He has traveled to more than 50 countries to document thousands of examples of modernist architecture and design. At the time of writing, I've visited almost 50 countries on five continents to explore nearly 10,000 design landmarks—not only offices and houses, but also bars, cafés, galleries, museums, and hotels. My travels to experience these places brings me pure joy, which I hope to share with others through this pocket guide featuring 30 major global cities, each including 10–14 highlights to add to your future travel itineraries. Of course, as a journalist and historian, I was offered special access to many of the private interiors in this book. But even for locations that don't allow public entry—as noted throughout—it's a privilege simply to be able to stand in the street and admire a beautiful relic of 20th-century architecture, and it's my privilege to be able to guide you on these journeys. The Bottiglieria Bulloni in Milan features a ceramic mural by Futurist Enrico Prampolini. Bottiglieria Bulloni, Milan In 1933, Futurist designer Enrico Prampolini created original decorative lighting fixtures and a ceramic mural for the interior of Bottiglieria Bulloni, still visible in the small bar today. Via Lapari 2, Milan, Italy, public space Struckus House in Los Angeles is Bruce Goff's final built project. You may recognize the Sheats-Golstein Residence from its starring role in The Big Lebowski. Struckus House, Los Angeles With this house, designed for aeronautical engineer Al Struckus, the American master of organic architecture Bruce Goff left a powerful testament. His final built project, and his only private residence in California, is a playful but commanding union of space and form inside a cylindrical tower.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Joey Yung still has an unreleased Khalil Fong-penned song
14 Mar - Joey Yung recently admitted that she still has a song written by the late Khalil Fong that she has yet to release. The singer recently shared as much at the press conference of Emperor Jewellery's new collection where she serves as the spokesperson. Admitting that she was extremely heartbroken following the news of Khalil's passing, Joey said that her most favourite Khalil album will always be "Orange Moon". "I admire him so much and he occupies an important position in my heart. I am glad to have sung 'Wallpaper' that he wrote for me," she said. It is noted that "Wallpaper", which is a part of her "Joey & Joey" album, was her first collaboration with the singer-songwriter back in 2011. Joey then revealed that there is still a song that Khalil wrote for her that has not been released. When asked if she will be releasing it, the singer said, "I will consult his family first. Respecting his family is the most important thing." (Photo Source: Joey IG, China Press, On CC)
