Located in Achrafieh, on a street that houses the charming and well-preserved old buildings of the Lebanese capital, The Beirut Cellar is a neighborhood restaurant where authenticity and a good atmosphere combine to make it a popular spot, without worrying about seeing and being seen. It was with this in mind that the renovation project was conceived. Above all, it was necessary to preserve the memory and soul of the place, while giving it a modern touch. A challenge taken up by interior designer Maia Aoun Sayad.

Le Corbusier said it so well: “Architecture is the skilful, correct and magnificent interplay of volumes under light”. And to naturally light The Beirut Cellar, dimly lit, it was necessary to widen the existing windows and raise the roof of the terrace, the new composition of which is designed to integrate accordion windows that can be opened in good weather. Then there were the technical requirements of air-conditioning the partitioned terrace and the restaurant interior, without lowering the ceiling, and consolidating the building so that the ten water tanks could be placed on its roof, without detracting from the visual impact… The work involved enlarging the original pillars. An inspiring constraint! The result is an architectural design based on wood as cladding, creating a structure reminiscent of the volume above the bar. Maia Aoun Sayad placed great importance on the choice of materials. Here, black metal, synonymous with solidity, is used to cover the wall of the interior façade. The checkerboard floor is replaced by a geometrically patterned black-and-white one, while the lighting is provided by pendant and wall lamps, with no indirect light in the ceiling, to maintain the 70s spirit. The mustard-colored bar lamps by Verner Panton (1968), coupled with the green bar, form the basis of the palette adopted by Maia, to which were added touches of petrol blue, rust and bronze. The furniture is made in Lebanon by Kann Design, while other pieces have been found on the market. According to the designer, this mix of things, sometimes incompatible, ensures that the interior remains both refined and relaxed.

Located on the second floor of the Allianz Tower, designed by the late Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei Architects, the recently opened DAV restaurant overlooks the Citylife complex, which has transformed Milan’s former fairground into a new city district with skyscrapers, residences and a large public park.

DAV is characterized by a single, fluid floor plan, which unfolds following the customer right up to the table. Andrea Maffei Architects used the same finishes, so as not to separate zones. Long wooden panels, composed of pyramids rotating in different ways and resembling fractals, form the key element of the project, extending coherently along one side of the building and serving as a backdrop to the main room. The first floor, which previously housed an office area with an outdoor terrace, is transformed to accommodate the first establishment in Milan of the three-Michelin-star Da Vittorio restaurant, in the new DAV concept, designed for a young, metropolitan clientele. The layout includes the kitchen on the north side, the guest reception area on the south side and the central area dedicated to the bistro, starting with an initial cocktail bar, then following the long glass façade to an outdoor terrace. The walls are covered in wood panels, while the rest of the partitions and floors are clad in Laminam Pietra Piasentina stoneware, in a light gray tone that defines a neutral, textured base. In addition to the bar counter, there’s another for hors d’oeuvres and a glass pizza box. Chefs are in full view as they concoct dishes. All counters are clad in light-gray pleated Thala stone, continuing the concept of a cool gray base against which contrasts the textural warmth of cherry-colored paneling. The atmosphere evokes a gentle character, while the focus is on the tables and what they present. The ceiling design follows the rhythm of the façade’s windows and doors, with long, dark-gray wood laths. Sloping planks determine the shape of the removable soundproofing panels and are coupled to points where adjustable spotlights are provided for concentrated lighting on the tables. The outdoor terrace features an additional cocktail and hors-d’œuvre bar in the center, also in Thala stone. Tables and seating around the bar follow the progression of the pools. Large rolling curtains cover the outdoor areas in summer.

Qatar Museums announced plans for the Qatar Auto Museum in Doha designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), led by Pritzker Architecture Prize winning architect Rem Koolhaas. An exhibition introducing the project, A Sneak Peek at Qatar Auto Museum Project, opened at the National Museum of Qatar.

The exhibition explored the significance of automotive design in the 20^th century and the impact of automobiles on culture, previewing the content of the new museum. The exhibition, presented both inside and outside the museum, included three iconic cars from Qatar Museums’ collection and approximately 20 unique cars on loan from members of the Qatar Auto Museum advisory board and Qatar’s community of automobile enthusiasts.
The Qatar Auto Museum will be located along the Lusail Express Way between the 5/6 Park and Katara Cultural Village, in the former exhibition center building that hosted the first Qatar Motor Show in 2011. Qatar Museums is working with OMA on designs to transform the building.
Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa Bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, said, “From sporting events like Formula 1 races to classic car shows, car culture has an expansive presence in Qatar. The exhibition showcases our culture while introducing an exciting new institution dedicated to providing an inspiring educational and technological experience for all. Qatar Auto Museum will serve as an innovative community hub for auto enthusiasts, students, collectors, engineers, and all who appreciate the impact on our world of the emergence and evolution of the automobile.”
Her Excellency Dr. Hessa Al Jaber, Qatar Auto Museum President, said, “In modern history, very few inventions have impacted everyday life and the broader culture as powerfully and pervasively as the automobile. The Qatar Auto Museum will be a showplace for our unsurpassed collection and like all Qatar Museums institutions will spark innovation, creativity, dialogue, and community, as a destination that will offer new and exciting experiences on each visit.
The Qatar Auto Museum advances Qatar Museums’ legacy of work surrounding car culture, which includes assembling a world-class collection of automobiles, hosting several auto-themed exhibitions, and dedicating a gallery at the National Museum to vintage cars with the support of the Sealine Sports Club (Mawater). A Sneak Peek at Qatar Auto Museum Project introduces the concept design for a new museum that will bring Qatar’s expanding car community under one roof.
The 30,000-square-meter (320,000-square-foot) museum will include permanent galleries that track the evolution of the automobile from its invention through today and how it has influenced culture in Qatar, and temporary exhibition spaces for the display of high-profile vehicles — from supercars and limited editions to racecars and classic cars. Additional facilities will include an Edutainment Center and Workshop Spaces, as well as areas dedicated to children’s activities such as driving simulators, mini car mechanics, kids driving areas, and more.
Advisory board members for the Qatar Auto Museum include: H.E. Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, H.E. Sheikh Khalid bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, H.E. Mr. Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al-Mahmoud, H.E. Mr. Akbar Al Baker, Mr. Omar Al Fardan, Mr. Salem Al Mohannadi, Sheikh Mohammad bin Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Sheikh Faleh bin Nawaf bin Nasser Al Thani, Mr. Hisham Al Mana, Mr. Mohamed Al Jaidah, Mr. Saud Al Mana, Mr. Mohammed Mahdi Al-Ahbabi, Dr. Khalid Kamal Naji, Dr. Adnan Abu-Dayya, and Professor César Malavé.
The exhibition is made possible by generous support from Qatar Investment Authority, Sealine Sports Club (Mawater), and Qatar Auto Museum advisory board members.

Spring Feast Restaurant, located in Chaohu, a tourist site in eastern China, is designed by Ippolito Fleitz Group. It is part of the Bantang Hot Springs, also the source of its tranquil design. The designers wanted to channel an element of relaxation and reference the hot springs. Successful bet.

Bantang Hot Springs in Chaohu, China, is a popular destination for tourists and wellness enthusiasts. Set in breathtaking surroundings, Spring Feast, designed by multidisciplinary studio Ippolito Fleitz Group, is a restaurant that transforms the natural waterscape into a dynamic experiential space. Its unique selling point is the water from these famous springs, used in the preparation of dishes and served as drinking water. The design strategy was to harness the cultural context and translate it into a spatial experience. Fluid forms derived from the flow of this vital natural element characterize this spacious and bright space, creating the perfect setting for an unforgettable culinary adventure. The bistro serves Western-inspired cuisine with an emphasis on regional spring water. Its signature dish, for example, is spring water eggs served with truffles and porcini mushrooms. The interior design allows guests to revel in their own moments of pleasure. Entering the restaurant from the upper level, the direct path leads guests to a wide staircase and the gallery passage leads past a lounge that offers a magnificent view of the environment. A two-tone texture of earth tones meanders through the space, dividing it, elegantly and dynamically, into aisles and seating areas. Dominating the space, the vibrant, verdant green extends like a lush jungle canopy. With its patterns and materiality, this masterpiece is an address for organic experience, where the slowed-down wellness concept of hot spring baths flows into the pleasure of food.

Giorgetti asserts itself as a partner of excellence in the yachting field with a new prestigious collaboration. The brand’s innate design ability and the inalienable customization component of its proposals, capable of responding perfectly to the needs of the nautical sector, are invited on board the Benetti B.Yond 37M.

The first low-emission yacht of the Azimut|Benetti Group, the B.Yond 37M is the most ecological in its category thanks to the Siemens Energy propulsion and power supply system. A unique and elegant model in white steel and aluminum, designed for maximum comfort. Its hull is distinguished by the painted stainless steel profiles, covered with teak on the fascia. Unprecedented. The revolutionary concept, signed by Stefano Righini, ensures habitability on board, thanks to the inclusion of a fourth deck that allows all areas to be elevated for a panoramic view and a flexible layout. Open and spacious, the design of the interiors, realized by Benetti Mauro Izzo, optimizes the possibilities of personalization, so that the owner translates his taste and his character on a boat that will be his second home. Giorgetti, chosen by Benetti to take care of the furnishing of the B.Yond 37M, embodies this spirit through research into shapes, materials, finishes, colors… and attention to detail. The brand is also known for its philosophy that honors the customer and rewards him with exceptional service. “The beginning of the collaboration with Benetti was an almost natural step, born on the basis of shared visions and values. Two realities with a great historical heritage that have interpreted, with equal importance, technology and tradition through high quality products, always innovative and able to translate the needs of a modern customer. Not to mention the attention paid to sustainability, a principle that permeates the design of this yacht and a value that increasingly guides the commercial choices of our two brands”, says Giovanni del Vecchio, CEO of Giorgetti Group.

Her name is Rio… and she’s destined to samba her way through the world’s waters into its chicest ports, celebrating an endless passion for life. With a vibrant tropical interior scheme, the sleek 62-metre CRN superyacht that was launched at the Monaco Boat Show is designed to give pleasure to those with insatiable joie de vivre.

The true-custom steel and aluminium superyacht by Ferretti Group’s premier brand CRN is a bespoke work of nautical art, designed in collaboration with Omega Architects, with interiors by Pulina Exclusive Interiors.

Each Maria Grazia Chiuri collection is designed to open up room for the inventive imagination. For this Dior spring-summer 2023 ready-to-wear défilé, the Creative Director of Dior women’s lines notably uses the image of a map of Paris from the House’s archives, printed on a scarf and structured around the Avenue Montaigne (this Dior scarf created in the early 1950s). Thus she traces her own path, between autobiography and reflection. Then comes the Tuileries Garden, which was commissioned by Catherine de Medici. An Italian who arrived at the French court in 1533, this noblewoman remains a figure emblematic of the relationship between women and power, and fascinates Maria Grazia Chiuri because of her political intelligence, but also the innovations she launched, such as heels, the corset, and Burano lace, introduced to the royal manufactures.

Women know how to explore magical territories since they have a privileged connection with nature and its vital force. They listen to the turmoil that often traverses them. That most secret realm, at once in the shadows and marvelous, is like the baroque caves that inspired the artist Eva Jospin for the decor she dreamed up for this show in the heart of the Jardin des Tuileries.
Noncompliant with predetermined existences, women are capable of exercising power in many ways, including by escaping through the mind. The power of fashion becomes the power of women, a form of awareness that draws on this attraction to the outside world, to what lies beyond perception, knowledge and common experience. Fashion dialogues with reality through artifice; the garments of the Court are transformed. Maria Grazia Chiuri updates the corset by giving it a quasi-geometric shape that frames the bust. Thus, the guêpière, sometimes hidden, sometimes visible, outlines a silhouette reminiscent of the wide skirts worn at the court of Catherine de Medici. An ancestral tradition, raffia coats adorned with floral and bird motifs, that is also revisited with Dior’s creativity and contemporary expertise.
This collection pays homage to fashion as an art of invention, able to redefine the city of Paris over and over again, each and every time, allowing the multiple facets of its history to live on. Fashion as an urban concept, a showcase of clothes that color the spaces of our time; the city as a backdrop for the material and immaterial imagination of fashion and beyond. The map as a means of staging a city, of expressing the cultural complexity of our era, celebrating the power of the women who navigate it daily.

This winter, three sunglasses designs accompany the sporty silhouettes of the Coco Neige collection.

Gabrielle Chanel made pearls an inseparable element of her allure. Worn over striped tops, tweed suits or little black dresses, she accumulated pearls as multiple sautoirs and necklaces. This key detail was immortalised by both Man Ray and Horst P. Horst in unforgettable photographs. As jewellery or buttons, sophisticated embroidery or oversized and transformed into minaudières, pearls are a constant in the Chanel repertoire. Now their gentle simplicity provides the inspiration for this winter’s eyewear collection.

Studio Link-Arc, in collaboration with Kane A|UD Architecture, is designing Banu Hotpot, a 2,100 m² restaurant in Zhengzhou, China. As the flagship bistro of an innovative and growing franchise, it was important to the client that the project create a recognizable landmark along the main thoroughfare and be welcoming to the community.

Studio Link-Arc and Kane A|UD Architecture design an open and flexible interior landscape with a variety of spaces in Zhengzhou, China. The architects break the existing building’s large-scale, orthogonal structural grid, reframing the space into a fluid organization, with a series of sculptural cones shaped for private dining and open kitchens. They insert two vertical conical voids in the lobby and main seating area to connect two levels of dining, and design an organic grid ceiling, which varies in height depending on the program. The ceiling geometry is executed with folded perforated metal panels, forming a complex but streamlined pattern. A crucial element of the design, the panelized roof and wall system creating a continuous corrugated enclosure gives the space a unique identity. The ceiling transforms its appearance and transparency through its density, height, and size to give depth to the roof plane. For the exterior facade, the character of the interior roof is extended by a sunscreen, which protects the south side and gives a changing transparency and visual texture to the building. Its panel, composed of four types, is clipped onto a support and supported by the glass curtain wall. The result, a unified design. Located along one of the city’s major thoroughfares, Banu Hotpot is itself the sign that attracts customers. The name Banu is derived from the stories of the river men who historically helped boats navigate the dangerous streams of China. They would eat hot food to regain their strength. The design honors this history by imagining a space formed by natural, yet turbulent flow and marked by the sinuous lines of rope lattices.