Issues

Bjarke Ingels and ARM Holding are redrawing Dubai’s map – making it greener than ever

You can tell a lot about where a city is headed by the changes being wrought on its skyline. Dubai’s rapid rise and increased affluence is reflected in its built environment, composed of glass-clad towers and grand, palatial villas. Yet as more people put down roots in the Gulf city there is a growing market for a different style of development, which is human-scale and decidedly more grounded.

ARM Holding is one developer betting on such blueprints. The firm is redefining the housing stock of a city that has pitched itself to the world as offering luxury residences. When Monocle meets ARM’s CEO, Mohammad Saeed Al Shehhi, at the firm’s H Residence project in the Al Safa neighbourhood, the Emirati entrepreneur tells us how the city’s architectural and lifestyle habits are changing.

“Dubai is maturing,” says Al Shehhi, adjusting his ghutra headdress, as we look out over verdant lawns from a panoramic window at H Residence. “People want more intimate day-to-day experiences and a greater sense of community.” These are the pillars that have made H Residence and its sister development, The Fold in Jumeirah, sought-after addresses in the city. In May, Al Shehhi upped his game: ARM signed an agreement with renowned Danish architect Bjarke Ingels to create a vast megaproject in Dubai that could rewrite the rules of property development in the desert. “Together we want to build environments, not buildings,” says Al Shehhi.

The formula for ARM’s properties is simple: low-rise developments with crisp lines and natural materials, typically mixed-use with retail and dining positioned around pleasantly landscaped public spaces. In Dubai, this feels novel. When Monocle visits H Residence, the development’s Cipriani Dolci restaurant has a healthy crowd on the terrace, and there’s a mid-morning bustle at nearby Café Kitsuné. An enviable collection of art is scattered around the properties. All this creates a lived-in atmosphere – “village-like” is how Al Shehhi describes it.

“When a developer comes to you willingly sacrificing valuable floorspace for landscaping and public areas, it really means something,” says architect Tariq Khayyat, whose eponymous firm was commissioned to create ARM’s first two residential projects.

Al Shehhi admits that his vision was partly inspired by the clutch of pre-2000 bungalows dotted around the older parts of Dubai. Some of these houses are showing their age (many were built for oil workers) but they remain highly sought-after by UAE residents, yet are in dwindling supply.

The CEO has seen first-hand how the sands have shifted in the UAE’s market. After a stint at the helm of the Dubai Design District, he is currently secretary-general of UAE Media Council and runs the Emirates Racing Authority, which oversees the horse races that are deeply entwined with Emirati culture. This has put him in the room with both the city’s leadership and its creatives.

“When I started Huna, one of ARM’s premium property brands, in 2020, I looked at what real estate lacked in this city: greenery and community stood out,” says Al Shehhi. The UAE is no stranger to big name architects – both Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid’s glassy works dot the skyline – but Ingels was yet to make his mark. ARM Holding’s eagerness for green, public spaces caught the attention of the architect and his Copenhagen-based firm.

We’re told that the new, as yet unnamed megaproject will be on Hessa Street and feature residential units as well as retail, cafés, restaurants, art installations and more. The overall scale of the project is yet to be revealed but Al Shehhi’s team hint at multiple neighbourhoods that will occupy a sizeable footprint beside the Jebel Ali Racecourse. ARM has proven that it can build greener spaces with a sense of community, “but for our megaproject we want to be even more generous,” says Al Shehhi. The renders of the project reveal a terraformed plot, where rooftops are blanketed in greenery and apartments peek out from the treeline. All this is set inside a 5 sq km parkland that, according to the CEO, will be larger than London’s Hyde Park.

“I believe that for Emiratis and those who call the UAE home, living in a park is true luxury,” says Al Shehhi. “While pockets of this park remain private for residents, this is a gift for the wider community.” In a desert, this is a bold piece of urban planning. One may wonder at the environmental cost of keeping all those lawns looking sprightly. But the CEO is reassured by the principles of sustainability that have defined Ingels’ work to date, citing the carbon-zero credentials of Google’s new HQ in California.

There’s no doubt that it is a monumental urban intervention. “Bjarke’s designs so often feel utopian but, once delivered, they’re pragmatic and practical,” says Al Shehhi. “We’re both future-focused and we’ll judge its success 30 to 40 years down the line.” He adds that improving the health of residents and getting people moving in this car-centric city is a key part of the mission. “Any essential services will be within a 10-minute walk and cycle lanes will connect its neighbourhoods.”

ARM’s first developments were much smaller but this megaproject has the potential to redraw the city’s map. Many starry-eyed architects have worked in the Gulf’s fast-growing cities over the past few decades, often gazing upwards. Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, looms over the metropolis but even its shadow fails to shelter Dubaians from the sun’s rays. This vast residential development will change that – inviting all to bask in its natural shade, enjoy a cooling lake and native flora. As the city continues to attract and keep residents for the long-term, blue-sky thinking doesn’t look so fresh any more.

Worth the wait: Six new global restaurant openings to save on your map

1.
Oobatz
Paris

Dan Pearson moved to Paris to study international relations but found that there were other ways to win hearts and minds. The chef first made mouths water with a pizza pop-up at the Michelin-starred La Rigmarole. Now he’s back with Oobatz in the 11th arrondissement. The line-up features six pizzas, each made with market-fresh ingredients before its 90 seconds in the Swedish pizza oven at 480C. Monocle’s favourite has a marinara base, with pork and veal polpette and creamy caciocavallo. Call ahead as tables are tough to snag.

2.
Dodeka Piata
Athens

True to its name, Dodeka Piata (“12 plates”) offers a dozen dishes in celebration of the Greek concept of mezedes (sharing plates). The new restaurant in Koukaki is overseen by chef Pavlos Kyriakis and features mosaic-tiled floors and white linen tablecloths, with wooden chairs replacing the straw seats of a taverna. The menu is modest in volume but the smoked tzatziki and tyrokafteri, a spicy whipped cheese dip, will leave you satisfied. The pork gyros with paprika and onion are exceptional.
36 Odissea Androutsou, Athens 117 41

3.
Uno di Questi Giorni
Bologna

This restaurant from the duo behind Bologna’s much-loved Ahimè has been four years in the making. Whenever co-founders Lorenzo Vecchia and Gian Bucci were asked about the opening date, they’d reply “Uno di questi giorni” (“One of these days”); the name stuck. Designed by Trieste-based studio Metroarea, the interiors feature exposed wooden beams, contemporary lighting and cream-coloured sofas. But the real showpiece is the large open grill, where everything from Jerusalem artichokes to Po Delta oysters are cooked as part of the grill-only menu.
unodiquestigiorni.it

4.
Esra
Amsterdam

You’ll find this 26-cover Turkish offering in Amsterdam’s formerly industrial eastern docklands. Its appeal lies in the ever-changing menu of its London-born Turkish Cypriot owner, Selin Kiazim (pictured, on right, with co-owner Steph De Goeijen). “The food scene in Amsterdam is always evolving,” she says. “Esra’s menu switches with the seasons, sometimes even after a day.” Past menus have featured pollock with pistachio cream, and herring roe and Turkish eriste egg noodles with pickled maitake mushrooms and sheep’s cheese sauce. The wine list features appellations from Georgia, Croatia and Greece.
esra.amsterdam

5.
Bar Super
Barcelona

Bar Brutal and its bottle shop Can Cisa brought Barcelona’s most enterprising drinkers round to biodynamic wine when it opened in 2013. Its new sibling, Bar Super, is located next to the Mercat de Santa Caterina in El Born. Given its prime location, twin restaurateurs Max and Stefano Colombo, as well as winemaker Joan Ramon Escoda rely on cuina de mercat (market produce), to which they add the Venetian sensibilities that they channelled into their debut opening, Xemei, an Italian osteria in Poble Sec. At Bar Super, expect fresh prawns, succulent tuna carpaccio and colourful varieties of beetroot. The wine list features Catalan appellations from winemaker friends, as well as an in-house bitter made in collaboration with Genoese bodega La Ricolla.
barsuper.com

6.
Ghost
Bali

Ghost Kitchen and Record Bar mixes wood-fired cooking with a warm vinyl soundtrack. Executive chef Tim Stapleforth blends Balinese flavours and fresh produce with what he grew up eating in Queensland. Standouts include the babi guling crumpet, a play on the Balinese hog roast.
No 99 Jalan Pantai Berawa

Suite life: Four hotels that will leave you wanting for nothing

Quinta do Pinheiro
Algarve

It’s increasingly hard to find somewhere off the beaten track in the Algarve but Quinta do Pinheiro, a converted 19th-century farmstead, is one of them. Bordering the sandy dunes of Ria Formosa Park, this property is made up of five terracota-tiled cottages.

Lisbon-based architect Frederico Valsassina preserved key features of the buildings, such as their prominent chimneys, and used traditional materials including cane strips to create rustic living quarters.

A large water-storage tank once used by farmhands is now a pool. Each cottage comes equipped with a kitchen but Monocle restaurant favourite Noélia is a short drive east of the estate should you have a hankering for superb seafood.
quintapinheiro.com

Stockholm Stadshotell
Stockholm

Built in the 1870s, this historic building at Björngårdsgatan 23 has been restored as a 32-key hotel with a lounge, a sauna and a cold plunge. “Many of the original details have been preserved,” says founding partner Johan Agrell. Stockholm Stadshotell also offers two restaurants, one of which, Matsalen, is in the former chapel. Chef Olle T Cellton dishes up contemporary Nordic fare, such as wood-grilled fish. “Matsalen is about cooking without ego,” says Agrell.

The rooms and suites are rendered in muted tones, with furniture by Swedish company Tre Sekel, Italian linens from Liv Casas and bathroom fixtures by Lefroy Brooks. “The property’s architectural significance made it a compelling choice for a hotel because it has a soul,” says Agrell.
stockholmstadshotell.com

Chiemgauhof Lakeside Retreat
Bavaria

The Chiemgauhof Lakeside Retreat overlooks Lake Chiemsee, an untamed expanse of water nicknamed the Bavarian Sea. Halfway between Munich and Salzburg in Übersee, the property was acquired by hoteliers Dieter Müller and his wife, Ursula Schelle-Müller, in 2021.

Working with Milan-based designer Matteo Thun, they embarked on a major reconstruction. Thun conceived a contemporary barn built from larch, with oak-floored interiors and floor-to-ceiling windows that open up to the surrounding waters. In the restaurant, Maximilian Müller serves hearty Bavarian classics, while at the bar, Japanese chef Naoki Terai crafts sushi using fish caught from the lake.
chiemgauhof.com

Hotel Humano
Oaxaca

The so-called Mexican Pipeline on the country’s southern Pacific coast attracts an international surfing community to the town of Zicatela. Steps from the break at Playa Zicatela, Hotel Humano has become a popular stop-off. Architect Jorge Hernández de la Garza developed his idea with design firm Plantea Estudio for Mexico’s Grupo Habita. The result is a striking building defined by brutalist concrete and terracotta-coloured tiles offset by native tropical wood. The lobby, which opens onto the street, allows the interior and exterior to merge seamlessly.

In Humano’s 39 guestrooms, handmade hazel-coloured tiles by San Pedro Ceramics nod to the 1970s, while ecru twill curtains divide the ocean-view suites. In the evenings, chef Marion Chateau of Marseille’s La Relève brings a refreshing fusion of French and Mexican flavours to the dinner table.
hotel-humano.com

Change of art: The National Gallery Singapore aims the spotlight at Southeast Asia

Eugene Tan, the National Gallery Singapore’s CEO and director, might seem like a quiet academic but he’s unequivocal about the place of Southeast Asian modern art in the global ecosystem. “Our understanding of art is largely derived from Western art history, which has led many to think of Southeast Asia as one territory defined by colonial borders,” he says. “But it’s actually a multi-faceted network of art worlds.”

This summarises what the National Gallery Singapore, home to the world’s largest public collection of modern Southeast Asian art, set out to do when it opened in 2015. No other institution had tackled Southeast Asian art from a regional perspective. Accompanying this fresh approach was a mission to challenge Eurocentric narratives, prompting visitors to consider how Southeast Asian artists and movements intersect with dominant stories of art history. Reframing Modernism, jointly curated and developed with Paris’s Centre Pompidou in 2016, is one such seminal show, where works by significant regional artists, including Latiff Mohidin from Malaysia, were hung alongside iconic European names such as Henri Matisse for the first time.

Marking its 10th anniversary this year, the gallery has only grown in confidence. “As we’ve deepened our understanding and research of Southeast Asian art, we’re bolder at expanding Western definitions of art and spotlighting artists who have previously been overlooked,” says Tan. He cites the gallery’s recent retrospective on Singapore-born British postwar artist Kim Lim: sidelined in a male-dominated domain, she has since been recast in a new light.

The scale of their latest show, City of Others: Asian Artists in Paris, 1920s-1940s, illustrates Tan’s ambitions. It’s the first major comparative exhibition on Asian artists living in Paris during the vibrant yet challenging interwar period. With Southeast Asian art still heavily underrepresented on the global stage, the work of the National Gallery Singapore team is a major draw.

Business agenda: Sustainable air travel with Helsinki Citycopter and Canadian companies making the most of Trump’s tariffs

Technology: USA
Good vibrations

This NBA season, blind and low-vision basketball fans have been able to follow the action from their arena seats using a handheld device that describes the game through vibrations. Seattle-based start-up OneCourt was founded in 2021 and its haptic device debuted with the Portland Trail Blazers in January. The technology uses wi-fi and 5G to transmit data from arena sensors and cameras; coupled with a live broadcast, fans who can’t see the game can follow the action as the device signals, for example, where a three-point shot was taken. 

The early-stage start-up has raised $475,000 (€420,000) from angel investors, including Microsoft’s ceo, Satya Nadella, and five NBA teams have signed up for the service. OneCourt has also engineered versions for baseball and football, which could be used during the Fifa Club World Cup that kicks off on 14 June. Co-founder Jerred Mace and his team currently make the OneCourt device in-house but he hopes to produce it at scale for an underserved market of sports fans who will be able to use it at home too. “We want to have a product that doesn’t just live in the stadium,” he says.

Transport: Finland
Out for a spin

Private helicopter transfers tend to be functional affairs, with cramped cabins and the lingering scent of jet fuel. Helsinki Citycopter, a Finnish firm founded in 2020, does things differently: the five helicopters in its fleet, which includes two Airbus ACH130s and an H125, have spacious interiors with leather seats, noise-cancelling headsets and efficient climate control. Powered by sustainable aviation fuel and modern low-emission engines, the aircraft also leave a smaller environmental footprint than many of their competitors. “There’s a unique advantage to helicopter travel,” says co-founder Joonas Nurmi, who spent 15 years with Finnair. “You get perspectives that you don’t see from a plane or car and you can land almost anywhere.”

Now the market leader in northern Europe, the company has steadily expanded, adding a Cessna Citation CJ4 private jet to its portfolio and launching a flight academy for helicopter and fixed-wing pilots. In addition to transfers, the firm enables travel to remote destinations, including Lapland, the Finnish archipelago and the Lofoten Islands. “Our product is nature,” says Nurmi. “And we fly where no one else does.”
helsinkicitycopter.com

Agriculture: Canada
Growth opportunity

When Donald Trump launched his first tariff broadsides at Canada’s economy in February, Canadian shopping habits shifted abruptly – away from American-made goods and towards more homegrown brands. That presents an opportunity for independent Canadian food companies. Among them is Lufa Farms, the innovative urban agriculture firm and marketplace for Québec-grown produce, which was co-founded in Montréal in 2009 by Lebanese engineer and entrepreneur Mohamed Hage and is currently expanding its reach across the country.

Inspired by the rooftop fruit-and-vegetable gardens that are a fixture of urban life in Hage’s home country, Lufa Farms operates as a network of rooftop hydroponic greenhouses on the flat roofs of industrial buildings, warehouses and big-box retail complexes in Montréal and across the broader region. The vegetables cultivated inside, which are watered by a system of rainwater- and ice-melt collection from the greenhouse roofs, are then picked and assorted into weekly grocery baskets. 

Lufa Farms’ urban greenhouses not only reduce the distance between farm and table but have also activated parts of the existing urban fabric that have too long been dormant. Hage now operates an indoor farm and five greenhouses across the region, which serve about 35,000 customers every week, and has expanded deliveries to Ottawa. Lufa Farms’ success sends a strong signal that customers have a healthy appetite for this kind of urban agriculture – and that there’s ample room to grow.
lufa.com

Five days of fun at Salone del Mobile 2025

Have you ever wondered how beds, desks and chairs land in an 800-room hotel? Or where major furniture brands spot new talent? Or how the likes of Jasper Morrison and Marc Newson became household names? Or even what trends mass-market furniture firms might try to follow? The answers can be found in Milan, every April, when the city’s design week, headlined by the vast furniture trade fair Salone del Mobile, takes place as the most influential industry gathering in the world.

On the Sunday evening before the 2025 edition kicks off, Monocle finds itself at a party on the edge of the city’s Chinatown district. In the throng of people jostling for a spot outside the bar, a young New York-based designer is talking to the head of communications for a major Italian design firm, while a Seoul-based writer for an interiors magazine shares a drink with an Australian architect.

The party hints at the activity that will take place over the next five days: there will be plenty of business but also moments when the industry’s brightest talents will rub shoulders with established stars, laying the foundations for new collaborations. It’s the week that sets the agenda for what our built environments will look and feel like in the coming decades, and Monocle is there for the duration.

Monday: big brands
For an Italian city, Milan can be secretive, with closed-off courtyards framed by wrought-iron gates. But for the duration of this week, the Milanese throw caution to the wind. The city’s palazzi and cortile are taken over by design brands showing their latest work in the most dramatic settings: a multistorey building in Porta Monforte becomes a showroom for Milan- and New York-based design retailer Artemest; the cloisters of the Santa Maria degli Angeli church play host to Italian furniture powerhouse Flexform’s outdoor range. Neither is usually open to the public. The ambition is for these settings to underscore the ability of a chair, sofa or table to shift our emotional landscape. It’s a demonstration of how product and architecture come together to influence a space’s mood.

A case in point is Dedar’s showcase at the refurbished Torre Velasca, built in the 1950s by the BBPR architecture partnership. It’s a structure that defines the city’s skyline. And it’s here that the Italian textile firm is showing a new fabric collection featuring the abstract weaving patterns of German artist and Bauhaus master Anni Albers, produced in collaboration with the Josef & Anni Albers Foundation.

“Torre Velasca is a symbol of the city and it inspired the installation in terms of its genius loci,” says Raffaele Fabrizio, Dedar’s co-owner, as he points to the BBPR-designed furniture dotted across the space. His sister and fellow co-owner Caterina Fabrizio agrees. “It’s the perfect place to celebrate this series by Anni Albers,” she says. “We want to share the beauty of the fabrics and the beauty of Milan.” By combining Albers’ modernist work with the setting of the mid-century Torre Velasca, Dedar achieves a kind of Milanese Bauhaus effect, bringing art and design into contact with the everyday. Here, visitors to the exhibition take photos of the graphic and colourful fabrics as much as they do the city’s skyline, Duomo and all.

It’s proof that the showcases are as much about the products on display as the atmospheres created. No one knows this better than Emiliano Salci and Britt Moran, who co-founded Milan-based interiors firm Dimorestudio in 2003. Over the past decade the practice has hosted some dramatic showcases, including a rationalist retrospective in 2021 and art deco apartment installations. “For us, Milan Design Week is more than a fair, it’s a collective moment of reflection on contemporary living,” says Salci. “Spaces are no longer just to be seen – they are to be felt, experienced.” 

This year the duo have created a 33-piece collection of fabrics for Kyoto-based textile manufacturing company Hosoo. Additionally, under the guise of Dimoremilano, the studio’s homeware label, Salci and Moran staged a cinematic installation of furniture that they designed for luxury fashion brand Loro Piana. Through a corridor clad in red velvet, visitors are led to a 1970s-inspired apartment where a more sinister backstory is insinuated by plates left shattered on the ground, the sound of a bathtub running over and a ringing phone going unanswered. The duo explain that such an installation is part of the transformation of the city into what they call an open-air laboratory. “Design moves beyond function and aesthetics to become something deeper, more sensory, more narrative,” says Moran. “It’s an opportunity to redefine the relationship between individuals and the environments they occupy.”

Tuesday: fair play
Salone del Mobile was born in 1961 when a group of furniture entrepreneurs decided to extol the values of Italian design. Cut to this year, at the fair’s 63rd edition, and more than 300,000 visitors are drawn to the Rho Fiera. More than 2,100 exhibitors from 37 countries welcome architects, developers and buyers looking for the latest products with which to furnish their projects. It is, in short, a business behemoth. “The numbers prove it,” says Maria Porro, the fair’s president. “A study we conducted with Politecnico di Milano showed Salone’s enormous economic and cultural impact.” She’s referencing a report that revealed the fair earned €275m for Milan in 2024. “It generates work and stimulates global creative industries.”

Despite this impressive bottom line, attendance is down by about 70,000 from the record-breaking numbers of 2024 and there are some absences in this year’s line-up of exhibitors, most notably a trio of Italian manufacturing stalwarts: Cassina, Flexform and Molteni stayed in the city. But other brands still see it as essential and new players are joining them. “It is important for us to be here to launch our outdoor collection – a new product category – and Salone helps you to tap into new and different distribution channels,” says Massimiliano Tosetto, director of Vicenza-based Lodes, which is participating in the fair for the first time since a rebrand in 2020. “Salone gives you international reach that you don’t get elsewhere.”

But perhaps the main advantage of the fair is its density. Where else can you grab a casual five minutes to talk about a sofa with Italian architect and creative director Piero Lissoni? Or get to meet Marva Griffin, the godmother of emerging designers? Monocle spots her strolling through the stalls of SaloneSatellite, the section of the fair she founded to promote the work of designers under the age of 35. “We don’t charge designers to participate, and this is important,” says Griffin. “Many exhibitions ask young creatives to pay. Instead, we give them a platform because talent deserves to be seen.”

Wednesday: emerging talent
Wednesday begins in the early hours of the morning at the celebrated Bar Basso. It’s a networking hotspot made famous in the 1990s by the likes of the young Jasper Morrison, Marc Newson and Konstantin Grcic, who caroused and conducted business here over negronis.

So, some hours later, nursing a slight hangover, Monocle takes the opportunity to explore off-piste. A number of hybrid showcases here walk the line between miniature furniture fairs and collective exhibitions that are more about exploring potential rather than commercial deals (that can come later). Leading the pack this year are Deoron, Convey and Capsule Plaza. The latter was born from design annual Capsule, and its third outing this year brings together brands and designers that blur the lines between interiors, architecture, beauty and technology. 

“We created Capsule Plaza as a bridge between creative communities,” says Milan-based publisher and editor Alessio Ascari, who established the magazine and curates the plaza with Rotterdam-based architect Paul Cournet. “You can feel this in the curation. We have presentations from brands, institutions and designers from different fields.”

Significantly, the showcase pairs lesser-known names with established players to great effect: Nike with musician-designer Bill Kouligas and creative director Niklas Bildstein Zaar; fashion brand Stone Island with bespoke hi-fi firm Friendly Pressure. “It’s a place of discovery and for looking at where creativity is going,” says Ascari. “This year we explored the future of the home. There’s food, with Georg Jensen running a gelato shop, and beauty and bathroom with Humanrace and USM, which is using its products for the first time to make a bathroom. It’s about beauty, craft and innovation.”

Thursday: fashionable takes
Monocle begins the morning by making a beeline for the press line ahead of a queue that stretches more than 100 metres around a block in the Porta Genova district. We’re outside a nightclub-like space but nobody is here to dance. Instead, we’ve pulled up to see an exhibition of an exclusive new collaboration between the archive of Charlotte Perriand and French fashion house Saint Laurent.

Unlike the fashion world, the names behind the best sofas, chairs and glassware rarely adorn billboards or capture headlines. But the presence here of brands such as Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Armani, Loewe and Hermès, which all show their own furniture and homeware, suggests a changing narrative. The number of people prepared to queue for fashion-led showcases hints at the role luxury houses are playing in drawing new crowds. In line to see Saint Laurent’s Perriand-designed bookcase, coffee table, armchairs and room divider are not developers in suits nor architects dressed in black, but a fashionable set.

Fashion brands are also helping to broaden the design discourse. Prada, in partnership with Italian design firm FormaFantasma, leads the way. Every year during Milan Design Week the luxury fashion house eschews releasing a design product in favour of hosting Prada Frames – a series of conversations about topics that relate to the wider design ecosystem, now in its fourth edition. This year the talks explored themes of infrastructure, mobility and global distribution. “Talking about infrastructure is about understanding the world we live in,” FormaFantasma’s co-founder Simone Farresin tells Monocle aboard Gio Ponti and Giulio Minoletti’s recently restored 1950s Arlecchino train, where the Prada Frames panels are held. “If we don’t talk, it means being unaware of why electricity or water runs through our homes.”

But it’s not all one-way traffic. For Renzo Rosso, Italian entrepreneur and president of the OTB Group of labels that includes Diesel, Maison Margiela and Jil Sander, it’s the fashion world that could learn from Milan Design Week. “Salone del Mobile is the best because everybody gets involved, every single shop hosts an event,” he says. “We need to work to achieve something similar in fashion. If Milan Fashion Week had a more open mentality, we could be even better than Paris.”

Friday: joy ride
As Monocle prepares to hit the road, it becomes apparent that car manufacturers are also in hot pursuit of the design industry. In 2025, Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati has joined forces with design company Giorgetti to unveil new vehicle interiors and a collection of low-slung armchairs, coffee tables and sofas that echo the sleek silhouettes of cars. Elsewhere, German automaker Audi presented its latest models in a Piazza Quadrilatero pavilion designed by Dutch firm Studio Drift.

Making its Milan Design Week debut was British car maker Range Rover, which took over the Palazzo Belgioioso with an installation designed in collaboration with California-based Nuova. “Futurespective: Connected Worlds” offers small groups of people a time-bending journey to a car dealership in 1970 – the year the Range Rover was launched. Visitors are then guided through a door into the present, where the fifth and latest electric-hybrid iteration of the Range Rover is presented.

“We love the 1970s because it’s an approachable decade with plenty of positivity and great art direction,” says Enrico Pietra, co-founder of Nuova. “We then use a cinematographic approach to set the mood.” Will Verity, Range Rover’s brand design chief, agrees. “We wanted to take people completely out of the fair and put them in a space where they can have time to reflect, which is also a reference to the calmness of moving through the world in a Range Rover,” he says. “For something like Milan Design Week, you can dial a concept up to 11.” What could have felt like a presentation at risk of choking on nostalgia, instead evokes a mood that is resolutely playful.

This lightness of being has been a common thread at this year’s Milan Design Week. The streets of Brera, the city’s bona fide design neighbourhood, brimmed with people. Brands prioritised creating effective showcases within architecturally significant spots. Exciting collaborations nurtured new talent and unexpected industry adjacencies, from vehicles to fashion, complementing the business-like nature of the fair. Provocation and unease were kept to a minimum despite the implications of US tariffs and talks of a luxury slowdown. And it was all toasted at late-night watering holes across the city.

Fine lines: Our picks of things to buy from Salone del Mobile

Developers, architects, buyers and gallerists descend on Milan Design Week to revel in novelty. All are on a mission to find the perfect chairs, tables, sofas and lamps to furnish their projects and showrooms with. Here’s our pick of the bunch.

Tech corner: Four innovative releases to buy now

1.
Fujifilm GFX100RF

The latest release from Fujifilm builds on the classic design of its hugely popular X100VI camera. The larger, medium-format 102-megapixel sensor on this camera produces remarkably detailed images, while the 28mm-equivalent fixed lens is suitable for both landscape and close-up shots.
fujifilm.com

2.
Bowers & Wilkins PX7 S3

The latest over-ear headphones from UK audio brand Bowers & Wilkins are the PX7 S3. The sound is as clear as ever, the noise-cancelling feature is exceptional and, unlike some models with swipe controls, these headphones have reassuringly returned to physical buttons. 
bowerswilkins.com

3.
Google Pixel 9a

Every year, Google releases a phone that is a more affordable version of the previous autumn’s flagship. The Pixel 9a is an all-new design and makes use of Google’s many AI features. It also has a decent battery life and a fast processor, and comes in colour tones ranging from quiet to bright.
store.google.com

4.
Ampler Nova Pro

Estonian brand Ampler makes exceptional e-bikes that cleverly hide the battery inside the frame. The ride on its new model is smooth and supportive, with plenty of power to help you glide uphill. It has a USB-C charging port, so that you can use a laptop charger to charge the bike.
amplerbikes.com

Illustrator: Hao-Yun.

Design agenda: Souvenir wallpaper, green urbanism in Abu Dhabi and a Q&A with JJ Martin

Shades of green
UAE

With an arid climate and an average annual temperature of about 29C, Abu Dhabi isn’t known for its greenery. But there has been a blossoming of leafy recreational spaces in the city courtesy of Danish architecture and design firm SLA’s work on 104 new neighbourhood parks. Scattered across Abu Dhabi’s Khalifa City, Mohamed Bin Zayed City, Al Ain and Shakhbout suburbs, 74 hectares of sandy ground have been converted into places for exercise, sports, nature experiences, socialising or a simple stroll. “The parks create a sensuous and hyper­local framework for Abu Dhabi’s inhabitants and their social lives,” says Rasmus Astrup, design principal and partner at SLA. The project builds on the six parks that were completed in 2023 (and won one of Monocle’s Design Awards).

The project put the experiences of residents front and centre. “Our aim was to introduce a new way of designing liveable and social communities in Abu Dhabi,” says Astrup. Varying in size from pocket park to plaza, the spaces include multi-use sports courts, dog-friendly areas and forested zones. SLA’s ambition for leafy coverage in challenging conditions is part of what makes the parks a benchmark in the region. “We want to keep pushing the boundaries of landscape architecture in the Middle East and beyond,” says Astrup. “We can address the region’s climate challenges, from drought and heat to thunderstorms and carbon emissions, creating urban spaces that improve quality of life for all.”
sla.dk

Q&A
JJ Martin
La Double J

JJ Martin is the California-born, Milan-based founder of homeware brand La Double J. This year, Martin unveiled a new five-storey headquarters in the Navigli area of Milan. Here, she tells us more.

Tell us about your Milan HQ.
In the past 10 years my company has gone through a few iterations, starting as a vintage seller and documenting the unique style of Italy. Then we moved into ready-to-wear and [ended up in] homeware. So the company has grown and it’s the first time that we’ve come together in one space with all of our employees, a proper showroom, our archives, a photo studio and a rooftop deck dedicated to activities for our community. We’re trying to make this more than a commercial enterprise. It comes from the heart and it’s something that we really believe in. 

Which markets are you looking to expand into?
Despite the tariffs I still believe in the US. We understand that Asia doesn’t represent the growth opportunity that it once did and Europe remains sluggish. The tariffs are a big hit but at the same time it’s a good time to be a “Made in Italy” brand, rather than something that’s pretending to be Italian but actually made in China. We’ll raise prices a little but we have the margins to do so because our prices are fair to begin with. We’re honest about the quality and the price. We’ve opened in Palm Beach and are opening in Dallas in September. Our shop in Los Angeles burnt down so we’re looking for a new one, as well as a place in New York.

What’s your advice for people looking to start a design business?
Find your authentic imprint. There’s so much product and so many services out there. You have to do something that will strike a chord and be different to what everyone else is doing. To do that, you need to look inwards, not outwards. What is it that gets you excited and jazzed up? That’s your unique spark, which needs to infiltrate the business. Otherwise, it won’t have a superpower effect. Every successful entrepreneur I have met is obsessed with their own unique, weird thing. It needs to come from you, not market research.
ladoublej.com

Wander walls
USA

What to do with souvenirs from your travels? Do you actually use your teapot from Japan when you want a hot brew or display that vase from Murano on a shelf? For Stephen Burks and Malika Leiper, the duo leading US design practice Stephen Burks Man Made, the answer was to turn them into a decorative wall covering. Working with Calico Wallpaper, the duo transposed their knick-knacks from their cross-continental travels into a 2D wallpaper design that they called Particulaire.

“We started by looking around our home and asking ourselves, ‘What do we decorate the rooms with?’” says Burks. “The answer was objects from our travels. They tell a story both about us and the cultures that we have interacted with.” 

Working with the wallpaper firm, which is based in Upstate New York, the creative duo used photographed renderings of their personal mementoes to create a graphic pattern that puts objects from across the globe into conversation while bringing plenty of personality to a room. “The gorilla image is from a young man who we met in Rwanda carving wooden figures. But we also took inspiration from Japan, Senegal, the Dominican Republic and even Brooklyn,” says Burks of the wallpaper. “Our travels are a way for us to get closer to acts of making that involve different techniques and materials,” adds Leiper.

To present the project the two firms created a bespoke mural at the Istituto dei Ciechi in Milan during the city’s recent design week. Since the launch, the Particulaire wallpaper has been made available in 10 colourways ranging from neutral hues to a maroon and sage green. If you find yourself gazing at an unused teapot or vase, perhaps try reaching out to Calico Wallpaper: they might just be the foundation for another unique collection of wallpaper.
stephenburksmanmade.com; calicowallpaper.com

Outside the box
Italy

Can upcycling be made to feel sophisticated? Japanese design powerhouse Muji thinks so. During Milan Design Week it presented its Manifesto House – a modular home in the city’s Brera neighbourhood. Designed by Paris-based Studio 5.5, the six-part building (entrance, studio, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and garden) was made from materials that are both visually appealing and eco-friendly: plywood for the structure; corrugated steel for the roof and recycled textiles for insulation. 

The ambition? To show a prototype for cities struggling with housing shortages. The concept house made clever use of limited interior space, while the roof was slanted to collect rainwater to irrigate the edible plants lining the garden module’s trellises. Studio 5.5 also created accessories, 12 of which were made from repurposed Muji products: a coat rack assembled from a bin lid and two soap-pump bottles; or a birdhouse made using a steel bookend and wooden drawer. Assembly instructions could be found on Muji’s website, enabling everyone to create their own objects from preloved items. “It’s a reminder that, rather than extracting new materials, we can create new things from existing ones,” says Studio 5.5’s co-founder Claire Renard.

While the project is conceptual, the designers are considering commercial possibilities. “It’s inexpensive, small and shows how we can live responsibly and happily,” says Jean-Sébastien Blanc, another Studio 5.5 co-founder.
muji.eu; 5-5.paris

Tunnel vision
Australia

Vipp, which rose to fame with its pedal-bin design, built its first guesthouse in 2014 to demonstrate how its products can transform and enhance a home. Its latest venture, Vipp Tunnel, is a structure in Australia that reveals its ability to enhance the landscape too. Perched on a hill on Bruny Island, off the island of Tasmania, the tunnel-like form is built to the design of Hobart-based studio Room11.

The brutalist-inspired structure is defined by expansive walls of glass and subtly recessed steel doors, which frame views of the sea and mountains. Natural light streams in through carefully placed lightwells, creating an airy, bright atmosphere. An atrium courtyard separates the main living areas from the principal bedroom, while a glazed door at the end of the structure frames a terrace, which is suspended above the rugged terrain. 

It’s a carefully considered composition that puts guests at the heart of the landscape. “The dramatically elongated proportions of the structure respond to the landscape by purposely framing the water with a broad expanse of glass,” says Thomas Bailey, director of Room11. “The user finds themselves in the extraordinary, natural landscape of Tasmania’s Bruny Island.”
vipp.com

Affairs agenda: Two new rail lines in Tunis, Norway’s latest battle tank procurement and European ammunition production

Defence: Europe
Ticking time bomb

During the years of relative peace that followed the end of the Cold War, Europe’s ammunition stockpiles atrophied. When the continent scrambled to send materiel to Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, it found that its shelves were almost bare. Moscow is now churning out almost three million artillery shells annually, about three times the combined output of Europe and the US. But Europe’s problem runs deeper than output. The continent manufactures almost no TNT, a widely used component of high-grade military explosives. One of the few domestic producers, Poland’s Nitro-Chem, is prioritising the country’s own armed forces, which are expanding, as well as highly lucrative international orders, such as one signed to supply the US military between 2027 and 2029.

Other continental TNT makers are stepping up. In Sweden, arms producer Swebal is setting up a TNT plant west of Stockholm with the stated aim of helping to boost Nato’s resilience. Meanwhile, in Finland, Forcit is investing more than €200m in a TNT facility on the country’s west coast. Finland’s defence minister, Antti Hakkanen, calls the project is of “major importance for increasing European ammunition production” and key to maintaining support for Ukraine.

Necessary for this push is the €150bn in loans proposed by the European Commission (EC) as part of the ReArm Europe/Readiness 2030 initiative presented in March, which offers up to €800bn in defence spending. In April, the European Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously opposed the EC’s attempt to fast-track the plan without full parliamentary oversight. But can Brussels afford to take its time, when securing components such as tnt is essential to providing the weaponry that Europe needs to stay secure? If production doesn’t increase, the continent’s rearmament plan could blow up in its face.

In the basket
Bang for your buck

In the basket: 24 K9 Thunder self-propelled howitzers
Who’s buying: Norway
Who’s selling: South Korea
Price: €470m
Estimated delivery date: 2026 or 2027

This is a repeat purchase for Norway, which previously took delivery of 28 K9s and 14 K10 ammunition resupply vehicles to keep their barrels fed with 155mm shells. As Europe has set about rearming, the K9 has done excellent business for South Korean company Hanwha Aerospace. Other customers include Estonia, Finland, Poland and Romania. There is little doubt about the K9’s purpose for Norway: to deter Russia from getting any funny ideas about the High North land border that the two countries share. The K9 has tremendous mobility and has already proven itself in cold conditions; India’s army has deployed them in the freezing heights of Ladakh on the Chinese border. And they work where it counts too: Ukraine has used Polish-supplied Krab howitzers, which feature a K9 chassis and a 52-calibre gun made by bae Systems.

Politics: Athens
Q&A

Haris Doukas
Mayor of Athens

When Haris Doukas was picked as centre-left party Pasok’s candidate for Athens’ 2023 mayoral election, he was a political unknown. The 45-year-old won on an ecological platform centred on lowering temperatures in the city. Monocle sat down with Doukas at the Mipim property fair.

How is your plan to make Athens cooler progressing?
When I was running for mayor, I said that I would try to reduce the city’s temperature by 5c within five years. That went viral. I pointed out two things that we could do immediately: plant trees and use new materials for roads. We’re engaging people [with these plans].

How big a problem is overtourism? 
We’re struggling. We are now Greece’s number-one destination. We carried out a study that identified neighbourhoods that were oversaturated with tourists and stopped Airbnb in those areas. We also stopped extra bonuses for new apartments and extra square metres for hotels that are meant to be green hotels. 

How are you creating more affordable housing? 
We’re running two programmes: one with subsidies for families and young people, and another with subsidised rents. We’d like to have the opportunity and capacity to build new houses. So we need regulation and money.

Transport: Tunis
Inside lines

In recent years, Tunis has opened two new rail lines intended to reduce commuting times between the periphery and the centre. The city’s Réseau Ferroviaire Rapide (RFR) network now boasts 28 Hyundai Rotem electric trains, the result of a project that kicked off in the early 2000s with support from international lenders. These included the EU and the Agence Française de Développement, plus private companies such as Germany’s Siemens and French engineering firm Systra.

The network has proved extremely popular with Tunisois. Last year, RFR’s Line E alone carried seven million passengers in a city with a population of about 700,000. “This rail network is a concrete and effective solution to desaturate the Tunisian capital and is a new reference point for the Maghreb region,” said Faiçal Chaabane, Systra’s senior vice-president for Egypt and North Africa. The latest service to open is Line D, which upon completion will be 19km and connect settlements northwest of Tunis, such as Le Bardo and Gobâa, with the capital. Travelling from the latter now takes just 15 minutes, compared to at least an hour before the new train. On day one, 10,000 passengers got on board.

The next stop for the RFR will be Lines C and F, which will expand the network to about 85km, further linking the major population centres on Tunis’s outskirts to the city centre. If all goes well with the project’s financing, the works should be completed in 2027. Full steam ahead.

Cultural roundup: Mubi moves into book publishing, a petrol station turned gallery in Germany and a Q&A with Martin Bourboulon

Music: Singapore
Loud and proud

Singaporean DJ and entrepreneur Kavan Spruyt found his calling in Berlin. While working for Ostgut Booking, the agency that secures resident artists for the city’s legendary nightclub Berghain, he noticed a lack of diversity in the global electronic-music scene. “There were barely any people of colour on the festival bills,” he tells Monocle.

Spruyt decided to step up as an advocate for Southeast Asia’s electro musicians and opened Rasa in Singapore’s city centre. The 6,000 sq ft space comprises a dance floor, a lounge and a cocktail bar. “I saw the need for a brand that syncs with our identity and represents Southeast Asia to the rest of the world,” says Spruyt. To create a venue that’s worthy of his ambitions, he brought in Berlin-based architecture firm Studio Karhard – Berghain’s masterminds – to design the space. The top-notch fit-out includes Kvadrat acoustic curtains and speakers from TPI Sound that are hand-assembled in the UK.

Two years in the making, Rasa finally opened its doors earlier this year. The stage has been set for Southeast Asian acts to showcase their region’s ever-evolving sound. Artists are increasingly putting cultural inflections into their music, from Thai percussion instruments in producer Sunju Hargun’s tracks to the tropical tinkles in the Midnight Runners’ Indonesian disco. “We know all the rules of the trade and have since learnt how to break them,” says Spruyt.
rasaspace.com

Media: Norway
In safe hands

Trine Eilertsen on how Norway’s media has retained the public’s trust.

Across much of the Western world, confidence in editorial media is declining – but not in the Nordics. In terms of trust, Norway’s media is among the highest-ranked worldwide; at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when it fell elsewhere, we saw a significant rise. We’re a small society with low inequality, making our country a good breeding ground for this kind of trust. But are there lessons from Norway that could help other nations to increase positive attitudes to their own media?

Politicians here view local media as a useful arena for disseminating information and increasing voter engagement. This understanding of its value ensures that public money – about the salary of one journalist per paper every year – is given to local media in areas too small to be able to support a full newsroom. As in other countries, the consolidation of individual brands into larger groups has saved many Norwegian news outlets. While consolidation might threaten the freedom of a newsroom elsewhere, the editor in chief’s independence is stated in Norwegian law. Decisions about content lie with the editor and the editor alone. Authorities, owners or other forces can’t influence what we publish.

We were also early adopters of digital technology. This has enabled us to develop a more direct relationship with our audience. Our readers tend to come straight to our website, rather than through social media, which makes us less affected by platforms’ algorithms. Meanwhile, paid online subscriptions are popular; indeed, Norway’s audience has the world’s highest propensity to pay for news.

All serious Norwegian editors abide by the national press’s code of conduct and anyone can make a complaint to the ethics commission. The members of the latter are other editors and ordinary people who discuss whether the code has been broken. If it has, editors are obliged to publish a correction. Like every media outlet, we still have to fight for our audience but these are some of the reasons why, when readers come to us, they can rely on what we say.

Eilertsen is the editor in chief of ‘Aftenposten’, Norway’s leading printed newspaper in
terms of circulation.

Publishing: UK
Picture perfect

Fresh from a banner year in which Coralie Fargeat’s satire The Substance took the world by storm, London-based streaming platform, production company and film distributor Mubi is launching its latest venture: a publishing arm focusing on books about cinema and the visual arts.

Mubi Editions’ first release, Read Frame Type Film, is a collaboration between film curator Enrico Camporesi, graphic-design historian Catherine de Smet and designer Philippe Millot. Drawing from a research project initiated at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, it explores the affinity between film and typography. 

“We are challenging ourselves to do something different and surprising for the audience,” says Daniel Kasman, Mubi’s vice-president of editorial content. “That means looking for the unexpected, for what is unusual and delightful. It’s hard to do but the surprise is the goal.”

‘Read Frame Type Film’ is published on 22 May.

Television: France
Q&A

Feast for the eyes
Martin Bourboulon, director

Marie-Antoine Carême was arguably the world’s first celebrity chef: in the 19th century he served European royalty and some of the leading politicians of his era. Carême, a new drama on Apple TV1, brings his story to life. Its director, Martin Bourboulon, tells us about putting pâtisserie front and centre, and showing off Paris’s beauty.

Why is Marie-Antoine Carême a good subject for a TV drama?
I wanted to bring a modern vision to his story but was also excited to work on a show with a range of different themes: politics, food and sex. Carême is a chef but also a spy. It’s a French show for a global audience.

How did you approach directing the kitchen scenes?
You have to find a good rhythm between the plot and those precious moments in the kitchen. When we were showing Carême making the dishes, we took our time with a lot of close-ups.

Paris is almost a character in the show. How crucial was it to immerse viewers in the city?
It was important for us to show Paris, especially with wide shots, because it’s so recognisable to an international audience. But it was difficult because it’s 2025 and our story took place two centuries ago. In some of the beautiful wide shots, if the camera had turned a little to the left, the vision of an old Paris would have been spoiled.

Art: Germany
Life’s a gas

Just a stone’s throw from the Swiss Galerie Judin, which moved from Zürich to Berlin’s Potsdamer Strasse in 2008, is its striking new collaboration with the US-founded Pace Gallery. “It’s an urban oasis,” says Pay Matthis Karstens, co-owner of Galerie Judin.

The exhibition space, café and bookshop is based in a converted 1950s petrol station in the buzzy Schöneberg district. Buildings of this kind were once a common sight across Berlin but many have fallen into disuse and disrepair. Indeed, the site that was chosen for this project was abandoned in 1986 but was renovated 20 years later; it served as an architect’s home and then a museum until late last year. Now, Pace Gallery and Galerie Judin are its proud custodians and the floor-to-ceiling windows that once looked out at fuel pumps and bmw Isettas instead frame a peaceful courtyard.

“It has a certain meditative feeling,” says Karstens. “You have the sounds of chirping birds and the trickle of water. It’s not that the city totally disappears but it creates moments of calm.”

The garden is framed by tall stalks of bamboo and a water feature putters in the centre. Inside the old filling station that used to sell petrol and cigarettes, Pace and Judin will take turns organising exhibitions. The mélange of businesses at this new spot encourages Berliners to slow down and take time to absorb the art – to sit, ponder and discuss what they have seen. It’s much more rewarding than just getting your fill and zooming off.

The exhibition space opened to the public in May. For more details about what’s on, visit: pacegallery.com and galeriejudin.com

Music: New Zealand
Chaos theory

On his new album, Te Whare Tiwekaweka, Marlon Williams sings in a language that he can’t quite speak. “In 2019 I had a melody floating around my head that I couldn’t shake,” he tells Monocle. “It suddenly became clear that it was a Maori melody – like the songs from my childhood.”

Williams’ parents are from two Maori tribes. Though the musician went to a Maori language school at the age of five, he later stopped using the language. “My language skills are limited,” he says. “But I muddled my way through, adding lyrics, and the song was so pleasant to sing that it gave me the gumption to commit a whole record to the Maori language.”

The project was inspired by Williams’ emotional homecoming after touring his 2022 album, My Boy. “When I came home I saw a charcoal drawing at my mother’s house depicting
a tall, slender man in a top hat returning to a villa at night,” he says. “This man is approaching a ladder and carrying a suitcase full of money – British sterling. I identified strongly with the image of this rakish man coming home, returning with a bag of foreign currency. I asked my mother about the drawing and she said, ‘I was pregnant with you when I drew this.’ It immediately became a central part of the record.” The image is now the cover art for TeWhare Tiwekaweka. 

The album’s title comes from a Maori proverb that roughly translates as “messy house”. “I’m a bit of a messy person on the most fundamental level,” says Williams. “For me, it really speaks to the seed of creation and how new things come out of chaos. Nothing interesting ever comes out of something clean.”

‘Te Whare Tiwekaweka’ is out now.