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‘New York’s energy is all about movement,’ says Sophie Lou Jacobsen, a designer best known for her playful, sculptural glassware, who has adopted the city as her home and takes us on a tour of her favourite haunts to mark the launch of the Wallpaper* Travel Guide to New York City. ‘The constant physical movement of people and objects, the conceptual movements between jobs, scenes, goals – moving closer or farther away from your dreams. No one lives in New York to sit still. As soon as you land here, you are swept up by it – letting things arrive by chance until you learn how to navigate it.’

With Jacobsen as our guide, we made a short film, and learned of her passion for ‘old New York’, her ideal day, which might kick off at The Frick Collection, and the best bar for a mid-week pick-me-up. Watch the film, and pocket our guide yourself for more.

‘Too many tourists’, reads a scrawl of lipstick-red graffiti on the roller shutters of a shop in Venice’s Rialto district. It is a growing sentiment across global travel hotspots, sparking protests and government-enforced restrictions everywhere from Barcelona to Kyoto. For the 61st Venice Biennale, that tension is addressed through art.

At Ca’ Pesaro, artist Hernan Bas presents ‘The Visitors’. Across more than 30 paintings – some of which he created while in residence in the city – Bas depicts tourists in both real and imagined scenarios as they navigate bucket-list attractions, historic sites, sacred spaces, seedy entertainment venues and sanitised examples of the natural world. ‘When I found out I was able to work in this city, it was the perfect opportunity,’ said Bas at the opening. ‘There’s no better example than Venice for overtourism.’ His compelling cast of characters – notably all white males – are variously sympathetic and naive, but also smug, entitled, and disengaged. It’s one of our must-see exhibitions of the biennale, but if you’d rather not be a tourist, discover it here with Stephanie Gavan.

Rising up above the São Paulo skyline, on a 1,400 sq m plot in the city’s popular Pinheiros district, Valenta – from design-focused developer Idea!Zarvos and Brazilian architects FGMF – is a new mixed-use structure with a dynamic, expressive façade that offers up a multiplicity of views.

‘We designed Valente from the inside out,’ says FGMF’s Fernando Forte, ‘Idea!Zarvos’ concept was based on a three-dimensional occupation of corporate space, with triplex and duplex units that allow spatial arrangements very different from those typically found in the market, highly adaptable to occupants’ needs.’ The form of the many balconies and distinctive layered façade was defined by regulations, preserving a sense of privacy and individuality across all the units that feels rare in the urban environment. Jonathan Bell explores the Jenga-like tower from every angle.

In watchmaking’s most surprising collaboration, Swatch and Audemars Piguet have teamed up to create ‘a complete new way to wear time’, as they put it. A nod to Gerald Genta’s Royal Oak and Swatch’s 1980s Pop watch, via the world of charms and wearable accessories, the multi-hued Royal Pop collection is available today (16 May), at select Swatch stores.