| | Rosa Bertoli, global design directorDesign has been the hot topic in the British capital this week. London Design Festival has seen designers, collectives, curators and brands taking over spaces across the city and opening their studios, homes and galleries to show us new products and ideas. Our team has been enthusiastically recording our findings in a live blog – and events run through Sunday, so there’s still time to see some highlights yourself. |
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The standout of the week for me was the presentation of the 2025 London Design Medals, for which the entirety of the London design community gathered at the V&A East Storehouse (pictured). It was incredible to be in the museum after dark and celebrate the amazing creatives who won the accolades this year, but the best part of the night was the speech by Design Innovation Medal winner Sinéad Burke, founder and CEO of strategic consultancy Tilting the Lens. She humbly reminded everyone in the room about the true impact of our industry, and everyone’s duty to shape the world for the better. ‘I am disabled by design. My disability and the friction with which I experience the world have been designed for – potentially by – some of you,’ she said. ‘And I don't say that to shame, I don't say that to challenge, but to invoke the question, who [do] we design for, but even better, who gets to design? If I can boldly ask you anything, is that when you go back to blueprints tomorrow, just think about who isn't yet included, put them at the centre, and design better.’ Meanwhile, as explored in this edition of Weekendpaper*, the fashion world has us looking forward to S/S 2026. Wallpaper’s Jack Moss shares his pick of the New York Fashion Week collections below, and is immersed in the London shows as I write. Herzog & de Meuron and Piet Oudolf have unveiled a new way to experience Alexander Calder’s work in Philadelphia. And Apple has put on a photography exhibition in NYC, including work by Inez & Vinoodh and Mickalene Thomas, to show off its iPhone 17 Pro Max.
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Jacques Herzog on designing a museum like no other, Calder Gardens |
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Calder Gardens launches tomorrow, 21 September, with an architectural design by Herzog & de Meuron, and landscape and gardens by Piet Oudolf. Designed to present a rotating display of key pieces from influential American artist Alexander Calder, immersed in flowering nature, the project, curated by the Calder Foundation, is located within the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Downtown Philadelphia, where the artist was born.
From the start, the Calder Foundation presented the architects with a challenge: to create a museum like no other, a space that is ‘intimate and ever-changing’ and that creates a dialogue between art and architecture, nature and creativity. ‘In this unique commission – from the site, to the open brief, to our design process – I focused on space over form,’ says Jacques Herzog. ‘Calder Gardens embodies a kind of “no-design” architecture, allowing the works of art to express their diversity and ambiguity across numerous different spatial contexts. It’s a place where you can sit, wander, and observe, whether it’s nature or art, with the ease one has when one sits under a tree.’ Ellie Stathaki hears more from Herzog, who shares sketches – ‘the sheer amount and the specific character of the Calder sketches is extraordinary’, he notes – and an extract from an upcoming book on the project. |
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How to travel meaningfully in an increasingly generic world |
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It’s never been easier to go somewhere, but at the same time, it’s also never been harder to say why, writes Lauren Ho. As the most well-travelled generation in history, we can effortlessly book a trip to the other side of the world to eat the same poke bowl we had last weekend in Shoreditch, or lie under the same rattan pendant lamps as our friend in Uluwatu.
Where we once made journeys of discovery, we now book hotels and restaurants based on their Tripadvisor ratings, curated by algorithms and optimised for convenience. And what used to be full of uncertainty – missed trains, misread menus, unfamiliar etiquette – has become safe and predictable: language barriers vanish with Google Translate, and the best flat white within 100m has already been bookmarked.
The thrill of stumbling across the unexpected has been replaced by comfortable inertia, and we now move through the world with little challenge. And the irony is that, even as we accumulate more miles and more stamps, we’re not necessarily accumulating more insight. For all this hyper-mobility, there’s a nagging hollowness, which is precisely why place matters now more than ever. And the places that truly matter are the ones that provoke, confront, make us think, and linger long after the journey ends. What we need is not ease, but resonance. |
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What we’ll be wearing? The standout collections from NYFW |
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It felt like there was an injection of energy to New York Fashion Week this season after some sleepy recent editions that have caused some commentators to advocate for a once-a-year approach, or a reduced schedule centred around a handful of venues. Veronica Leoni followed up last season’s confident opening gambit for Calvin Klein with a sophomore collection that explored the ‘tension between a deep sense of intimacy and the taste for exposure’. Other big-hitters of the week were Michael Kors, Tory Burch, Coach, Off-White and COS, while excitement also built around the city’s emerging talent.
‘With this dark time we are all experiencing, I wanted to feel joy in optimism,’ Tory Burch said after her show. At Diotima, meanwhile, founder and creative director Rachel Scott said that her collection was about channelling her anger at the state of America in new ways. ‘…it’s coming through in much more a rebellious way’, she elucidated, looking towards the subversive spirit of carnival – from Brazil to Notting Hill and her native Caribbean – for inspiration. Jack Moss found much to celebrate; see his highlights here. |
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