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Picture A Story
Oddly reminiscent of the skyline of Dubai, the peaks and troughs of the red block shapes on the bar graph are punctuated in the centre by one spike, soaring and towering above the rest. Except unlike...
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Shoots of Hope
Although most awards and prizes bestowed upon artists in the creative world focus on financial benefits, one unique accolade is still committed to the present – 30 years after inception. The Deutsche...
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Back to the Land
In his landmark work, A Timeless Way of Building, Christopher Alexander spells out a vision for the future of architecture. In it, he states, there is a DNA to all buildings that can be identified and...
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A Taste of Iran
When Fariborz Mohebati left his native Tehran on a leisure trip to Europe, he could not imagine the path his life would take. But in 1980, when he and his family were in Germany, the Iran-Iraq war...
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Van Cleef & Arpels
The Van Cleef & Arpels' ZipTM necklace is able to transform flawlessly into a necklace. This multi-functional piece that can metamorphose was on show at this year's edition of Design Days Dubai.
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The Art of Now
Right in the heart of Riyadh, a small group of fashionable young Saudis, laden with shopping bags, quickly glance up with intrigue at the striking black and white Arabic letters that spell ‘alāan’...
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Urban Series | Studio Zafir
In collaboration with Cadillac, we travel to Cairo to speak with the founders of Studio Zafir. A concept store that offers quirky homegrown products, it was set up by Nada Abdel Salam, Noha Zayed and...
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Foundations for Life
A little known law that requires all newly built museums in Italy to allocate a percentage of their budget to a public sculpture led to the construction of a remarkable building in Port Sudan two years...
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Sustainable Dreams
Seated around one big desk in her modest office studio in Madinat Al Sultan Qaboos in Muscat, Nadia Maqbool and her staff of nine animatedly bounce off ideas for future designs among each other. The...
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True to Type
An elegant black 'K' marks the entrance to the small Beirut-based office of product design company Kashida. Set up by Lebanese graphic design graduates Mirna Hamady and Elie Abou Jamra, their modest...
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Urban Series | Alex Varlik
In collaboration with Cadillac, we travel to Istanbul to speak with Alex Varlik, founder of Georges, a boutique hotel housed in the city's most historic building in the Galata district.
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On the Road
A troupe of travelling acrobats are preparing for another show at a temporary location. They are an elite group in Palestine; the skills they perform are known to few in the country. Named the...
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Mecca Today
The Holy City of Mecca attracts an estimated 13 million visitors a year from across the world, who flood into its streets and religious sites; three million Muslims alone arrived last year for the...
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Seeing SALT
Rare is the cultural institution that combines an edible rooftop garden with a public library, walk-in cinema, e-publishing empire, gourmet restaurant and thousands of square metres of exhibition...
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Exploding the Rules
Driving through Bodrum and up the switchback roads through the hills that lead to the Exploded House, owner and resident Vedat Semiz is in a good mood as he describes the building project, which was...
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Young Blood
Hip hop, 1980s Brooklyn, Bedouin motifs and modern London are just a few of the influences on the moodboard of Mayada Khammu. Full of fierce urban attitude, the 24-year-old fashion designer draws on...
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Space Invader
A self-proclaimed 'Gulf futurist', Sophia Al Maria's hotly anticipated literary debut is not your usual Arab-American memoir It's Sophia's first day at her new school and, like most teenage girls,...
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Hidden Treasure
A former Soviet city on the old Silk Road, it's easy to fall for Tashkent's culture clash charm Almost any cityscape in Uzbekistan is enough to make you draw your breath. The detailed mosaics of the...
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Vicious Stroke
Hard-hitting yet beautiful, Ayman Baalbaki's paintings offer a glimpse into the turmoil he had experienced during a lifetime of conflict The past few decades of struggle in Lebanon have inspired a...
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Pursuit of Youth
Some might argue that a place ravaged by conflict does not always make the most fertile ground for ingenuity, but taking a closer look at Palestine might make one believe the old adage that hardship...
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