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CONTENTS BUSINESS 18 INVESTMENT DESTINATION

36 SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

20 REAL ESTATE

ENTREPRENEUR 38 The Swedish company making halal

The Czech Republic’s world-class infrastructure takes shape

The LA property developer selling America’s most expensive home

24 PROFILE

British architect Norman Foster thinks he is yet to peak

28 COVER

It’s official: Emma Stone has made it in Hollywood

32 PROFILE

The director of award-winning short The White Helmets

34 FAMILY BUSINESS

A visit to Portuguese luxury soap manufacturer Claus Porto

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Emirati Tala Badri teaches music to underprivileged children

non-alcoholic wines

52 PRIVATE AVIATION

GI Aviation are making flying private cheaper

54 GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

Hungary to close their residency bond programme

40 A former investment banker sets up a

ART & DESIGN 56 Art Dubai fair director Myrna Ayad’s time

42 SOCIAL BUSINESS

58 The young art patrons waving the flag for

classic car trade business in Dubai

NOW Money throws a financial lifeline to low-income GCC migrant workers

44 ENTREPRENEUR

Elon Musk is never short of a lift

46 PHILANTHROPY

is now

the UAE’s art community

60 Salma Shaheem is your stockbroker – for art 62 The design company that’s using tech to preserve history

A ballet school in the heart of a Kenyan slum

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LIFESTYLE 86

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64 GADGETS

76 HOTELS

87 SPA

DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR 80 Why nomadism is the basis of travel

88 LITTLE BLACK BOOK

accessories firm Montroi

Artist Gildo Medina knows all the coolest spots to visit in Mexico City

The supercars to watch out for at the Geneva Motor Show

82 Lasvit’s ingenious lighting solutions

90 TRAVEL

70 DESIGN

Gemfields controls the world’s biggest ruby mine in Mozambique

This month’s must-have gadgets and gizmos

66 YACHTS

The Arcadia Sherpa introduces a new concept of sports flying bridge

68 AUTO

Outdoor furniture that finds its place under the sun

72 DINING

Dubai’s newest dining spots

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The luxury adventure retreats trending right now

84 HANDMADE

86 FRAGRANCES

Don’t just look the part – smell it too.

Men-only grooming company 1847 opens a new VIP room in Dubai

Skip Rio and São Paulo and head straight to Trancoso instead

94 FASHION

Stone is the colour of the season

96 HOROLOGY

The world’s finest timepieces unveiled this year

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EDITOR’S LETTER GLOBAL CITIZEN EDITOR IN CHIEF Natasha Tourish - nt@global-citizen.com DIGITAL EDITOR Varun Godinho - vg@global-citizen.com LIFESTYLE EDITOR Nausheen Noor - nn@global-citizen.com ART DIRECTOR Omid Khadem - ok@global-citizen.com FINANCE MANAGER finance@reachmedia.ae CONTRIBUTORS Finbarr Toesland, Amanda Fisher, Georgina Wilson-Powell, Aubrey Day, Ivan Carvalho PRINTED BY Masar Printing and Publishing

arch 8th marks International Women’s Day, but for most women it will be a day like any other day. The campaign typically celebrates women's rights worldwide. But this year, in the face of a Trump administration that is chipping away at women's rights, there will be a women's general strike instead, dubbed A Day Without A Woman.

Protests are planned across 30 countries, but mainly in cities in the US to show their disdain for the Trump administration’s policies and to push for women’s equality. The idea is to demonstrate what it would be like to live without women in the workplace and without women spending in our stores.

(Women are being encouraged to shun their local supermarket in favour of smaller women-owned stores.) But as many have already pointed out, March 8th won’t be a day for all women this year, rather it's for those women who can afford to skip work, have someone else look after their kids and shop somewhere that may be more expensive and farther away. Surely, the point of this day is to be inclusive and not only for the privileged few.

This echoes our own struggle: to ensure we are featuring not only the privileged few but the ordinary Global Citizen too. The volunteers of The White Helmets exemplify this best. Whilst we couldn't speak to the volunteers ahead of the documentary's Oscar win because most of them remained in Syria to work, and those who planned to travel had their visas denied, we were able to speak to the director and producer in LA who aptly described them as “the finest humanitarians of our generation”. Read their remarkable story on page 32.

Our cover star, Emma Stone, is also noteworthy. She grew up in the desert of Arizona, but her passion and undeterred ambition to become an actress from a young age culminated in her persuading her parents to move to Hollywood with her so she could audition. And at the 89th Academy Awards in February she officially proved that she made it. Stone relives her journey and talks about her new movie, Battle of the Sexes, in which she plays the iconic tennis player Billie Jean King.

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www.global-citizen.com www.issuu.com/global-citizen www.facebook.com/GlobalCitizenMag www.instagram.com/GlobalCitizenMagazine MEDIA REPRESENTATIVE Fierce International Dubai Internet City Business Central Tower A - Office 2803 T: +971 4 421 5455 - F: +971 4 421 0208 tarek@fierce-international.com

REACH MEDIA FZ LLC CHAIRMAN Armand Arton CO-FOUNDER Armand Peponnet ADVERTISING sales@reachmedia.ae SUBSCRIPTION subscription@reachmedia.ae Dubai Media City, PO Box 215381, Dubai, UAE T: +971 4 421 2770 - Email: info@reachmedia.ae Copyright 2016 Reach Media. All rights reserved.

Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the permission of Reach Media.

Where opinion is expressed it is that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the editorial views of the publisher or Global Citizen.

All information in Global Citizen is checked and verified to the best of the publisher’s ability, however the publisher cannot be held responsible for any mistake or omission enclosed in the publication.

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CONTRIBUTORS

Finbarr Toesland

Amanda Fisher

is a London-based journalist who specialises in technology, luxury and business. Finbarr regularly writes for a range of international media outlets, including The Times, Financial Times publications, Africa Business and The European.

is a roving freelance journalist from New Zealand currently based in Kosovo. She previously worked at the Philippine Star and Radio New Zealand before taking up a post as special correspondent at the Khaleej Times in Dubai.

Georgina Wilson-Powell

Aubrey Day

Ivan Carvalho

is a travel journalist and editor living in London. She contributes to the Times, the Daily Telegraph, Conde Nast Traveller, Monocle and Gulf News. In this issue, she takes us to Vietnam to sample its laidback style.

is a British film journalist and screenwriter currently based in Los Angeles. A former editor at both Empire and Total Film, he has contributed to numerous magazines and newspapers, including The Sunday Times and GQ. He has also worked for the BBC and CNN.

is the Milan correspondent for Monocle magazine, covering a range of topics from politics to business. A native of California, he previously wrote for Wired, Domus and the International Herald Tribune.

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Image courtesy of Getty Images

British artist Banksy will open the Walled Off hotel on March 20th in Bethlehem in the hope of bringing Israeli tourists to the West Bank. Rooms are decorated with the artist's work, here an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian protester thump each other with pillows, the feathers fluttering down towards the real pillows of the bed below.

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GLOBETROTTER MARCH

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Geneva Motor Show Geneva, Switzerland

Baselworld Basel, Switzerland

It is the single most important annual car exhibition with all the major manufacturers from Lamborghini to JLR and Ferrari to McLaren descending on the Palexpo to display their latest concepts and launch new models.

Expect an overdose of supercar concepts this year.

The world’s largest luxury watch fair is coming to check into the Messeplatz in Basel, Switzerland. Heavy hitters from the Swatch and LVMH group will go head-to-head with indie watchmakers that will be debuting this year’s novelties.

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Dubai World Cup Dubai, UAE

US Masters Georgia, USA

Perhaps the most glamorous event on the city’s social calendar, the $30 million race day is a major draw for equestrian lovers worldwide. The thoroughbred horse race will be held at the Meydan racecourse with royalty and celebrities in attendance.

The biggest names in golf will descend upon the Augusta National Golf Club to compete for the coveted green jacket. The Masters is one of the four major annual championships in the professional golf calendar and so winning this tournament is a fair indicator of who will be at the top of their game for the rest of the year.

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3 0 APR Shanghai International Luxury Lifestyle Show Shanghai, China

Over 200 luxury companies from the auto, watches, jewellery, art and hospitality verticals, among many others, participate in this exhibition that focuses on the lucrative Chinese market.

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INVESTMENT DESTINATION

THE LANGUAGE OF INVESTMENT The Czech Republic’s business landscape is transforming as its automotive industry flourishes while plans to construct the EU’s first hyperloop are set in motion

BY AMANDA FISHER

here is a Czech saying that runs something along the lines of, 'As long as a language lives, the people will not perish.'

That speaks volumes about the citizens of this fledgling country, whose territory has been part of countless different countries and empires over the centuries, but which only came into existence in its current form in 1993; the Czech language, on the other hand, was first recorded in the 12th century.

It is a waiting game that has paid off for the ten million Czech people, who spent 41 years as a communist nation – then called Czechoslavakia. That ended in 1989 after a peaceful Velvet Revolution, two years before the Soviet Union collapsed. The country that split from Slovakia has emerged as one of the most prosperous Eastern European nations and was the first postcommunist country to receive a credit rating by international credit institutions.

Today, the Czech Republic has the lowest recorded rate of unemployment in the European Union at 3.5 per cent, surpassing even Germany; it also has one of the lowest poverty levels in Europe and ranked 27th, just one spot behind the UAE, in the World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business rankings, which rates countries on their ease of doing business.

But the country’s stock performance has been poor, according to global investment firm Franklin Templeton’s executive chairman of the Emerging Markets Group Dr Mark Mobius.

“Over a one-year period, the Czech Republic has been among the lowest performers with a market that has essentially been flat, while Russia, Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria have had positive returns. The record over a three- and fiveyear period has not been much better.”

There are other difficulties afoot in the EU. There is an unprecedented wave of migrants that are causing strain on

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) plan to build pods that will travel on a train-type loop at speeds rivaling airplanes in the Czech Republic

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infrastructure and economies, while the impending departure of Britain from the European Union is causing hand-wringing over potential economic fallout.

The former Czech ambassador to the UK, Pavel Seifter, wrote just a few months ago in The Guardian newspaper that Brexit could trigger a ‘Breakit’ of the European Union altogether, with any power shift to xenophobic nationalists likely to leave the region in freefall.

But Mobius actually sees the departure as something that could be good for business. “Brexit should actually strengthen the unity and stability of the EU,” he says.

The UK has long been the “odd man out” in the EU, and Brexit could actually enhance cohesion.

While a chorus of analysts have speculated on the prospect of various other European nations following suit, including a potential ‘Czexit’, the Czech investment authority Czech Invest pours doubt on this too. Spokesperson Petra Menclova says, in fact, the contrary is true: “The Czech Republic has long been politically and economically stable with a pro-EU policy.”

That, she says, is unlikely to change. And the UK’s loss is the Czech Republic’s gain. “We are now registering interest from British investors and other foreign investors that had previously invested in the UK about relocating to the Czech Republic.”

Menclova says investors are seeing the country as an “ideal destination” from which to enter the European market.

“The country has a great location right in the middle of Europe, with a direct connection to the EU’s biggest market, Germany.”

Menclova says the country has a “high-quality workforce for a lower cost” than elsewhere in Europe, with statistics showing that almost 100,000 students graduate from Czech universities every year­— a significant proportion of whom are engineers.

INVESTMENT DESTINATION

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Prague, the Czech Republic's capital city

And here is a clue to one of the HTT chairman and co-founder, country’s strongest investment sectors.

Bibop Gresta, says the Czech Republic “The country has a great The home of car manufacturer Škoda is an important strategic country, being location right in the middle and a base for many other transport the most developed in the group of of Europe, with a direct companies, including the French so-called Visegrad Four nations, aircraft company Latecoere that which comprises Slovakia, Poland and connection to the EU’s biggest produces parts for Boeing and Airbus, Hungary – which taken together, have market, Germany” the Czech Republic has one of the the 12th largest economy in the world. highest concentrations of automotiveThe project was only announced in related manufacturing and design January, and a six-month feasibility activity in the world, according to Czech Invest. “Companies study will be done prior to any construction, which would with investments with higher added value, such as firms focusing likely take about three years once work starts, but Gresta sees the link as a perfect fit for the tech-savvy region. on the aerospace industry, have found a haven here,” she says.

Mobius agrees, citing the country’s “long history” in the field.

Meanwhile, Fraklin Templeton’s Mobius also sees an “The transportation or automotive industry in particular is opportunity in consumer-oriented stock market options for a good industry in the Czech Republic because of the large potential investors, given the fact the country has a higher per number of skilled machinists and other workers engaged in capita income on average than other similar European countries machine and machine parts production.” and a good consumer market due to its low unemployment So it’s not altogether surprising that another company rate – making it a stable economy. innovating in transport has recently announced plans to plant “For foreign investors holding US Dollars there is a good roots in the Czech Repubilc. Hyperloop Transportation opportunity to purchase Czech Republic stocks since the Technologies (HTT) is a new-gen tech firm that used crowd koruna has fallen dramatically against the USD since 2013, collaboration to source both funding and expertise to develop going from 19 [korunas] to about 25 [korunas].” its hyperloop; pods that will travel on a train-type loop at speeds In an age of globalisation, the language of trade and investment rivalling airplanes – fuelled by alternative energy. is certainly a tongue that Czechs are increasingly speaking; if In what could be a very exciting development for Europe, their proverb is anything to go by, this should ensure the country one of the initial planned hyperloops will run between the and her people do not perish. second-largest Czech city of Brno and Slovakia.

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MONEY MAGNET GC speaks to LA-based property tycoon Bruce Makowsky who recently listed a $250 million property – the most expensive home ever listed – for sale in America t the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the snowed-in Davos earlier this year, Oxfam delivered a chilling report. It stated that the world’s eight richest billionaires, many of whom were present at that summit, had a combined wealth equal to 50 per cent of the world’s population.

While that might make many balk at the economic inequality in distribution of wealth, others like handbag-maker-turnedreal-estate-tycoon Bruce Makowsky sniff opportunity. The LA-based developer builds homes for billionaires. In January, he listed the 924 Bel Air Road mansion for a price tag of $250 million, making it the most expensive home ever listed for sale in America.

“If you look at the amount of wealth that has been generated in the last 10 years, it is unsurpassed. There are more billionaires every single year, and every billionaire has more money than they had the year before,” says Makowsky from his office in LA. It’s easy enough to picture a million-dollar pad, but what does a $250 million home look like? Predictably, it’s sprawling across 38,000 square feet, has 12 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms, five bars, three kitchens, a spa, a mini golf course and a gym. The house comes with a full-time staff of seven, including a chef, a fitness instructor, house manager and security, all of whose

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salary has been paid for by Makowsky for the next two years.

There are two fully stocked champagne and wine cellars as well as a full-length bowling alley. “We have some of the craziest entertainment you can ever get,” says Makowsky in reference to the 40-seater Dolby Atmos indoor theatre and the 18-footwide hydraulic screen that alone cost $2 million and rises from the edge of the 85-foot infinity pool.

But it’s the accessories that add serious value to the property.

There’s a helicopter on the roof that comes with the house, as well as a $30 million car collection comprising brand-new and classic cars that will also come with the house. These include the $2.5 million Pagani Huayra, a Bugatti Veyron special edition that’s worth over $3.5 million, and a couple of vintage cars including a 1936 Mercedes 540K valued at nearly $15 million.

Makowsky wasn’t always in the real estate business. He spent much of his career in fashion, which he believes he excelled in. “The women’s fashion business is really exciting. I was in it for over 25 years, designing everything from jewellery to handbags to footwear. It was wildly exciting to build three big accessory companies, and women loved to wear the things my team designed,” says Makowsky.

The transition to developer happened less than a decade ago.

REAL ESTATE

Makowsky, having already made a fortune in the accessories business by then, was used to mixing in circles where private aircraft hops and mega yacht parties were the norm. In fact, it was the concept of a mega yacht that inspired him to create these high-end homes. “Seven or eight years ago people would pay $60-70 million for a 100-foot yacht. Today, there are over thirty $200 million-plus yachts under construction. The people who buy them are staying on the yachts for eight weeks a year, paying $10-12 million in maintenance annually and they stay in homes that cost $30-40 million. So it really doesn’t make sense to spend that kind of money on a toy when they don’t have those same amenities in their home. No one’s really curated homes to the same quality and level of these mega yachts.”

It took him four years and a team of over 300 people to build

the property sandwiched between Bel Air Road and Nimes Road, with no specific buyer in mind. “I get to travel around the world and work with the best super high-end luxury bespoke designers and curate one-of-a-kind pieces,” says Makowsky.

With his keen eye for design, he spent a great deal of time curating over 130 pieces of artwork and installations across the home. “About 15 per cent of the art in the house are bespoke pieces created by my team just for the apartment. The remaining is from what I’ve seen and collected from exhibitions like Art Basel, as well as from all over Europe.”

To understand the mental make-up of a man who says that he didn’t have a ceiling to the budget he would spend when building this home, you need to understand where he comes from. “I’m one of these disruptors who believes that change

924 Bel Air Road is listed for $250 million­— the most expensive home ever listed in the US 2017 MARCH / APRIL

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REAL ESTATE

is great. If you let people say no to you all the time, you won’t get anywhere. My parents taught us that your time is your most precious asset, so work hard but play harder. If you’re going on vacation and you’re going to have a good time with $1,000, take $2,000 and have a great time. I’m the kind of person who has always been all-in.

“Luxury to me is that it’s just the best. I don’t care if you’re eating a great cake, buying jewellery or a home – it always comes down to quality. If you do something of really good quality, there’ll always be a buyer for it. You can’t take shortcuts.

Super wealthy people want the best quality and that’s been my driving force. Most billionaires have more money than time and they can look at a big account or they can live life. This isn’t a rehearsal, this is real life – and if you have a lot of money, you should enjoy every second.”

Although Makowsky is from New York, he moved to Southern California six years ago, at a time when he began to make serious in-roads in the property business. It was the Los Angeles market that specifically piqued his interest. “LA is completely undervalued. If you go to Monaco, London or New York, you’re going to pay $10,000 a foot whereas you can come here [LA] and pay $4,000-5,000 a foot. LA was built in

the Forties and Fifties and it’s going through this renaissance where it’s being rebuilt. So almost every street in the Platinum Triangle of West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Bel Air is being rebuilt. LA also had the most new build super high-end [home] sales in 2016 and I think that’s going to continue.”

The $250 million price tag is unlikely to be a deterrent for the super wealthy. Reports indicate that Makowsky had over half a dozen enquiries for the property on the same day that he listed it. “This is the ninth new home that I’ve built. We’ve had an overwhelming response with appointments lined up for the property. The last three houses I sold were all to billionaires from outside the US. I think that there will always be buyers for the super high-end market, provided that people do not produce too many of any one thing. What I’m doing here is one home every two to three years. It’s not like I’m building 25 new $250 million homes.”

If you thought that Makowsky would rest easy after this sale, you’d be wrong. “I have two more projects coming up that will be bigger than this house and more expensive. I believe that in the next 10-15 years, you’d see homes sell for over $1 billion.”

Did Makowsky just let slip the price of his next listed project?

The mega-mansion comes with a classic car collection, a bowling alley, a home theatre and a curated art collection 22

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Iconic British architect Norman Foster rarely has his feet on the ground, spending hours flying between his office in London, his projects around the world, and his home in Switzerland. On one of the rare occasions that he does, GC catches up with him

BY ALAIN ELKANN

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Images courtesy of Getty Images

FOSTERING THE FUTURE

PROFILE

e fell in love with architecture by wandering around old buildings in Manchester as a boy. Today, Lord Norman Foster is the most celebrated architect of his generation, having been appointed a knight of the realm and lifetime peer in his native Britain. He’s the founder and chairman of Foster + Partners and oversees 15 offices with 1,000 employees working on projects in 40 countries. While his portfolio includes showstoppers like Hearst Tower in New York and the Gerkin building in London, it’s his obsession with developing infrastructure and more functional transport ecosystems, such as the Millennium Bridge in London and the Millau viaduct in southern France that sets Foster apart from his contemporaries. Foster has left his mark on the world’s greatest cities in the most public manner possible — here he tells us about the new technologies that will improve city living in the future.

Lord Foster, you are one of the most famous architects in the world and you had a very interesting and unusual start. How did you become an architect?

Working in Manchester in my first job at the age of 16, I spent every spare minute wandering around buildings in the city.

I wasn’t consciously thinking, ‘one day I am going to be an architect, therefore I should be doing this.’ I was just drawn to buildings for the aesthetic experience. Some buildings and parts of that city were particularly inspirational – the cast

iron tradition of Barton Arcade, the Victorian architecture of Manchester Town Hall or the modernist Daily Express building, for example.

When I returned after my National Service, I began looking for a job that appealed to my creative side – drawing had been a serious passion for me throughout my childhood. I had always been fascinated by design, and a short stint at the contracts department in a local architect’s office spurred me on to build my own portfolio of drawings. It was this journey of selfdiscovery that led me to apply to the architecture programme at Manchester University.

Who was your first mentor?

The people I was exposed to at Yale, in particular Paul Rudolph, Serge Chermayeff and Vincent Scully, were hugely influential.

Paul Rudolph created a studio atmosphere that was highly creative, competitive, and spurred on by a succession of visiting critics.

What was the first building you worked on?

The Retreat was an early project that we carried out as part of Team 4 in 1964. The clients were Marcus Brumwell and his wife Rene, who had earlier commissioned us to build the Creek Vean House. The structure strips the notion of a house down to its very essence – a place of shelter. Fanning outward from

The tropical garden and roof structure designed by Norman Foster that sits above Canary Wharf Crossrail station, in the Canary Wharf North Dock, London 2017 MARCH / APRIL

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PROFILE

a notional source within the earth, the gazebo breaks surface from the slope of the bank, and faces towards the sea, like the cockpit of a plane, maximising the views of the waterfront.

A simple glazing frame, the structure was inspired by the distinctive sliding canopy of the Hawker Hurricane, which was a remarkably agile wooden framed fighter plane from the 1930s. These varied references were distilled into a minimalist glass bubble – a cockpit looking out to views of the Fal estuary – an away place in which to read, contemplate or have picnics.

Each architect has his own style. How would you define yours?

I have never subscribed to a particular style; each project is a unique response to the site, and its physical and cultural context.

The values and philosophy are the constants. Design is always a collective effort, so perhaps you could say that the style is that of Norman Foster with his various teams. However, I do have some core beliefs: the quality of design affects the quality of our lives, a commitment to the principles of sustainability; and a continuous tradition of questioning, challenging and innovating. I also have a fascination with technology as a means to social ends.

You have built public buildings, airports, homes and skyscrapers. Are you keen on building skyscrapers or do you believe they are now obsolete?

I love tall buildings as much as low-rise structures. I do not believe that skyscrapers are now obsolete – I have often argued

that denser cities are more successful and sustainable. Higher density does not mean we have to build tall. On the contrary however, skyscrapers can play an important role in the city when designed and planned for sensitively, as well as being considered in the wider context of transport.

What is your idea of the city today? Are you concerned by the ever-increasing transportation problems?

On the contrary, I am very excited by the prospects of new technologies that offer sustainable, quiet, and fast alternatives for transport that could transform cities for people. The issues of transportation we face in cities today are eminently solvable if we just take a bold approach towards infrastructure – just as our Victorian forbearers did in 19th century Britain.

Over the centuries there were architectural styles and fashions, from ancient Egypt, the Greeks, the renaissance, the baroque, Bauhaus and Italian fascist. Is there a style of today? Or is each architect simply doing whatever he or she wants?

I think you need the perspective of time to be able to analyse the attributes of a particular time period. It provides a certain clarity that is not possible in the heat of the moment. For example, what we today call Gothic or Baroque were not so clear-cut at the time. It is only after having the benefit of viewing the works of those time periods from a distance that historians have categorised them.

Images courtesy of Getty Images

Marseille's renovated part of the Old Port

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What do you think about the countries who have erased their own past? Beijing has destroyed its own past, unlike Rome. Is it a crime?

It is important to find a balance between new and old. I have always said that the true challenge of renewal is to continue the historic tradition of change, but with a sensitivity to the spirit of the past.

What do you think about the destruction of wars, from Dresden to the Twin Towers to Palmyra and Aleppo?

Antiquity is menaced by such acts. How do you feel about it and the rebuilding of these cities later?

Such losses are tragic and horrific. As an afterthought, perhaps our awareness of the vulnerability of true antiquities should lead us to record them properly for posterity.

How do the climate change debates and recent seismic catastrophes impact architecture?

Climate change is a very serious issue and sustainability is not a matter of fashion, but of survival, affecting architecture and infrastructure at every level, be it an airport or a small apartment. Sustainability requires us to think holistically and not about buildings in isolation. The location and function of a building; its flexibility and life-span; its orientation, its form and structure; its heating and ventilation systems, and the materials used, all impact upon the amount of energy required to build, run and maintain it and the movement of goods and people to and from it. Architects cannot solve all the world’s ecological problems, but we can design buildings to run at a fraction of current energy levels and we can influence transport patterns through urban planning and infrastructure.

You recently built, at a cost of $5 billion, the new HQ of Apple in California. Do you like working in Silicon Valley? You do a lot of work in the high-tech world – how is it to work with such conceptually advanced people?

As an architect I am grateful for enlightened individuals who commission buildings. The more passionate they are, the more demanding they are likely to be – which is positive. Some are in Silicon Valley, some are in lots of other places. It is about the individual not the place.

When you make a project, is your foremost concern aesthetic, or is it – for example – security, or usability?

Every project begins with research, and a return to first principles. You have to evaluate the site, its physical setting, climate, the culture of the place, the needs of the user – each of these aspects determines the final outcome, which is different every time. Let’s just say that it is impossible to separate how it looks from how it works from how it is made.

Since you began how much has changed in architecture?

And are there new young architects that you praise today?

I praise all architects of talent, young or old, dead or alive. We all have to appreciate talent. The ends of architecture and core values have not changed. The means and technology have – and they will continue to do so.

Foster also designed The Swiss Re Tower, better known as the Gherkin, in London's financial district

For a number of years now, even if you are based in London and spend much time in St Moritz, can we say that your main house is your private plane? How much has your passion for flying changed your professional life?

For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by flight.

Relatively late, in my thirties, I started to fly. First sailplanes, then single engine light aircraft, then helicopters, then piston twins, then historic aircraft, then jets. So flying has been, and still is, a way of life.

The idea of how human beings inhabit space varies across the world. In Japan for example the space for a human can be very small. How do you feel about that?

It is not about the amount of space – it is the quality of the space.

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Austin Hargrave/ AUGUST

By Pierce van Houghten/The Interview People

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COVER

A STAR IS BORN Emma Stone has cemented her place among Hollywood’s bold and brightest after singing and dancing her way to the top

Was it difficult to enjoy your Best Actress Oscar when they changed the Best Picture from La La Land to Moonlight?

God, I love Moonlight so much. I was so excited for Moonlight.

And of course, you know, it was an amazing thing to hear La La Land. I think we all would have loved to win Best Picture, but we are so excited for Moonlight. I think it’s one of the best films of all time. So I was pretty beside myself.

What do you think happened? Warren Beatty said that he was given your envelope, with your name as Best Leading Actress instead of the Best Picture...

I also was holding my Best Actress in a Leading Role card that entire time. The truth is that there is always two sets of envelopes, one on each side of the stage, and they come to the

Images courtesy of Getty Images

ust as you were falling into a slumber — content in the notion that there wasn’t much else to see as La La Land scooped the final and most prestigious Oscar of the night for Best Picture and the speeches rattled on — suddenly an interruption forced you wide awake as it was confirmed that Moonlight was the rightful owner of the Best Picture gong. It was indeed one of the most memorable Oscars in recent history but putting aside the awkwardness, the 89th Academy Awards, which was peppered with political gags from the beginning by host Jimmy Kimmel, ended with a rare moment of graciousness as the casts of both movies celebrated together on stage. And no one was more graceful than the Best Actress Oscar winner, Emma Stone. We sat down with Stone to share in her glory and hear about her upcoming movie, Battle of the Sexes, where she stars as tennis champion Billie Jean King.

Emma Stone and her La La Land co-star Ryan Gosling backstage during the 89th Annual Academy Awards 2017 MARCH / APRIL

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COVER

Dolby Theatre with two different people who take two different routes to avoid any problems. Nobody thought a problem like this could have happened.

What was the biggest challenge for you in La La Land?

What part of the work and dedication do you think deserved an Oscar?

I would say ballroom dancing was the hardest for me because I have a weird pinched nerve on my left side and the way you have to hold yourself up for ballroom dancing, I just had shooting pains through my eyes every time we were doing ballroom dancing so that was what made it hard for me. Dancing was definitely trickier than I thought it would be because I grew up dancing. I’ve taken tap classes and then when you’re actually tap dancing on a hill on Griffith Park in one take, you’re like “Ok, I’m not a great tap dancer.” But it’s fun.

“My dreams have changed to come back a bit more down to earth. Now, it’s having a comfortable house where my friends can spend time or having a family”

Damien [Chazelle] in La La Land refers to a dreamer who has her head stuck in the clouds. Were you a dreamer growing up?

Yes. I was definitely a dreamer when I was young. I spent a lot of time in my bedroom fantasising about what stories I wanted to tell.

So, do you relate a lot with your character in the movie La La Land?

Yes, she’s from Boulder City, Nevada. And being from Phoenix, Arizona, I can relate to that part of the world and coming to LA. Obviously, I was a lot younger when I came over. She is an aspiring actress, her name is Mia, she left college after two years to come out and start auditioning. Her aunt who passed away was an actress in a traveling theatre company and was the black sheep of the family and Mia always thought she understood her and would do plays in her bedroom. And in the story, she’s been auditioning for about six years. It hasn’t been really working out and she’s kind of at the cusp of deciding whether this is something she should continue pursuing or if she should be changing her dreams.

How have your dreams changed?

That’s a good question. I think my dreams have changed to come back a bit more down to earth. Now, it’s having a comfortable house where my friends can spend time or having a family. It’s less broad, all these big dreams about what kind of work I would get to do or people I get to work with. It’s much more grounded now.

It’s fascinating that your parents took you seriously. How did you manage school?

Maybe they could tell I was serious because I kept doing all these plays in a row. It was just my favourite thing in the world. And that feeling has never gone away. That’s still what I love and still what I want to do. I was homeschooled and I got my GED which is a good enough degree. It’s an equivalency. I took it in the Paradise Valley Mall above the food court.

Stone’s Hollywood dreams came true when she won an oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for La La Land

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Image courtesy of Getty Images

Is it true that you convinced your parents to move to Hollywood by doing a PowerPoint presentation that you called Project Hollywood?

Yeah, I was 15. I made a PowerPoint and then I moved to LA with my mum and we would come back and forth when I was 15 because I did a lot of musical theatre, youth theatre, in Arizona and loved acting. I don’t think my parents were particularly surprised that I wanted to be an actor. That came of a whole moment when I was 15 and I just felt like now was the time to go. I’m very insanely lucky that they were supportive of that.

Of course, I would punish my child if they told me they were leaving. I would not be like, “Let’s go!” Maybe I would say finish high school and let’s wait until you’re 18.

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Didn’t you ever have doubts about your future as an actress?

Well, yeah, definitely in moments. I auditioned for three years before I was pretty lucky and Superbad ended up happening right before I turned 18 so it would have been my senior year of high school.

Your first steps in Hollywood were actually singing in the VH1 music competition In Search of The Partridge Family, before singing in the Broadway musical Cabaret and latterly in La La Land. Is singing and acting as scary as people think?

I think I always had a fear of singing because when I was a kid I would lose my voice a lot. I would do these musicals and I just never felt like a good singer. Then, when the opportunity for Cabaret came along, that was what really opened things up. First of all, it’s a challenge, which is one of the greatest parts of doing all this ­— doing something that scares you. And I had a really great voice teacher and I started connecting the emotion to the singing. It changed when I realised singing is acting, but in a different form. That connection helped me a lot and it scared

me a lot less. Also, without the pressure of needing to sound absolutely crystalline and beautiful in Cabaret, that took a level of pressure off to just sing from my gut and not necessarily in a classically trained way, and then I began to love it. I just love singing now. It’s one of my favourite things to do.

You’re starring as Billie Jean King in the upcoming movie Battle of the Sexes with Steve Carell. Did you have to learn to play tennis for the role?

Yes I did – to a point. I also had an incredible professional tennis-playing body double so I was trying not to be a hero because there’s nothing worse than watching a sports movie where the actors are not good at the sport! [laughs] But I did my best to learn her serve, her backhand and to play with a wooden racket. And in terms of the character, it takes place the year of the Battle of the Sexes, 1973, so it was a time period where Billie Jean was not yet ‘out’. She was married to her husband at that time. And she had also just started the WTA, which is the Women’s Tennis Association, and was really fighting for equal pay for women. I mean she’s just a real revolutionary and such an iconic tennis player.

Stone will portray tennis ace Billie Jean King alongside Steve Carell in her next movie Battle of the Sexes

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PROFILE

BRAVE SOULS The British director of the Oscar-winning documentary The White Helmets describes the Syrian volunteers in his film as the finest humanitarians of our generation

BY AUBREY DAY

lans have a habit of going out of the window when you’re a documentary filmmaker. For example, when British director Orlando von Einsiedel and producer Joanna Natasegara began making their 2014 feature Virunga, it was supposed to be an inspiring tale of park rangers protecting gorillas in the Congo. Instead, it evolved into a multi-faceted feature that was as much urgent investigation (into the activities of the British Oil company Soco International) and political drama as it was a conservation study.

The end result received universal acclaim and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

Now von Einsiedel and Natasegara are back with their new documentary, The White Helmets: a heart-wrenching look into the daily operations of a group of volunteer rescue workers of the Syrian Civil Defense.

And once again, the British duo had to think on their feet.

What was initially planned as a full-length feature instead became a short film (40 minutes) when the pair realised they needed to get their story seen as soon as possible.

“We very quickly began to feel uncomfortable with the idea of taking two or three years to make a feature,” admits von

Einsiedel, “when what is going on on the ground is so urgent.

Ultimately, it felt as if this film needed to be made as quickly as possible.”

The shorter length has not diminished the film’s impact or acclaim. It was nominated for Best Documentary Short at this year’s Oscars. And deservedly so. With an unflinching eye, the film follows a group of volunteer workers, known as White Helmets, as they risk their lives on a daily basis trying to evacuate civilians from the rubble and debris of fallen buildings following the latest bombings in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo. The viewer gets to see, in grim detail, the tragedy of the situation, the stark realities, and the ever-present dangers of digging through rubble in search of bodies that may or may not still be breathing.

But, despite the horrors, the film manages to uplift and inspire, primarily because of the extraordinary bravery and spirit of the White Helmets – ordinary men doing extraordinary work with a humility and quiet hope that is remarkable.

“We found them incredible,” admits von Einsiedel. “We heard about them through friends who had worked with them.

And we were immediately drawn to this group of ordinary

A surge in Syria's bombing campaign in recent weeks has made the White Helmets' rescue missions even more vital 32

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PROFILE

Image courtesy of Getty Images

“These are some of the finest humanitarians of our generation and the fact that a travel ban like that could affect them just really shows what the ban actually is”

Producer Joanna Natasegara (L) and director Orlando von Einsiedel pick up the Oscar for The White Helmets, while the volunteers remained in Syria

civilians who had banded together to risk their lives every day to save strangers, effectively. It’s a story of heroes and a story of hope and that’s what really drew us in.”

Neither von Einsiedel or Natasegara are strangers to conflict but Aleppo, where journalists have been kidnapped and beheaded, was always going to be a logistical challenge. It quickly became clear that to enter the city would endanger not only the film crew but also the White Helmets. Instead, the filmmakers shot on the team’s training course that sits on the border of Syria and Turkey and collaborated with the White Helmets to gather footage from Aleppo.

“We worked particularly closely with a White Helmet named Khaled Khatib,” explains von Einsiedel. “He was a teenager when the conflict started and has been documenting it for the past five, six years. He began on a mobile phone and progressed on to better cameras.”

“We paired him with our cinematographer,” adds Natasegara.

“And kind of trained him in the way that the film would look and feel.”

Natasegara and von Einsiedel ended up with over 60 hours of footage, although they were judicious with what made the final cut. “What you see in the film is like one per cent of the horror,” said von Einsiedel. “If we had included more, it would have been too upsetting; nobody would watch it.”

“The emotional toll was pretty intense for the whole team,” admits Natasegara. “Most of the footage we received from the White Helmets was incredibly graphic and upsetting. And even when we were in Turkey with them, they would get phone calls and messages to update them on what’s going on… it was kind of a relentless horror making this film that really stays with you.”

And do the filmmakers see any end in sight to the conflict?

“The short answer is no,” says Natasegara sadly. “But we’re not experts in the politics of Syria. We purposefully tried to focus on the human story because so much of the news is about the political situation.”

The pair remain in touch with the White Helmets and admit to worrying about their well-being on a constant basis.

“With any of the films we make, we make close bonds with the people in them,” says von Einsiedel. “And we stay in touch with everybody. The sad thing is the last few months have been incredibly difficult for all of the White Helmets but especially those in eastern Aleppo because it fell to the Syrian government over Christmas and so Khaled and Mohammed Farah and Abu Omar, the central figures in our film, lost their homes, and everything they had. They had to flee with their families. In fact, about 150 White Helmets had to flee. Most of them are now in other centres where they continue to do rescue work.”

Getting an Oscar nomination seemed to offer a welcome opportunity to catch up with some of the White Helmets at the Academy Awards… until news of President Trump’s travel ban emerged.

“The executive order came two days after the nominations were announced,” recalls Natasegara. “What was sheer delight about being able to bring Khaled and Raed [Al Saleh, leader of the White Helmets] to the world’s biggest stage, turned into total dismay. For two weeks it was a rollercoaster until eventually it was confirmed that they had got their visas to attend.” However, on the night of the Oscars things didn’t go to plan and it was a bittersweet moment for von Einsiedel and his team when they took to the stage at the Academy Awards to receive the Oscar for Best Documentary Short without Khatib and Al Saleh — Khatib was detained enroute to LA on Saturday and therefore missed the ceremony and Al Saleh decided to stay back in Syria to work as there had been an increase in bombings.

It’s fair to assume the filmmakers aren’t fans of Trump’s initiatives. As Natasegara observes “We feel that these are some of the finest humanitarians of our generation and the fact that a travel ban like that could affect them just really shows what the ban actually is.”

The duo are already planning their next project, although they won’t yet be drawn on what it is. “It’s too early to talk about yet,” says von Einsiedel apologetically. “But you can expect more of the same: stories about brave people doing incredible things.”

With perhaps a few last minute surprises and changes along the way…

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Aquiles Brito

XXXXX

SLIPPERY SUCCESS The road to success for Claus Porto, a Portuguese family-run business that specialises in manufacturing exotic soaps and now into its fourth generation, has been a slippery one

BY IVAN CARVALHO

t’s safe to say Claus Porto has a nose for business. Started in 1887, the Portuguese producer of high-quality soaps and scents has established a strong bond with consumers in its homeland and, more recently, abroad – today, people in over 60 countries use its fragrant goods during their morning bathroom routine.

The company’s sweet-smelling success is down to its ability to seduce consumers’ senses: first, with eye-catching packaging; and second, with subtle aromatic notes found in its bath soaps and perfumes, many of which were formulated decades ago.

Its Musgo Real collection of colognes, shaving creams and soaps, popular with men from Milan to Tokyo in search of a classic masculine scent, is anchored by a fragrance concocted in the ’30s made up of sandalwood and base notes of amber and vanilla.

Soap-making techniques have changed little over the years.

Staff constantly inspect bars for cracks or imperfections. Oldfashioned machines churn natural ingredients together and move at a slow pace. Soaps are 100 per cent vegetable based, blended with shea butter to create a creamy lather, and milled multiple times to ensure the bar will not break up when in use.

Once formed, soap is air dried for several days on wooden racks.

“There’s a lot of manual work involved from the quality control to the packaging. The soap goes from our hands to the customer’s,” explains Francisco Neto, CEO of Claus Porto, during a visit to the company’s facilities outside Porto. As he leads a tour, he motions to a table where staff wrap lavender soaps enriched with pistachio oil in pale yellow paper adorned with a floral print and then hand stamp each with a lacquer seal.

Upstairs in the company’s offices, Neto is joined by Aquiles Brito, whose family has run the business for four generations.

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Named after his great-grandfather, Brito is eager to take the company in a new direction and has brought Neto aboard to oversee a new phase. “We’ve been through a lot as a company: the Great Depression, World Wars and time and again our clients have looked to us. We are a guarantee,” says Brito, flipping through well-worn books showing hundreds of labels that make up its archive. “It’s an intimate relationship since our product is used daily by people in their most private space: the bathroom.”

Although stocked at upscale retailers from The Conran Shop in London to Le Bon Marché in Paris, the company has decided to venture into retail. In Lisbon’s Chiado neighbourhood, the firm has recently inaugurated a 120 square metres shop in a former pharmacy where male clients can sit for a wet shave on Japanese-made barber chairs. Next up is a flagship store in its hometown of Porto. There’s also talk of following that up with yet another station in London.

Fans flock to its understated scents – such as its best-selling Banho soap with hints of lemon and verbena – as well as elaborate labels, especially original prints made between the late 19th century and ’30s with Art Deco motifs and creations that are a nod to the country’s tile work and architecture.

Following in those footsteps, Neto and Brito decided it was time to unveil a new logo: the “Claus” name is now in a heavy Deco font while the sharp strokes of the “Porto” letters pay homage to the profile of the city’s landmark Dom Luís I Bridge.

In addition, they have begun to work with noted British perfumer Lyn Harris. First up are candles with scents based on its existing collection. Adds Neto: “There’s a rich heritage which we want to respect. It’s part of our identity. It’s what makes us unique.”

FAMILY BUSINESS

Claus Porto's upscale store in Lisbon

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SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

Tala Badri with her music pupils in Cambodia

RICHES TO RICHES Emirati social entrepreneur Tala Badri gave up the trappings of her luxury life in Dubai to teach music to street children in some of Asia’s poorest countries

ala Badri might have won an award for Emirati Entrepreneur of the Year, but the founder of Dubai’s Centre for Musical Arts (CMA) was offered a withering put-down when she recently met with a small business advisor: she was called a social entrepreneur.

“He said I could make a lot of money, but my conscience won’t let me, and that’s my biggest failing,” remembers Badri.

“But I’m not so sure if that’s a failing.”

Badri has certainly put her money where her mouth is.

Recently celebrating its tenth anniversary, CMA has played a pioneering role in introducing professional music tuition into the emirates, touching the lives of tens of thousands of students.

But the non-profit organisation’s most meaningful contributions are arguably away from the emirates. Badri and her staff have led several outreach programmes, working directly with deprived youngsters with little to hope for, including street children in Cambodia and Palestinian refugees.

Closer to home, staff have led children’s activities and offered teaching at both the Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre, for children with special needs, and Dubai Autism Centre – a subject close to Badri’s heart after her daughter Sara was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome at the age of three.

“If I wanted to run this business to make more money, I would have to be far more ruthless,” continues Badri. “I was told that

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the problem is I’m a social entrepreneur at heart.

“But I’ve always believed music isn’t a business, and shouldn’t be – and that education isn’t a business, and shouldn’t be.”

Badri may be CMA’s sole founder, owner, and executive director, but she remains remarkably hands-on, teaching piano, flute and saxophone three days a week – and only paying herself a basic “teacher’s salary”. Any other profit from the centre’s $1.6 million turnover is invested straight back into the business.

“Oh, but teaching is the fun bit,” laughs the 45-year-old, showing us around the centre’s home in Dubai’s Gold & Diamond Park.

It’s even more remarkable when you learn that Badri founded CMA after ten years in the corporate world.

But music was always her first love. Born and bred in Dubai, Badri remembers beginning to play the piano at the age of four, and picking up the guitar and flute soon after.

At the age of 17, Badri was awarded a full scholarship from the government of Dubai to study at Royal Holloway, University of London, reportedly becoming the first Emirati woman to graduate in music.

Before even completing her second degree in management and languages, she was recruited for a role back in Dubai at Barclays bank.

“I realised very quickly it really wasn’t what I wanted to do,”

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR

she says of that job today, without flinching. “It was boring, it wasn’t creative enough.”

After two years she moved on to work for confectioner Mars, progressing to a role as HR manager.

At the age of 25, a regular business trip took Badri to Mumbai - leaving an impression that continues to cast a shadow over her life 20 years later.

“When I worked at Mars I earned a huge salary, had a huge car, flew business class,” she recalls, “and then they sent me to India.

“I came home and said ‘here I am with all this stuff - does it really make you happy?’ That one journey completely changed my life.”

Following the birth of her first child, Badri took a sabbatical, but ever restless began working casually as a private music teacher.

When she was approached with the opportunity to open a music school at the new Ductac in Mall of the Emirates, the sabbatical became officially permanent. Badri took out a $135,000 small business loan – and in 2006, CMA was born out of five teaching rooms.

Four years later the centre moved permanently to its current home. Spread over two brightly lit plots at Gold & Diamond Park, the combined 11,000 square metre floorspace includes more than 20 teaching rooms, a bookshop, cafe and a performance space, which hosts regular concerts from students and the Dubai Chamber Orchestra.

Today, the 30-strong teaching staff have more than 1,300 students on the books. Badri’s professional accolades include being named Emirates NBD Small Business of the Year (2009), both Admirable Woman of the Year and Emirati Entrepreneur

of the Year at the 2010 SME Stars of Business Awards, and the Gulf Capital SME Award for Emirati Business of the Year 2013.

But the image of India’s slums never left Badri’s mind.

In 2012 she led CMA’s first annual two-week expedition to Siem Reap, Cambodia, with a group of teachers who chose to give their expertise, time, and money to working with street children at an orphanage run by the Green Gecko Project.

Inspired by the experience, later the same year another group travelled to Lebanon to work with Palestinian children displaced by conflict at a refugee camp administered by the Palestine Children's Relief Fund (PCRF) – a visit which could not be repeated because the camp in question was bombed soon after.

“These are children who have been thrown out of their homes, abused physically and mentally, been in a war – working with them is such an eye-opening experience,” says Badri.

“Children in Dubai are privileged, and it’s so normal to have music classes – but these kids are so hungry to learn.”

Back in Dubai, CMA recently welcomed one musically gifted student from Cambodia for a year’s internship, and also offers free music lessons to Palestinian refugee children brought to Dubai for medical treatment with PCRF. At the time of writing in February, Badri was set to lead a fifth annual visit to Green Gecko, where the 70 orphaned children vary in age from six to 20.

“These kids love music, and the need is so great – they’ve got nothing,” adds Badri. “We’re blessed with these skills, we’re teachers at heart, so it’s a natural feeling. Everyone in a position of privilege has a responsibility to give back. But humans are innately selfish and self-obsessed.”

“I’ve always believed music isn’t a business, and shouldn’t be – and that education isn’t a business, and shouldn’t be”

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ENTREPENEUR

AN ALTERNATIVE TIPPLE Swedish entrepreneur Moa Gürbüzer is offering a high-end alternative to wine and it won’t give you a sore head in the morning s a life-long social worker, Moa Gürbüzer has repeatedly witnessed first-hand the tragic chaos alcohol can wreak on a family. And as a Muslim living most of her life in Sweden, she has a vision for Western society – a vision where taking a drink with dinner or at a social occasion is a choice, not an obligation. She calls it “an either-or” society. “Kind of like, would you like your coffee with or without milk?” she quips. “In Sweden, we have a drinking culture,” continues the 58-year-old. “The narrative dictates that you have to take a drink, you should drink, and if you don’t you are a boring person – you’re treated like there’s something wrong with you.”

In Gürbüzer's eyes, one of the prime obstacles to such a world is quality; non-alcoholic options are rarely taken seriously, either by producers or consumers. Her answer has been to launch her own high-end non-alcoholic range, MRG Wines, which

Moa Gürbüzer

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promises the same standard as leading French bubbly brands.

Grapes are selected and endorsed by celebrated expert and writer Richard Juhlin, fermented in a French vineyard, and then de-alcoholised with a “patented method”. Bottles retail between $70 and $110.

“A lot of people don’t want to drink, and become excluded because alcohol is the way of bringing people together – I want to normalise it to come together with or without a drink,” she adds. “I want a society where you have the question ‘with or without’, without excluding anybody.”

It’s a vision which has attracted significant traction. Highprofile backers include the Swedish King, Carl XVI Gustaf, who in November awarded Gürbüzer with his Start-Up of the Year award, and who last month served 600 guests with MRG Wines at a state function.

The company was founded in Gürbüzer’s hometown of

ENTREPENEUR

“What I’m offering is not a product, it’s a social movement”

Gothenburg in December 2013, with an initial $100,000 investment, selling a modest 20,000 bottles in 2014. Last year domestic sales increased tenfold, generating a turnover of $1.7 million, and an online service began to pick up trade with neighbouring countries.

Today around half the sales are direct to restaurants rather than retailers.

In 2017, Gürbüzer is going global, targeting the affluent eating out markets of Hong Kong, China, Japan, Singapore, and especially the GCC – Global Citizen's interview was conducted during a trip to Dubai to source regional importers.

Gürbüzer makes clear she has no intention of preaching – but is simply promoting a superior product in order to offer customers an informed decision. She describes herself as a Muslim, but says she knows the “taste of everything” her products seek to emulate.

“My deep idea is not to tell the European countries, or anybody in any culture, ‘you can’t drink’,” she adds. “I had one problem, which is that all the non-alcoholic options tasted bad – they were sour, without taste – sometimes you don't want the alcohol, but you want the same taste. I realised that to realise my goal – to have a choice of ‘with or without’ – I needed to create a drink where people will still be excited to taste the ‘without’.”

MRG may be a new venture, but Gürbüzer's vision has been gestating in her mind for decades.

Born in Konya, central Turkey, at the age of nine Gürbüzer’s family emigrated from there to Sweden when her father got a job on the assembly line for Volvo. The neighbourhood she grew

up in was full of similar, recent economic migrant families from Greece, Finland and Italy. With little knowledge of Swedish, the outcast children grouped together, forming deep bonds.

Before her teens Gürbüzer could see how alcoholism was tearing apart some of her friends' homes.

“As a child, you know as friends what is happening to each other,” she remembers.

“You know that some parents who drink – there is no food, that they don’t have proper clothes – and when you go home and see a father with a drink in his hand, you see the bottle and feel the smell. You notice all this even when you are very young.” These experiences inspired Gürbüzer to study to be a social worker and therapist, first with the Department of Social Work, and then with her own firm, established in 2002.

Over the past 27 years Gürbüzer estimates she has been forced to re-house more than 100 children, and that 80 per cent of the cases she dealt with could be blamed primarily on alcohol. “I was threatened by fathers, told that they would kill me if I took their child away,” she adds, herself a mother of three and grandmother of two.

“But I never felt that I would desert the children.”

Following the success of MRG, Gürbüzer has recently folded her social work all together.

But in her eyes, she has done anything but turn on the field.

“It’s no longer enough to change one family – now I have to change the society,” she adds.

“I haven’t quit being a social worker at all, this is just another way of doing it. “What I’m offering is not a product, it’s a social movement.”

2017 MARCH / APRIL

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XXXXXX

Mazin Al Khatib

A CLASSIC TRADE Meet the Jordanian ex-banker who is living his childhood dream through his classic car business ordanian multi-millionaire Mazin Al Khatib was at the top of his game in the high stakes investment banking industry when he decided to quit and chase the next million in a more classic way.

Al Khatib, who was the middle east managing director for the financial powerhouse Warburg Pincus, swapped the highrises of DIFC for the dusty streets of Al Quoz – where you’re more likely to see a construction worker than a suit – to start his own classic car business. He opted for the bright spark neighbourhood of Alserkal Avenue. Here he recently opened a showroom in the warehouse-styled units.

“I began working in 1989, but I only started making real money in 2000, which is when I purchased a 1971 Corvette Stingray in Bahrain where I was based at the time,” says Khatib.

His fascination with vintage cars started when he was a teenager; he recalled dreaming about a [Shelby] AC Cobra as a teenager and in 2006 he managed to buy it from someone in South Africa. It’s now “the crown jewel” of his collection.

Khatib says that although he started collecting classic cars at the turn of the millennium, he never intended to resell any of them. However, as his collection grew, the financial whiz noticed a peculiar phenomenon in his portfolio. “When I looked

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at my personal investment portfolio, it was my classic cars that appreciated the most – more than my real estate, stocks or bonds.

That’s when the idea struck to leave banking and convert this passion into a business.”

He set up Nostalgia Classic Cars in 2015, and his showroom in Alserkal Avenue followed this year. This is where his crown jewel is now parked, surpassed in prestige only by a handful of artworks that fill the adjacent galleries. The AC Cobra is joined by a dozen others out front, including a swept-back Jaguar E-Type, a stately Bentley S1 and a high-riding Lamborghini LM 002. Inside, the gregarious former investment banker, now the founder and CEO of Nostalgia Classic Cars, keeps a close eye on a dozen more from his upper floor office. Most of the cars are priced between $80,000-$90,000, barring outliers like a Lamborghini that costs around $300,000.

When Khatib quit his job two years ago, he had only 23 cars in his collection. Today, there are 106. Seventy per cent of the cars have been sourced directly from the owners, while the remaining handful were sourced from dealers and through auctions. He says a large part of his collection are “barn finds,” which is how he found the Lamborghini LM 002. “During my days as an investment banker I was travelling all the time. I was

ENTREPRENEUR

in Lebanon going to see some classic cars up in the mountains.

On the way, I saw the Lamborghini LM 002 monster parked on a piece of land along the way. I asked my driver to stop and I asked the man who owned it if it was for sale. We agreed on a price. We had to bring a winch with ropes to lift it as it was in a very dirty condition and stuck in the sand. At that moment, I began to wonder if I had made a good decision but I brought it to the UAE and restored it. Today, we’re offering it for almost a million dirhams.”

Trading is just one arm of Nostalgia’s business. The second is using the 1,000 square metre space to host glamourous events.

The third is offering end-to-end restoration services for classic car owners in a dedicated workshop in Dubai, which Khatib says is the only one of its kind in the region. “I have a full team under one roof to look after every aspect of maintaining and restoring classic cars. Restoration is something that I suffered with during my early days when I started collecting cars and so I wanted to set up this facility. This was an essential part of the business for me.”

He added, “A big struggle for any collector is also sourcing parts. In our facility, I have a dedicated person whose only job from 9-6 is to look for parts.”

Khatib, who grew up in Dubai, recalls how, as a boy, he tried desperately to convince his well-to-do parents to buy cars other

than Cadillacs and Buicks. His parents never indulged him as they viewed cars as mere modes of transport. “Maybe that’s why I like classic cars today, because I was deprived of them when I was growing up,” he quips. He still vividly recounts the time he convinced his neighbour (who had just purchased a brand-new Mercedes 500 SEL) to take him for a 200km drive the day he got possession of the car – an epiphany for the then 15-year-old who lamented ceaselessly about the experience to his parents upon his return.

Today Khatib wants to make sure enthusiasts like him aren’t deprived in the same way. “I want to make sure there is a classic car culture here in Dubai,” and it seems he has the backing of the Royal Family. “There is support coming in from their highnesses and we see that in exhibitions. Previously, classic cars weren’t part of the Dubai auto show, but today they have an entire wing dedicated to classic cars.”

Khatib, the banker, admits that with a current inventory of 106 cars, he’s probably overstocked by 50 per cent. However, Khatib the collector says that he’d like to grow the restoration and events division. The response to these two lines of businesses he says has already been “amazing”, and he says that he would like to grow it to the scale where he doesn’t need to sell any of his cars. There’s one that will never be available for sale though.

His final words being, “My AC Cobra is not for sale!”

Top (L-R ) Ford Mustang 1967 and Lamborghini LM 002, (bottom) Backdraft Shelby 2017 MARCH / APRIL

41

SOCIAL BUSINESS

BANKING ON THE UNBANKED Social start-up NOW Money is getting millions of low-income migrant workers into the banking system from the periphery

ritish entrepreneurs Ian Dillon and Katharine Budd will give La-La Land a harsh dose of reality when they present their social business, NOW Money, to judges at a social start-up competition in LA this summer.

“People still think the streets are paved with gold in the Middle East and everyone owns a yacht,” explained NOW Money co-founder, Katharine Budd. “When in fact 70 per cent of the working population in the GCC doesn’t even have a bank account.”

The former HSBC data scientist joined forces with her old university pal Ian Dillon, an investment banker also working for HSBC, to start NOW Money, a smartphone app that offers bank transfers, remittance, and other services to migrant workers unable to afford traditional bank accounts.

After presenting a winning pitch to a panel of five judges in Dubai, the pair won the Gulf regional final of Chivas The Venture, a global search to find and support the next generation of start-ups that offer a better future for society. NOW was selected as the winner based not only on its ability to improve the lives of 26 million lowincome migrant workers in the GCC by including them in the financial system, but also for its scalability.

Budd and Dillon admit that they stumbled across the idea for their social start-up in 2015. “Around the same time as we were thinking about starting our own business, we noticed there was this group of new banks in the UK that were doing well, called ‘challenger banks’. They’re called that because they exist to challenge the status quo of traditional banks,” said Budd.

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Budd says these challenger banks differ from the traditional bricks-and-mortar institutions because they can operate solely from a mobile app or online platform, and they use new software as opposed to the more expensive legacy IT, which means they have “a very lean” business model compared to an incumbent bank.

Convinced that the challenger banking business model could work in the GCC market, Budd and Dillon started making plans to get a licence to operate in the UAE. However, they quickly discovered that the UAE market was already saturated with banks for the ‘wealthy segment,’ those who earn more than $4,000 (15,000 AED) per month.

Yet no one serviced lowincome migrant workers, who make up 70 per cent of the population of the GCC. In the region, banks refuse to give migrant workers a bank account unless they meet their minimum salary criteria, which ranges from $800- $4000 (3,000 -15,000 AED) depending on the bank. Thus, most people are effectively excluded from the entire financial ecosystem.

“In the West, only a small percentage of people take out their entire balance as soon as they get it, which means banks can still afford to service these customers, but in the GCC, it’s the majority — 70 per cent or 4.5 million people as they send it home to their families via remittance. So, the banks do not make any money from them,” explained Budd.

Armed with this information, the enterprising duo decided to bank on the unbanked and offer migrant workers a more

Image courtesy of Getty Images

SOCIAL BUSINESS

inclusive financial product via their app NOW Money. So how does it work? “From an end-user perspective our app looks just like any other banking app, they can see their transaction history, top up their mobile phone but most importantly, they can pay remittance directly from the app to the beneficiary.”

As the start-up isn’t an actual bank but rather a payment service provider like Paypal, Mastercard and Majid al Futtaim (MAF), with whom NOW have partnered, provide customers with a physical card.

While they’re not a bank, they’re are also not a charity. NOW take a cut of the remittance transaction. “We take four per cent of the remittance transaction fee from customers, which is a third less than what they would receive if they go into brickand-mortar shops.”

And they target corporates rather than individuals. She cites the Hilton as an example. “We’ll provide accounts to all of their staff so they can pay their salaries into those accounts.

We explain that they are giving their staff financial autonomy by providing them with their own cards and having their own account.” Prior to this, the only option employers had was to give their staff a payment card but it had no functionality apart from being able to withdraw money from the ATM. NOW is still in its nascent stages; they currently have 15,00020,000 individual users which translates to five or six companies.

After initially using their own savings to bootstrap the business and get it operational, the pair raised half a million dollars in June 2016 with the help of a local family office. Since then they have raised the stakes and are looking to raise $5 million in their next round of funding.

The pair are equally ambitious in terms of scaling geographically. “We’re looking seriously at moving into the Bahrain market and from there we would service Saudi Arabia with a helicopter office. It’s not possible to do that from Dubai.”

And while they admit that remittance is the core of their business now, they have an appetite for expanding into borrowing and offering alternative credit scoring for migrant workers.

Budd isn’t afraid to diversify and she knows if they are to win in the final of Chivas The Venture competition and get a share of the $1 million prize money they are going to have to adjust their messaging for a US audience.

“In the US there is a certain amount of ignorance about the way life operates in the Middle East. Everyone thinks that Dubai is a very developed country, but for low-income workers it is less developed than their home countries in terms of instant payments. Pakistan have used them for 15 years, so for our customers we’re not providing something new. They compare us to the mobile money app Easy Paisa in Pakistan or Empezar in Kenya; no one uses cash anymore and you text money.”

Let’s hope NOW finds success in LA – 70 per cent of the GCC is already rooting for them.

“70 per cent of the working population in the GCC don’t even have a bank account”

NOW Money is a fintech company providing migrant workers in the GCC with access to the banking system

2017 MARCH / APRIL

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ENTREPRENEUR

THE RISE OF THE MACHINE

Images courtesy of Getty Images

Why Elon Musk’s vision of the future cannot be ignored

Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX and Tesla

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ENTREPRENEUR

or most who watched it for the first time in 1989, Marty McFly transporting to 2015 in Back to the Future Part II to find everyone flying around on hoverboards and his kids ignoring him in favour of technology at the dinner table felt surreal and a little unnerving. The audience at the World Government Summit (WGS) had a similar experience last month after listening to Elon Musk describe the reality of the not too distant future.

When Oxford economists suggested in 2013 that nearly half of all US jobs could be made obsolete through automation within the next 20 years, few policy makers listened. However, the government leaders sitting front row at the WGS were forced to listen as Musk, who is considered one of his generation’s greatest tech innovators and visionaries, warned of an “automated” future where robots will dominate the workforce and outperform humans in everyday tasks.

Musk, who was also in Dubai to launch his electric car company Tesla, warned that there would be mass unemployment because of the rise of the machine. “There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better [than a human]. These are not things that I wish will happen. These are simply things that I think probably will happen.”

Musk’s statement wasn’t a shot out of the dark for the multi-national crowd that gathered at the summit, as his Silicon Valley alumni, Travis Kalanick, who is the founder and CEO of Uber, took to the stage moments before him and explained that “driverless technology” was already in motion and is likely only five to ten years around the corner for the masses. Instead, Kalanick is concerned with developing a robot that can travel in a driverless Uber car and deliver pizza. “What happens when your Uber pulls up outside your house with your food? You’re not going to want to walk out to the car to pick it up.” Instead, he says, “We need to build a robot that can walk up the stairs to your apartment and deliver your pizza.”

However, the tone of the South African born billionaire’s speech was more sombre as he warned of the consequences of having millions of people throughout the world unemployed.

“This [mass unemployment] is going to be a massive social challenge,” he said.

His solution: a universal basic income — an unconditional income paid by the government to all its citizens, whether or not they work. “This will become necessary for people to live,” he explained.

He isn’t alone in his view, other proponents of the necessity for a universal basic income include South Korean presidential

candidate Lee Jae-myung — dubbed South Korea’s Bernie Sanders — and former Clinton labour secretary Robert Reich, as well as Benoît Hamon, the French socialist presidential candidate. Like driverless technology, this so-called radical proposal is already underway in Finland, where the government have started to hand out free money to its citizens in an experiment which is a variation on the idea of a universal basic income. In Scotland, Glasgow City Council have also recently commissioned a feasibility study for its own basic income pilot.

Bill Gates has also recently chimed in on the subject, recommending that governments should consider “taxing robots in the same way they tax human workers.” The Microsoft founder and world’s richest man said the revenue from ‘a robot tax’ could help fund more health workers and people in elderly and child care, areas that are still expected to rely on humans as most manual labour jobs vanish over the coming years.

However, as Musk pointed out, the much harder challenge is solving how people will then have meaning in their lives if work is no longer an option for them? That’s something he says governments need to start thinking about.

If you’re in Musk’s line of work, then it’s unlikely that you’ll have to worry, as both his companies are thriving.

Tesla will soon open their first store in the Middle East on Sheikh Zayed Road, and the RTA in Dubai confirmed that it bought 200 hybrid electric cars (Model S sedans and Model X SUVs) fitted with driverless technologies, meaning that when they are added to the city’s taxi fleet, no driver will be required.

As Musk spoke at the summit in mid-February, his team were busy installing superchargers and destination chargers across Dubai. He confirmed that 26 destination chargers will soon be found in hotels and malls across the UAE, with provisions for another 50 more by the end of this year so Tesla owners will be able to recharge their car’s batteries in minutes rather than hours. Five more superchargers will be set up in the UAE before then end of 2017 to facilitate long-distance driving, with a store and service centre in Abu Dhabi also in the plan.

Meanwhile, after a rocky start, his Space Exploration Technologies Corporation — SpaceX — took off from the Kennedy Space Center for the first time since the last space shuttle launch five and a half years ago. The Falcon 9 rocket was launched with 5,500 pounds of supplies, experiments and other cargo headed to the International Space Station. A robotic arm will grab the capsule and take it to one of the docking ports.

Whether it’s in a driverless car or a ride in a spaceship, Elon Musk is never short of a lift.

“There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better [than a human]”

2017 MARCH / APRIL

45

PHILANTHROPY

ANNO’S AFRICA The ballet school that has everyone in the Kenyan slums dancing

BY AMANDA FISHER

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PHILANTHROPY

he German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe once wrote that death was nature’s expert scheme for providing more life. The tenet of endings leading to new beginnings couldn’t apply more neatly in the case of British photographer Bee Gilbert. In November 2001, her life came careening to a halt when she lost her son, Anno Birkin, in a car crash.

The accident, which prematurely claimed the life of the talented young British poet and musician along with two of his bandmates, set off a chain reaction of events that have come to define Gilbert’s life since – and has resulted in the creation of the high profile British charity, Anno’s Africa, which is responsible for a ballet and arts school in the slums of Nairobi in Kenya.

As Gilbert explains, with a rather philosophical stoicism: “One boy dies and because of that death thousands of children have their lives changed.”

Gilbert’s journey began when good friend and actor Nick Reding asked her whether she would come to take photos of a charity he was launching in Kenya: a theatre group that would hold AIDS awareness performances.

“I was obviously very grief-stricken and not sure how to cope.

But Nick said to me, ‘It will be your saving,’ and it was, because I was surrounded by people who had lost children [in Kenya] and I was also surrounded by the most amazing children who

broke my heart and filled my heart at the same time.”

Shortly afterwards, Anno’s dad, the decorated British film director Andrew Birkin, compiled a book of 50 poems Anno wrote between age 17 and 20 (Anno died a month short of his 21st birthday) called Who Said the Race is Over. It sold several thousand copies. When it came time to decide what to do with the money, for Gilbert her mission became clear.

“I wanted to do Anno’s Africa just for children, a programme for children I’d met in the slums who had no education and no arts education.”

The arts are a central pillar of Gilbert’s community, and certainly seem to have defined her son’s short life.

Anno’s real name was Alexander, but at the age of three the imaginative young boy decided his name was Anno, after the eponymous character in Mitsumasa Anno’s children’s book Anno’s Journey. It was this name that he was known by in his musical and writing life.

So the charity’s core focus of bringing the arts to the slums is a natural alignment.

In the ten years it has been operational, Anno’s Africa has been running classes in ballet, traditional dance, circus skills, art, creative writing, drama, and music for about 1,800 children, mostly through schools in Nairobi slums.

In that time, they have transformed lives. Programme

Bee Gilbert teaches Kenyan children ballet during her first visit to the Mombasa slums a decade ago 2017 MARCH / APRIL

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PHILANTHROPY

Inspiring a generation of ballet dancers in memory of British artist Anno Birkin 48

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PHILANTHROPY

alumni fill the film casts and musical ensembles of Kenya’s most successful films and bands, and many have gone overseas to take up opportunities, including ballet school scholarships.

CNN has done a documentary on their successes, and photo clips of their ballet students in training have recently gone viral – something of a vindication for Gilbert and her team.

“Everybody said, ‘Oh, you’re joking,’ and a couple of more political members of a group said, ‘It’s such a western style dance form.’

“The minute the ballet teacher Anny Nygh put these kids into these costumes it just transformed them; it was amazing and they loved it.”

And while some people may say practical skills are more important for these kids who call a slum home, Gilbert says an arts education must not be neglected.

“It’s about the self-esteem, the self-confidence and the happiness that is brought to these kids by what they discover about themselves. That’s Anno’s legacy – an incredible self-discovery.”

Gilbert’s family has long been surrounded by the glitterati of the creative world; Anno’s aunt is the singer Jane Birkin, while his cousin is British singer/actress and daughter of the more famous Serge, Charlotte Gainsbourg. In fact, when Anno was younger he was even romantically involved with A-list model and actress Milla Jovovich.

Gilbert has deftly leveraged her connections to the world of

celebrity to keep Anno’s Africa afloat, and the charity she runs out of her house – to keep overheads low – recently closed a celebrity raffle that auctioned off things like artistic postcards

by Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Craig.

She acknowledges she has been fortunate to be surrounded by the connections she has, which have given the charity the fundraising muscle that it needs to maintain its independence and not be reliant on corporate grants.

But aside from the funding and foreign artists who visit annually to help train the trainers, Gilbert insists Anno’s Africa is very much a local production, with the bulk of the work being done by Kenyans – many of whom also come from the slums and some of whom are alumni.

“I don’t want to sound falsely modest but it’s nothing without the team. I hate that charity expression but it’s true, they’ve taken ownership; it runs brilliantly all year round.”

She also recognises the rehabilitative impact the charity work has had on her own life.

“After Anno died I said, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever smile again’, then four months later I’m sitting down in [a Mombasa slum] with a smile from to ear to ear. Kenyan children are the most beautiful in the world.”

But what does Gilbert think her son would make of the work that is being done in African slums in his name? “He’s dancing in heaven I’m sure, or on the astral planes or wherever it is he is.”

2017 MARCH / APRIL

49

ADVERTORIAL

Bella Hadid

Supermodel Bella Hadid is the face of high-jewellery house Boghossian The pioneering Swiss maison has re-signed international model Bella Hadid for the second consecutive year to front its campaign for the new collection Les Merveilles. Admired for her exotic Dutch, Palestinian and Central American heritage, Hadid resonates with Boghossian’s ‘East meets West’ ethos that is deeply embedded in the brand’s history.

Beginning its journey in Armenia and following the Silk Route through the Middle East to Europe, Boghossian have an exceptional heritage as a sixth-generation family of jewellers and stone curators. Drawing inspiration from cultures and civilisations, including Armenian, Phoenician, Persian and

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Byzantine, Boghossian’s appointment of Bella Hadid ties in closely to the brand’s roots.

Accentuated through shards and wisps of light, Hadid showcases Les Merveilles, blending both purity and elegance.

The collection is an ode to light, with the illusion of stones floating mid-air without being set and free from the obstruction of any metal. Hadid’s pared back aura enables the jewellery to speak for itself, taking centre stage; her bare skin highlights the radiance of the pieces in their entirety. The natural brilliance of the rare gemstones contrast with the modern and groundbreaking jewellery techniques created by Boghossian.

ADVERTORIAL

The maison Boghossian’s innovative craftsmanship at its finest Boghossian takes innovative craftsmanship to a new level of intricacy and sophistication as it introduces its latest technique and collection – Les Merveilles. The extraordinary mounting process allows precious stones to be set on all four sides on a nearly invisible metal frame. This grants the uninterrupted flow of light from one diamond to the next, magnifying their brilliance. The technique focuses on the pursuit of the purest light reflection in diamonds, requiring the utmost precision in workmanship and gem selection. This skill is the result of over four years of thorough research and experimentation.

The sophisticated nature of this process is highlighted by the graceful diamond earrings in the shape of an elongated modern hoop, which shine vividly and with a soft fluidity against the face. Les Merveilles setting allows the piece to

render the iconic shape even more memorable through this unique artisanal technique.

Les Merveilles Drops, are also set with gems on all four sides.

Available in a number of colours from classic white diamonds to deep blue sapphires and soft amethysts, the elongated modern shape of the drop creates a contemporary understated elegance.

Also part of this collection are the Merveilles Rings. Each center stone rests on a mounting entirely set in diamonds from all four sides, enhancing the brilliance of the center stone and those of the surrounding.

“Designing jewellery is like painting with light,” says CEO Albert Boghossian. “Since gold interferes with the light reflection, we work hard to find new ways of weaving the stones together with minimal metal intervention.”

2017 MARCH / APRIL

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PRIVATE AVIATION

FLY PRIVATE FOR LESS GI Aviation is pioneering a new business model for the Gulf by tapping first-time private jet fliers. GC speaks to Marios Belidis, general manager of GI Aviation

GI Aviation is a newcomer in the UAE market, why did they decide to launch the company now?

GI Aviation has been in the planning phase for nearly 16 months.

Getting our Air Operator’s Certificate from the UAE GCAA was a major achievement and we are proud to be trailblazers for not just our new company, but also for a brand-new model in the region – affordable, flexible, convenient single-engine operations with the Swiss-built Pilatus PC-12NG. We identified a gap in the market in the business aviation sector, which had previously been dominated by bigger business jets. We are championing a new entry-level model and expect to appeal to charter customers who haven’t flown privately before.

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Your company has taken a novel approach in their business model in that you say you can offer private travel at a more affordable price. How does GI Aviation manage to do this?

Our cost base is lower than any business jet operations and the PC-12NG is more economical to operate than smaller business jets. We can land and take off on small unpaved runways. On average our passengers will travel on a three-hour flight, but they won’t be lounging around at the airport private terminals.

This aircraft is a tool for a job, taking passengers closer to their ultimate destination.

PRIVATE AVIATION

How much does it cost to charter one of your planes, which I believe can hold up to a max of eight people?

It’s difficult to disclose any charter rates without knowing the exact itinerary details; these vary from destination to destination along with the respective airport charges. However, as a guide, we pledge to be 40 - 50 per cent lower than a typical business jet charter. The main challenge right now, is about educating the charter broker fraternity that there is now an alternative to more expensive business jet charters in the GCC and surrounding region.

The competition is fierce in the private aviation industry with apps like Jetsmarter already making flying private more accessible to the masses, not just to one percenters. Are you interested in this 'shared charter' business model?

The industry has some very interesting disruptor models at the moment. We are opening up a new sector in business aviation and will be using different online platforms to promote our business.

charter services where passengers fly ‘to their own schedule’ on popular city pair routes. Flying privately, there are no queues, no delays, which tend to be synonymous with big hub airports.

With GI Aviation, the client determines the schedule and itinerary, which could be several cities in one day and back in time for dinner. We are all about offering a convenient, time efficient reliable service, which serves clients’ itineraries and requirements while maintaining the highest standards of quality and safety.

“The client determines the schedule and itinerary, which could be several cities in one day and back in time for dinner. ”

How has GI Aviation made the booking process more simple for their customers?

Often people complain about the time involved in going through a broker when instead they can go onto an app and book a seat on a private jet within minutes.

It’s very simple. Clients can now request their quotation through the website. In the future, we are planning to launch a mobile application that will allow clients to log in and book their flights.

How do you plan to attract first-time customers away from the UAE's two main airlines who already supply an uber-luxury first class private experience?

We researched the market extensively and identified a need for

What is the range of the Pilatus PC-12NG and how many planes do you have in your fleet?

We currently have one aircraft already operating and will be introducing our second PC-12NG from the Swiss manufacturer next month.

The PC-12NG, with full occupancy, offers a range of 3-4 hours flying.

What are your most popular routes/flight corridors that customers book from this region?

We can serve all the major business hubs and capital cities within the GCC and expect popular choices for customers will be routes like Dubai to Doha, surrounding regions plus popular resort destinations like Sir Bani Yas, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah.

Where do you see growth coming from in 2017 for your business?

Our second PC-12 will have a retrofit option as a medevac aircraft with a stretcher. The plane is convertible within one hour. We envisage interest from the oil and gas community with the PC-12’s short runway performance. We can also carry AOG spare parts for the airlines and help them reposition crews responding to duty time limitations. We see our services being complementary to the bigger business jets, taking clients closer to their destinations.

2017 MARCH / APRIL

53

LAST CHANCE IF YOU’RE HUNGARY Hungary to suspend their popular Residency Bond Program

TYPE OF INVESTMENT

TIME TO APPROVAL

COST OF FINANCING

Residency Bonds

30 days

€125,000

ince its inception in 2013, the Hungarian Residency Bond Program has been one of the most popular investor residency programs in Europe, particularly with Chinese and Middle Eastern investors as it allows them to live and work anywhere in the European Union.

The Hungarian Residency Bond Program was set up to help the Hungarian government refinance its foreign currency debt and avoid bankruptcy. Since then the country’s economic outlook has improved and they have decided to suspend its Investor Immigration Program from March this year.

To date the program has accepted more than 4,000 applicants who have collectively invested more than €1 billion in Hungarian government bonds. Applicants must

invest €300,000 in government bonds for five years and in return they receive permanent residency to the country within 30 days with the opportunity to become a citizen after eight years. Family members may also be included in the residency program application, which opens up education and business opportunities in the EU for the entire family.

One of the advantages is that after the five-year holding period, investors receive their money back without any interest.

Interested individuals must be in the queue by March 31, 2017, the final deadline for applications, or you’ll have missed out on the program. Although the scheme is officially only in moratorium (a delay or suspension of a law), it’s unlikely to be brought back.

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PASSPORT INDEX RANK

VISA-FREE COUNTRIES

9th

150

ARTON INDEX SCORE

76

In a push to the finish line, Arton Capital, an authorised agent for the Hungarian program, recently implemented a financing option. The option allows investors to finance the investment amount for a one-time prepayment of €125,000, making Hungary’s residency program the best in the world, as per the Arton Index, the industry benchmark for residency and citizenship programs.

“Hungary is the ideal country in Central Europe for investors looking to access the entire Schengen zone,” explained John Hanafin, CEO of Arton Capital. “The lack of borders between Schengen member states means investors save valuable time when travelling, and Hungary’s central location means other European hubs and cities, such as Prague, Vienna, Berlin and

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COST

SPEED

GLOBAL MOBILITY

QUALITY OF LIFE

SIMPLICITY

Rome, are just a stone’s throw away.”

He added, “Living in Hungary means living in a country at the intersection of tradition and modernity. Its capital Budapest is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe with its grand architecture and concentration of culture.”

For investors who may be struggling with liquidity, Arton Capital have used their strong ties in Europe to partner with major financial institutions to secure a syndicated loan from key European and international banks for the required investment amount. Furthermore, by the second half of 2017, investors who have already completed the program and secured permanent residency in Hungary will be eligible to take advantage of the financing opportunity through a buyback option of their bonds.

2017 MARCH / APRIL

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ART

GLOBAL STORYTELLERS Meet the former art editor who is now at the helm of Art Dubai

We are all storytellers. Whether writing an article as a journalist or working with a gallery, we want to help tell a story,” says Myrna Ayad, the new fair director of Art Dubai. Ayad, a veteran journalist and the former editor of Canvas magazine, joins a growing group of former writers and editors who have become fair directors, including Marc Spiegler of Art Basel, Noah Horowitz of Art Basel in Miami Beach, and Benjamin Genocchio of the Armory Show.

Last year, she replaced Antonia Carver, who was named global director of Art Jameel, the Saudi arts and culture foundation, which partnered with London’s Victoria and Albert Museum to create the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art. Carver will continue her relationship with Art Dubai by joining the fair's advisory board.

Ayad has followed the growth of the fair from its very inception. “When I was approached for the position, I was no stranger to the fair. I’d been covering it since it was called the Gulf Art Fair in 2006.” Her journalism background makes her uniquely positioned for the role. “Knowledge base is a significant component of the job. I’ve been covering art as a journalist for 15 years and I’m pretty familiar with art practices in the region and who the players are,” she says.

The fair has grown significantly over the last 11 years and has been fundamental in engaging Dubai with art and culture.

A decade ago it brought in 40 galleries with 8,000 visitors compared to 2016’s 94 galleries with 27,000 visitors. It has inspired a weeklong programme of events, including Design Days Dubai, the Global Art Forum, SIKKA Art Fair, as well

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as Art Nights at Gate Village, Alserkal Avenue’s Programmes, and the Galleries Night, RCA Secret Dubai.

This year, Art Dubai endeavours to add to the discourse a conversation about modernism in the region. As a complement to the fair’s Modern hall, Art Dubai will introduce the inaugural Modern Symposium comprising a series of talks and presentations focused on the life, work, and cultural impact of 20th-century modern masters from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

The fair will also offer its largest performance art programme to date. The Room, Cooking Liberty is a visual and gastronomic experience presented by Beirut-based art collective Atfal Ahdath.

Inspired by Salvador Dali’s cookbook, Les Diners de Gala, they will transform the space into a surrealist dining experience.

“This will apply to everything from the ambiance and music to the food. I cannot wait for this,” says Ayad enthusiastically. “This is a platform for artists to explore and dare. It’s an installation and performance art — it’s entirely immersive.”

What distinguishes this fair from others globally is its diversity.

There are 93 galleries from 44 countries participating, with a particularly strong contingent of Iranian galleries as well as the highest-ever number of galleries from Latin America. “That diversity is unrivalled. When you go to European art fairs it’s mostly European art and when you go to American fairs, it’s mostly American art. With 44 countries represented, you can imagine how many nationalities are in those booths. You can witness the world’s cultural practices here.”

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5 1. Art Dubai 2015, The Sheikha Manal Little Artists Program 2.'The Room' for Art Dubai 2017. Courtesy of Atfal Ahdath 3. Anila Quayyum Agha, Alhambra Nights, Aicon Gallery 4. Ahmed Morsi, Bust, Gypsum Gallery

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6 5. Daniel Buren, Colore, luce, proiezione, ombra, trasparenza, lavoro situato n°6, Galleria Continua 6. Nariman Farrokhi, Dastans Basement

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ART

ART INFLUENCERS A new breed of young art patrons say the UAE needs more formal art institutions to sustain the industry

BY FINN TOESLAND

nticing notoriously flighty millennials to spend their time and money supporting galleries and museums has proved a difficult task for many established arts organisations, with developing the next generation of patrons becoming a key focus for many institutions. While many Western museums have long-standing young art patron groups, Middle Eastern arts organisations have been slow to embrace this approach, leading a new wave of engaged young patrons to emerge from the Middle East arts scene who are making sure the voices of younger people are heard.

Princess Alia Al-Senussi is one of the most influential young art patrons and plays a prominent role in the contemporary art

Princess Alia Al-Senussi

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world. The 33-year-old focuses on young patronage and arts in the Middle East. Washington DC-born Al-Senussi believes both art organisations and patrons stand to gain from the creation of young patron groups.

“It really is a two way conversation,” says Al-Senussi. “Young patrons need to be active in communicating their thoughts. You need to be confident enough to speak up and say the things you think are important to you, as there are conversations that need to be had but sometimes younger people can be too timid to have them. Arts institutions created these groups to listen to the needs of younger generations, so they do want to engage in a dialogue.”

As a long-time supporter of the arts in UAE, and a patron of Art Dubai, Al-Senussi has helped improve Dubai's presence in the art world, with her role as a founding member of the Tate's Acquisitions Committee for the Middle East and North Africa and a member of the Middle East Circle of the Guggenheim, allowing her to shed light on aspects of art in the region that are often overlooked.

Al-Senussi’s Libyan father and American mother first piqued her interest in the art world. “Working in the arts is something I do professionally and personally, although I don't have an art history background. But, of course, art was something my parents always valued and has been a part of my life since I was a child.”

Young art enthusiasts in the region can get involved with countless unique experiences through their relationship with arts organisations, from VIP exhibition previews to complimentary tickets to exclusive performances, talks and other events.

“There are regular visits to galleries, collections and museums.

Obviously people can visit museums whenever they want, but can they go on a curator-led tour?” asks Al-Senussi. “No, they can't, you have to be a patron to experience this. Can you go to a beautiful private collector’s home for a tour? No, but you can as a patron. These visits are not so you can be a voyeur and see a collector’s lovely home, but rather to experience these art works in the company of collectors who are very passionate about the arts and have a lot of knowledge to share.”

These initiatives not only inspire young professionals to become fans of the arts, but also, perhaps more importantly for these institutions, become a rich breeding ground for future donors and board members. As major donations to

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Dana Farouki and a piece from her private art collection

arts organisations have long come from elderly donors, new fundraising avenues are beginning to be investigated.

Well-connected young philanthropists may soon pave the way for a sustainable financial future at historic institutions, with this new set of art patrons coming from all walks of life.

From young art professionals and collectors to gallerists and bankers, each wants to create their own art networks and meet new, like-minded people.

Most of these art patrons, like Muna Al Gurg, balance highly successful careers with an appreciation for the arts. Al Gurg, who is the director of retail for the Easa Saleh Al Gurg Group and an active supporter of the arts in Dubai, believes that as well as the more traditional institutions it's important for young people to explore alternative art venues, in particular, the burgeoning street art scene in Dubai.

While she feels the cultural landscape of the UAE has been transformed over the past decade, she cites the lack of educational establishments with a focus on the arts as a major barrier to the growth of the UAE art sector.

“There is a lack of educational institutions within the UAE,

and elsewhere in the region, that can encourage young people to get into the scene. Arts institutions do have a responsibly in this area, as currently there are not many options and those interested in making a career in the arts usually have to study abroad to progress in the industry. If this issue were to be resolved we would see a lot more artists emerging from the region,” says Al Gurg.

35-year-old Palestinian-American patron Dana Farouki agrees. The contemporary art collector and chairperson of the Abraaj Group Art Prize, considers supporting arts organisations that preserve culture and provide opportunities to living artists “tremendously important”.

“I will forever feel a sense of pride in visiting an institution that I have supported; you can feel the significance of your engagement by watching audiences enjoy a space or savour an artist's project. It is important that we all recognise how the artists can impact society; they make statements that spark progress and shape society. Real engagement with art organisations can be extremely meaningful and fulfilling. The possibilities and power of art are limitless,” concludes Farouki.

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ART

Salma Shaheem

THE FINE ART OF APPRECIATION Dubai-based art advisor Salma Shaheem explains the craft of collecting blue-chip artworks from the region – and how to make a fortune while you’re at it t is an idea that will horrify some art collectors: investing in art to unabashedly make a profit, rather than for art’s sake itself. For the Fine Art Group founder and CEO, Philip Hoffman, controversy is part of the job; he relishes it. During a speech to the London School of Business in 2014, Hoffman recalled an incident where Mera Rubell, a billionaire Miami art collector publicly ridiculed him – expletives included – for the way his company “invested in art”, something she considered sacrilegious. Hoffman, who set up his art business in 2001, has gone on to gather assets worth $350-400 million and counting.

His group has expanded into nearly two dozen countries and there’s now a concerted push into the Middle East.

The Fine Art Group’s business plan is straightforward. At the time of inception in 2001, it was primarily an investment vehicle.

The commodity was fine art. The first fund was launched in 2004 and raised $25 million. Through this the group purchased museum-quality blue-chip art. It operated exactly like any private equity long-only structure fund, if you will. However, post downturn, there was a change in attitude of its clients.

People were no longer comfortable with locking their money

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in, so the group created a new service that allowed the client to buy and sell their own artwork — similar to what banks term as a discretionary portfolio.

“Whenever I tell people about my business for the first time, they don’t fully understand the concept,” explained Salma Shaheem, head of the Middle Eastern market for the Londonheadquartered Fine Art Group. “'Are you a gallery?’ No. ‘Are you an artist?’ No. The best way I explain it to them is that I am like your stockbroker. I don’t have any inventory. I give you an objective view of the art market, and I tell you when is a good time to buy and to sell.”

Shaheem, who was born and raised in Dubai, moved to London where she studied finance and art history at Richmond University. “My thesis was art as an alternative asset class. At that time, there were two firms doing this. One was The Fine Art Group, the other was Daman investments.” She opted for the latter, and after finishing her studies in 2008 returned to Dubai to work on Daman’s art fund - where she stayed for two years until she met Hoffman. “When we met in 2010-2011, I told him that the Middle East market cannot be a briefcase

ART

museums like the MET, MOMA, and at the Guggenheim in New York, and this is huge. Middle Eastern, Iranian, Pakistani, Iraqi and Syrian is considered emerging.”

In the UAE, she points to Sharjah’s strong cultural identity and the success of the Sharjah Biennial, which attracts foreign contemporary artists from outside the region, like Danh Vo and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, alongside artists from the emirates.

However, the Iranian art expert says that the best example of Dubai’s exploding art scene is Alserkal Avenue that has grown organically into a hub for galleries. While Abu Dhabi, she says “is like the older sibling with the more prestigious museum projects like the Louvre and the Guggenheim.”

When it comes to making money in art, Shaheem is hesitant to mention the rates of return that investments on art will fetch, but she does concede, “returns of over 90 per cent cash on cash, for historical pieces and 30-50 per cent cash-on-cash for young artists.” Admittedly, very few will see the wild returns on investments like the Stuffed Shark by Damien Hirst that Charles Saatchi purchased for $50,000 in the nineties and sold to Steve Cohen for $12 million a little over a decade ago.

Yet, there is a sound business case to be made in investing in art. As she says, “Art is a hedge against an unstable economic environment. Photography or prints or painting – whatever the medium, the value of the artwork will never go down to zero, unlike a stock might.” Though, Shaheem and her boss Hoffman’s definition of ‘appreciating art’ will always be polar opposites to that of Rubell.

Image courtesy of Getty Images

business. You cannot send a rep four days every month to come and sweep the market. There’s a lot of handholding,” she explained.

Hoffman listened and sent Shaheem to learn the tricks of the trade in London where she trained for two years, before returning to Dubai to open the Middle Eastern arm of the business in 2012. “From then on I had to build my rolodex, one client at a time.” Since then, the business has mushroomed enough to justify opening an office space in Dubai’s Business Bay district.

Like their business model, Shaheem’s advice to clients isn’t complicated provided you have a small war chest to play with.

She recommends an initial investment of $130,000 to $500,000.

For this you’ll also get non-partisan advice about how and what to buy — she tips us off that the smart money right now is riding on post-war and contemporary artworks. “Historically, if you collected the works of Old Masters and some impressionist from Italian, Dutch and French artists, your status on the collector food-chain was at the top. Today, the market has shifted rapidly into post-war and contemporary art. The Giacomettis, Monets, and Manets, DeGrazias and Picassos are still very important – but there’s a new wave and a big shift in the appetite for contemporary art.”

Shaheem has an overarching view of the art scene in the region, and she’s enthused by what she is seeing. “As an emerging market, we’re on the right track,” she says. “We’re seeing artists like Mona Hatoum and Monir Farmanfarmaian featured in

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DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

CUTTING EDGES Apical Reform: the pioneering young design practice that’s using tech to preserve history

Design director, Darshan Soni and principal and founder, Amrish Patel, of Apical Reform

pical Reform is one of the most exciting design studios to emerge from the region in years. Established in 2011, they are a multi-disciplinary design studio dedicated to creating one-of-a-kind design, art, and installation works that combine the best of crafts with cutting edge production technology.

Based in India, the studio is comprised of a young, forwardthinking group of creatives. They started as an interior and architectural studio, working on both residential and commercial projects, but as the team evolved, so did their vision. “I think the seeds for us eventually concentrating on product design were laid when I and my design director, Darshan Soni, started working together,” says principal and founder, Amrish Patel.

“We knew we didn’t want to be one amongst the many firms already in the business. We sought to stand out in the minutest of details for our initial projects. Be it door and cabinet hinges, wall cladding systems, flooring details – we didn’t rely on what was in the market; we created our own products.”

The studio now also focuses on creating design and art pieces.

One of their standout pieces at last year’s Downtown Design was The Dromedary.

“Inspired by the Arabian Camel, it is a fine example of how our works are not just pretty things, but a commentary on our world.

By imagining the anatomy of a camel as a series of synchronised levers, the piece alludes to the symbiotic dependence found in nature and our communities,” explains Soni.

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The studio has grown slowly and, as such, the tight-knit team of designers share ideas and help each other build on their concepts, which has led to most of their final products.

The first step in creating a piece is to define parameters: the function, shape, and of course the designer’s ultimate vision for the product. Then parametric design is applied, leading to computer rendered components that are then put through a series of digital fabrication processes. Finally, each piece is assembled by hand by a team of master craftsmen — bridging tradition with modern technology.

During Design Days Dubai in March they will reveal their latest project, Sounslexica. “The installation is an ode to the vision of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai, as well as paying homage to the determination of the Emirate’s peoples – both Emiratis and expats,” says Patel.

The team took words that they believed to be the essence of the region — peace, diversity, harmony, growth, security etc. — ­ ­and asked the people of Dubai to record those words in their native languages. The studio then used sound wave technology to isolate the sound waves and convert them into a 3D form which was later shaped out of wood.

The choice of material is particularly symbolic. “Wood has a long history with the Emirates. Dhows, the traditional trading boats of the region, were made of wood and were integral to establishing Dubai as a trading port. In carving the totems

DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

from wood, we represent the root – the start of the growth of the city,” says Soni.

In addition, a stylised skyline, derived from the creation of a wave pattern joining the peaks of the Emirates' most iconic buildings, is digitally produced using aluminium, a core material in construction and machinery. “The overall iceberg-like shape alludes to the fact that there is more to Dubai than its glitz and glam. Like an iceberg, Dubai is resilient,” adds Patel.

The studio will soon be opening their gallery at Dubai Design District in the summer of 2017. This will bring them closer to their high-profile clients across India, the GCC and Europe

for whom they have supplied bespoke design and art pieces.

But commercial success is not the studio’s sole aim. “We want to be pioneers,” says Patel. “We want to push boundaries.

We also want to be a place where talent and ideas have a safe nurturing space. We don’t want to be remembered for one particular product, but rather the ethos we bring to the creative community and the sense of curiosity we hope to instill in people who like and appreciate our work. If we can inspire even a handful of new designers to look beyond the immediate, if we can provide a canvas for just a few consumers to not blindly accept what is handed out to them, then we can rest easy.”

Clockwise from Left: Sonuslexica, The Betula Chair The Dromedary

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LIFESTYLE

ICAROS

All prices approximate

If you thought rock climbing on the PlayStation was the complete daily workout you needed, you haven’t heard about Icaros yet. The German company recently debuted this gyroscopic fitness machine that’s powered by the kinetic movements of your body. Users sync their movements in tandem with the video beamed through the Samsung VR (although you can even hook up an Oculus Rift or HTC Live) headset that is shipped as part of the package. The video experience includes diving underwater, a flying simulator, parachuting, and motorcycle riding. $8,000, icaros.net

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GADGETS

RAZER PROJECT VALERIE

This concept was unveiled at the CES earlier this year, and has not one, but three 4k screens backed up by Nvidia’s G-sync technology. Built with internal guts similar to the Razer Blade Pro, this laptop has enough processing firepower to support some serious graphics, giving the user a 180-degree view for an immersive process while at work or play. Don’t trade in your Macbook Air just yet though, this one weighs in at nearly 5.5-kgs so it isn’t exactly portable.

TBC, razerone.com

WILLIAMSON WHEELMEN BICYCLE

While you’ll do the ozone layer a favour by swinging a leg over a pedal-powered bicycle, there will be an animal or two that will need to lay down their lives in the process. That’s because this bespoke bicycle by Detroit-based Willamson Goods has a frame and seat that’s wrapped in either python or crocodile skin. Each cycle is hand-crafted, and the brakes, gears and cranks are adjusted to client specifications for a customised riding experience. $35,000, Williamsongoods.com

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YACHT

SMALL BUT MIGHTY The Arcadia Sherpa makes its stylish debut

he Arcadia Sherpa was unveiled for the first time last January during the Boot Dusseldorf. It has since won two prestigious awards at the Yachting Festival de Cannes, The World Yachts Trophies 2016 — in the category "Most Innovative Yacht" from 50 to 80 feet — and Boat of the Year 2016 in the motor yacht category.

The yacht fits a niche that was missing in the market for a ‘small/ large yacht’ with a futuristic design. Sherpa is perfect for those who prefer the tranquillity of cruising at 18-20 knots and who consider low consumption – without the traditionally associated lack of power performance – an added value.

The Sherpa has an overall length of 17.70 metres with a width/ beam of 5.60 metres made more pronounced by the concept of "open space" of the aft cockpit. It is a compact size that is still able to check off all the key factors of bigger yachts available in the range of the yard — internal/external areas and volumes, high-performance efficient hull, and minimalist and neat interiors.

Entertaining spaces abound for guests who want to enjoy the

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luxury of the large convivial outdoor area and spend days cruising and lounging on comfortable sofas, shaded by a large awning.

The Arcadia Sherpa also introduces a new concept of sports flying bridge ­— an “easy-to-close” platform is completely protected by the side windows that can be raised up to meet the hardtop. Just like in cars, the upper deck of Sherpa is "convertible."

Whether dealing with hot climates or unseasonable weather, the entire upper deck area is equipped with air-conditioning, making the Sherpa much more flexible and usable regardless of the environmental conditions. Of course, it can also be left open as with any traditional flying bridge.

The Sherpa is also characterised by an unexpected storage space of 140 square metres below the main deck. The cabinets have various uses, such as room for storing luggage, fishing and diving gear, water-sports equipment, or for the optional positioning of the sea-keeper stabiliser in its central part. This is why the boat was named after the Himalayan guides famed for their legendary ability to carry extraordinary loads.

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AUTO

SUPERCAR DEBUTANTS In the automotive arms race, only a select few will survive this year

FIRECRACKER FERRARI 812 SUPERFAST It’s the fastest, most powerful production Ferrari ever. This one comes with bittersweet memories for Ferrari purists. It’s the first Ferrari to have power steering and the last to feature a naturally aspirated engine, ending a 70-year era to make way for a new generation of cars that will be kinder to the ozone layer. The 812 Superfast is the successor to the F12 Berlinetta, and the men at Maranello have managed to build this car with 60 horses added to the engine and no significant increase in the car’s weight. It’s

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why the Italian brand is a serious force to reckon with in the world of supercar engineering.

Engine 6.5-litre V12 Power 789hp Torque 718Nm @7,000 rpm Top Speed 340kph 0-100kph 2.9 seconds

AUTO

MONSTER CAR PAGANI HUAYRA ROADSTER The coupe version of the Huayra with a fixed roof has been around for a while now. This year, Horacio Pagani decided to build a roadster and knock off the roof. To ensure that the car was rigid and stable at high speeds – Pagani’s are reputed to be flat-out speed demons – his team created carbon fibre-titanium hybrids, which also meant that they were able to shed 80kgs when designing the open-top version as compared to the coupe.

There are only 100 roadsters built and they are priced at $2.4 million a pop. But don’t reach for the cheque book — although it’s

set to make a formal debut at the upcoming Geneva Motor Show, all the units are already sold out.

Engine 6-litre V12 Power 764 hp Torque 999NM @2,400rpm Top Speed 337kph 0-100kph 3 seconds

BACK TO BLACK BMW I8 PROTONIC FROZEN BLACK BMW has struck significant success in the hybrid sportscar category. On the eve of its third anniversary, the i8 has moved into stealth mode with this limited-edition car that will have a custom all-black matte paint job and bespoke interiors. That includes a new spoke design for the wheels, and interiors appointments to sharpen the cabin’s aesthetics, including changing up the colour of the stitch on the seats, a new colour for the seatbelts, and using ceramic on the cars controls too.

Engine Hybrid (1.5-litre turbocharged engine; 7.1Kwhlithium-ion battery) Power 362 hp (combined) Torque 570Nm Top Speed 250kph 0-100kph 4.4 seconds

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“Andha”DESIGN chairs, Dedon; $3,630 at Nakkash Gallery

AL FRESCO Beyond wicker, outdoor furniture gets a sophisticated update

“Mbrace” wing chair, Dedon; $4,770 at Nakkash Gallery

Chaise lounge, Atelier Rouge Cerise; $4,100 at Cities

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All prices approximate

Bar and barstools, Tribu, $1,300 and $850 each; Matteograssi M.E. Furniture Trading

DESIGN

Outdoor sofa, Tribu, $3,756; Matteograssi M.E. Furniture Trading

Coffee table, DCAA; $1,450 at Cities

“Dala” lighting and planters, Dedon; $350 - $1,520 at Nakkash Gallery

“Cala” chair, Kettal; POA Obegi Home Daybed, Tribu, $4,580; Matteograssi M.E. Furniture Trading 2017 MARCH / APRIL

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DINING

IMPORTED PLATES

Dubai’s newest restaurants have perfected their adopted cuisines

MATTO A home-grown brand serving classic Italian food created by the minds behind restaurants and lounges like Iris and Indie DIFC. An open kitchen amidst the industrial interiors allows guests to be immersed in the cooking experience. The food concept is designed to be what your nonna made, that is, if your nonna were a refined gourmet cook. The handmade pasta dishes are the stars of the menu, benefitting greatly from fresh high-end ingredients such as lobster, porcini mushrooms, and of course, the ubiquitous truffle. The staff hails from different regions of Italy lending a feeling of authenticity that is often missing among Dubai restaurants.

The Oberoi, Business Bay, +971 4 444 1335

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DINING

THE ATLANTIC Like its Melbourne sister restaurant that overlooks the Yarra River in the trendy Southbank promenade, Dubai’s newest seafood restaurant, The Atlantic snapped up prime position in Souk Al Bahar with the dancing fountains and Burj Khalifa as the backdrop — so you can firmly tick off that dinner with a view request. The kitchen view isn’t bad either, with famed chef Donovan Cooke (who has a cult-like following in Hong Kong and Australia) heading up the team.

His signature dish, which Donovan has perfected over the past 30 years is olive oil confit salmon, served with heirloom vegetables

and herb jus. The Moreton Bay Bugs with eye-wateringly garlicky parsley spaghetti is a simple but delicious choice, along with a more balanced dish of yellowtail king fish ceviche with pops of grapefruit and pickled ginger. The black bream ‘en papillote’ is a gift in a brown paper bag, fresh fillets of bream are steamed with oyster mushrooms, leeks, celery, fennel, and a hint of truffle.

Souk Al Bahar, level 3, Downtown Dubai, +971 4 442 5662

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DINING

LUCKY VOICE Lucky Voice is the up-market karaoke joint that Dubai corporates need in their lives. Founded in London’s Soho, it’s the perfect after-work venue to grab a bite and then kick back in one of their private, fully soundproof karaoke pods that can host large groups or opt for the even larger capacity VIP pod. The menu is an international fusion of casual dining options, from sliders and tacos to Roman style pizzas. Try the lucky claw daddy, a spin on the classic lobster roll with tender chunks fresh from the Atlantic. For a more intense flavour experience opt for the king crab Goan curry with an extra side of truffle fries for dipping!

Lucky Voice Dubai, 6th floor, Grand Millennium Hotel, Barsha Heights, Dubai +971 800 58259

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DINING

IL BORRO The Ferragamo family, famous arbiters of style, have expanded their empire of good taste to include a handful of boutique hotels and properties. Il Borro is a beautiful estate in Tuscany stretching over 700 hectares featuring a charming bistro with products supplied from the surrounding farm including organic wines, olive oil and honey. The first international outpost of the restaurant

has opened in Dubai and you can rely on simple, but expertly executed Italian fare. The pappa al pomodoro, a humble peasant dish of day-old bread and tomatoes, is expectedly comforting. The Bistecca alla fiorentina, t-bone steak is juicy, chargrilled perfection.

Jumeirah Al Naseem Hotel, Madinat Jumeirah, +971 4 275 2555

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HOTELS

GREAT ESCAPES Whatever the season, these luxury adventure retreats have you covered

ZANZIBAR WHITE SAND LUXURY VILLAS & SPA ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA This resort effortlessly combines luxury and sustainability on Zanibar’s east coast. The entire resort is self-contained, powered by wind and solar energy, and pays homage to its Omani heritage in many ways, with narrow white sandy passages guiding guests from their individual villas to the sea. But don’t let the rustic wooden villas and bare-feet vibe fool you; this is pampered ground. Each villa has its own butler service and private swimming pool with either a garden and outdoor bathtub or an upper-floor terrace with a cloth hammock for lounging. The open-air spa has a running

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waterfall and uses local products like coconut, seaweed and island spices. While some come to laze the day away under the shaded palms and watch the monkeys misbehave, most come to kitesurf out of the resort’s in-house kitesurfing school. When the tide is in on Paje beach, the blinding turquoise blue coastline is overcome with a sea of colourful sails piloted by energetic locals and tourists alike.

Rates from $730 per night www.whitesandvillas.com

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HOTELS

AMANGANI JACKSON, WYOMING, USA Located about five miles north of Jackson, Wyoming, Amangani is a dramatic Rocky Mountain hideaway offering panoramic views of the nearby Snake River Valley and Teton Mountains. Though popular in the winter for skiing the snow-packed slopes of Jackson Hole, this all-suite Wyoming wilderness retreat has back-to-nature appeal all year round. Activities include horseback nature treks and guided tours, as well as dog sledding, white water rafting,

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fly-fishing, photography tours, and more. Wildlife enthusiasts will delight as spring brings elk and moose calves and bears emerging from hibernation, while the changing foliage of autumn coincides with the breeding season Rooms from $595 per night, www.aman.com/resorts/amangani

HOTELS

EICHARDT’S PRIVATE HOTEL QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND The lakefront boutique ski hotel is positioned in the heart of New Zealand’s adventure playground, Queenstown, and it oozes luxury.

The penthouse here costs $10,000 per night but for that you’ll get a panoramic alpine view across Lake Wakatipu, rows of fine-dining restaurants, and art galleries on your doorstep. However, for the ultimate bird’s eye view over the snow-capped mountains and waterways, some of the world’s most spectacular natural terrains,

take a scenic helicopter ride and let your adrenaline pulsate with a spot of heli-skiing. There’s also white-water rafting and some of the best dry-fly fishing, award-winning wineries, world heritagelisted national parks, championship golf, and a choice of two casinos for a roll of the dice.

Rooms from $750 per night, www.eichardts.com

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HOTELS

THE GLOBAL NOMAD New brand Montroi caters to globetrotters seeking more than just accessories

or Enrique Hormigo, nomadism is not just a lifestyle, it’s a philosophy. His brand, Montroi, was created to “celebrate nomadism” through curated city guides, handmade travel bags and accessories, and cultural events. Except, of course, in this case, the stateless globetrotters in question are not exactly vagabonds­— they have impeccable taste.

Through an online retail store and a pop-up showroom in D3, Hormigo is promoting his modern version of global nomadism.

“Being a nomad means travelling the world, learning from other cultures and taking the best from each place,” he explains. “That’s why we travel the world looking for different expertise to develop our products.”

The leather products, a range of exquisitely made backpacks, briefcases, and accessories are manufactured in Italy, Spain, and France. “A nomad has less, but better quality things. Things that age well, are resistant but at the same time very practical,” says Hormigo.

It can take up to four months of work to make their signature backpack. This timing includes the preparation of the leather, time in the tannery, production of made-to-measure zippers, double anti-humidity treatment, and sewing. Over 20 craftsmen participate in the manufacturing process, with just the time in the workshop equaling two full days per bag. With this much painstaking labour it's no surprise that the brand feels “much closer to the world of craftsmanship than fashion.”

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But Hormigo doesn’t want to limit himself to retail. The purpose of the brand is to use travel as opportunities to meet people, grow, and to learn through dialogue and shared experiences. The studio frequently holds talks, cultural events, and exhibitions. Past events have included an evening with Alex Huynh, Creative Director of luxury home decoration brand Henryot & Cie and Mexican surreal artist, Gildo Medina.

“By definition, Montroi clients are experienced travellers, who have already experienced the fancy of life and are now in search of the authenticity and good quality,” says Hormigo.

He could be describing himself. His grandfather served in the Spanish Army, his father was born in Africa, while Hormigo himself was born in Barcelona and arrived in Dubai eight years ago, after living in Paris for five years. “I come from a background where I was fortunate to have my needs covered,” admits the young entrepreneur. “But I quickly learned that the important things in life are not material.”

So far, it seems that Hormigo’s vision is coming to fruition. He says he recently met someone who visited the Montroi studio in the Dubai Design District and managed to leave an impression on him. “We had a chat and he flew back to his country. He sent us an email a few days later to tell us that he had bought a plane ticket to Barcelona because he was inspired by the brand and the studio. He said he wanted to discover another culture. That’s what we are here for.”

DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

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DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

LIGHT YEARS AHEAD Lasvit creates design experiences with their spectacular lighting installations

hen Lasvit debuted their kinetic installation, Supernova, at Downtown Design in 2015, it was clear that lighting had entered the digital age. The mesmerising light and crystal work transformed in response to the viewers’ movements, refracting light in various patterns while leaving observers awestruck.

“My vision in founding Lasvit was to create breath-taking glass experiences and bring Bohemian craftsmanship to the forefront of design. We don’t think of our projects as products, we strive to create the perfect experience through the quality of light, glass, and design,” says the founder and owner, Leon Jakimic, about his 10-year-old Czech company.

Jakimic’s family worked in the glassmaking business and Lasvit’s designs are still very much rooted in tradition. One of the company’s core values is to achieve “Bohemian perfection” – a reference to both the Czech Republic’s glass-making practices and its creativity and free-spirit. Even the youngest glassmakers at the company are fully grounded in the centuries-old glass blowing techniques.

But Jakimic is taking the business one step further. “I hoped

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to bring the traditional Bohemian craftsmanship of hand-blown glass back to life,” he recalls. This is achieved not only through design, but also by incorporating the latest innovations in glass manufacturing with technology.

“The domain of lighting technology is limitless in terms of combining imagination with innovation and technology. The introduction of kinetic technology to our craft was a great breakthrough in our innovations. It has enabled us to bring our installations to life – an interactive element where onlookers don’t just admire the piece but can interact with it,” says Jakimic.

Their E-motions Collection presents kinetic sculptures that conduct reflections and refractions of light in movement and are programmable through an i-Phone/i-Pad. At d3 in Dubai, Lasvit unveiled Pulse, a kinetic installation that brought the entire atrium of building four to life. Inspired by the pulse of a human heart, at first the individual elements disperse throughout the atrium, imitating glass-making sand when scattered on the ground. Then, the elements of the sculpture join into one compact animated shape that pulses through the atrium.

It is the intersection of design, glass, lighting and technology

DESIGN ENTREPRENEUR

that makes the brand so exciting to watch. “Glass is a magical material that is neither liquid nor solid, a great medium to interpret light, which is intangible. True design is more than how things look - it’s how it makes you feel and, ultimately, how it functions.

Combining these elements is very powerful,” says Jakimic.

Jakimic, who received his undergraduate and MBA in the US, does not have a design background himself and focuses mainly on the business. The creativity behind these pieces is credited to a talented in-house team of designers and frequent collaborations with high-profile designers, such as Daniel Libeskind, the Campana Brothers, Maarten Baas, Arik Levy, and Michael Young, among many others.

Lasvit’s bespoke installations have adorned private residences, boutiques, public spaces and luxury hotels across the globe – from windswept leaves in the lobby of the Peninsula Hotel in Paris

to powerful ocean waves in the Ritz-Carlton, Hong Kong. In the UAE, their work is on display at the Palazzo Versace, St. Regis as well as the Dubai Metro, Dubai Opera and d3. In September, they opened their first Atelier in New York City’s Soho, with plans to open several more across the world in the mid-term horizon.

Next year is a busy year for the brand. They are working on the largest installations produced by Lasvit to date. Two installations, in the shape of dragons, 50 metres in length and weighing four tonnes each, will be revealed at Casino Saipan, in the Northern Mariana Islands. More locally, there are plans to unveil two more installations at d3, an installation at Dubai Opera, a collection at the Address Boulevard, and installations at the Grand Hyatt Emirates Pearl in Abu Dhabi. And Jakimic says there are still many more, “There are a few other key projects to be unveiled in the coming months. We’re far from resting on our laurels.”

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HANDMADE

BURIED TREASURE

Gemfields uncovers untold riches in Mozambique’s ruby mines here are few opportunities in the world to discover buried treasure. But that’s exactly what happened when a local farmer in the Montepuez region of Mozambique fortuitously discovered a ruby in the ground while chopping down a tree.

It turned out the ground was full of these precious gems.

This once remote part of northern Mozambique is thought to hold 40 per cent of the world’s known supply of a precious stone that, since antiquity, has been associated with wealth and royalty. Montepuez has been hailed by the Gemological Institute of America as “the most important ruby discovery” of the 21st century. The mines are now 75 per cent owned and operated

by Gemfields, the world’s leading supplier of rare coloured gemstones, in collaboration with a local entity.

In an industry that is often synonymous with exploitation, Gemfields prides itself on the ethical sourcing of its gemstones and aspires to create benchmarks for environmental, social, and safety practices in the coloured gemstone sector. Additionally, one per cent of their annual revenue is used towards CSR initiatives.

What is interesting about these stones, other than their undeniable beauty, is how much of the mining, sorting, cutting, and polishing process is done by hand. At the Montepuez mines, once soil samples are collected they are brought to a processing centre to be washed and separated in a contraption that is not unlike the ones recognisable in old-time movies about gold prospecting.

After the gemstones are washed, and before they go to auction to be sold, they are sorted and graded. With workers meticulously sorting through piles of tiny pebbles, the process can be painstaking. When even the smallest specimens have value, workers use tweezers to ensure no costly piece of gravel is lost.

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The rough gemstones are graded, not only into size and quality, but also into the different categories for specific cutting requirements. For example: faceted stones, cabochons, beads, and calibrated goods all require different grades of rough.

The cutting and polishing of stones is done off-site. A well-cut ruby is hard to find because natural rubies are so rare. Jewellers tend towards cutting the stone to maintain size, which is not always the best option to bring out maximum shine and sparkle in the stone. A jeweller’s loop is used to examine uncut rubies for any potential flaws that can create weakness in the stone. The jewellers need to be thoroughly aware of the properties of the stone before beginning to cut.

The gem cutter machine must be as sharp as possible to maximise cutting ability and shorten the time required for this task. The ruby is cut slowly and carefully using the sharpened gem cutting machine, which is key to not over-cutting the stone.

The goal is to maintain a depth percentage of 65 to 80 per cent, which adds to colour and lustre. A shallower cut makes the ruby look washed out and pale in colour and is slightly transparent. A quality cut provides a rich red colour. Although a deep cut creates a smaller stone, the quality increases the value.

The rubies found in Montepuez are of a level of quality previously only thought possible in the legendary ‘pigeon blood’ gemstones originating in Myanmar. In 2014, they discovered an exceptional 40-carat ruby at the mines. They have also fetched record numbers at recent auctions. Last June, the company generated revenues of $44.3m with an average realised price of $29.21 per carat.

And this is just a fraction of what’s in the ground. The Montepuez mines have many more riches to give.

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Images courtesy of Gemfields and Star Lanka

FRAGRANCE

FRESH AND CLEAN

Mother Nature has a cure for almost anything in these products with natural ingredients Note di Colonia I, Aqua di Parma

This unisex fragrance was part of a trio launched to celebrate the brand’s 100th anniversary, paying homage to the city of Parma and its operatic tradition. Top notes are neroli and bergamot; middle notes are damask rose, lavender and violet; base notes are patchouli and cedar.

150 ml, $360

Parco Palladiano, Bottega Veneta

The Palladian gardens of Venice, and their indigenous ingredients, are the inspiration behind this series of six fragrances. Our favourite is volume V. Woody and faintly spicy, it combines the crispness of laurel with sturdy rosemary and soft sage leaves.

100ml, $348

Polishing Facial Exfoliant: Pink Grapefruit and Glucomannan Extract, Grown Alchemist

A gentle skin polishing exfoliant formulated to polish away dry and dead skin cells that tend to accumulate underneath thick facial hair. The fine texture of the polishing beads ensures deep cleansing without scratching or causing micro-abrasion of sensitive facial skin – leaving your skin nourished, cleansed, soothed, and radiant.

75 ml, $75

Super Anti-Aging Serum, Dr Barbara Sturm

This miracle serum is packed with powerful ingredients to target signs of ageing. Purslane and skullcap reduce inflammation, while long and short-chain hyaluronic molecules intensely moisturise the surface layers of the skin for an instantly rejuvenated appearance.

30ml, $280

Parsley Seed Cream, Aesop

Soothing and nourishing, the Aesop Parsley Seed Anti-Oxidant Facial Hydrating Cream contains a potent blend of botanicals to help fortify the skin, protecting against dehydrating elements and the effects of urban pollution. It contains a mixture of emollients, including sweet almond oil and shea butter that will appeal to those with normal, combination and dry skin types.

60ml, $87

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VIP ACCESS Grooming company 1847 launches a new VIP room

1847 has long catered to the grooming needs of the man-abouttown, and now it has launched an exclusive VIP Room in its Jumeirah Emirates Towers branch. Catered to those seeking refuge from the city’s stresses, the room is equipped with sumptuous leather armchairs for use during manicures and pedicures and a luxe barber’s chair with settings to ensure maximum comfort during a wet shave. The massage room boasts an en-suite power shower. If all the manscaping feels a little tedious, there are plenty of wide-screen televisions with Apple TV access for entertainment. For those more intellectually minded, there is an adjacent library.

1847, Jumeirah Emirates Towers, +971 4 330 1847

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LITTLE BLACK BOOK

LITTLE BLACK BOOK MEXICO CITY Artist Gildo Medina mixes figurative art with the surreal. He grew up in Mexico, and his artistic journey has been strongly influenced by the places he has lived and trained. Medina was featured in TASCHEN’s latest edition of “100 illustrators,” which profiled a selection of the most successful and important illustrators around the globe. A true Global Citizen he works and lives between Paris, New York, and Mexico. Here he shows us around Mexico City.

Happy Hour “Artemisa Bar” in the Roma neighbourhood is the perfect place for an artisanal experimental cocktail. It’s a beautiful, eclectic place in Mexico with a French touch.

Sartorial Choices al place where As I’m a nomadic artist, I don't have a speci s from my trips I buy clothes, so I really love to gather piece find amazing can you around the world. However, in Mexico io de los Palac el and rik places for shopping, like Av. Maza ood. bourh neigh co Polan Palacios in the

For the Bookworm I love to spend hours at El Pendulo bookstores. There’s a few of them in the most interesting neighbourhoods, such as La Roma, Condesa, and Polanco. Also, you can sit and have breakfast, lunch, or dinner while you read.

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LITTLE BLACK BOOK

A Night’s Stay A great choice is the beautiful and chic Las Alcobas hotel in Polanco where you can find one of the most surreal and beautifully authentic restaurants in Mexico – Dulce Patria – curated by the Chef Martha Ortiz

I am always struck by the permanent contrast of the city — beauty and ugliness, rich and poor, old and modern, chic and tacky. It’s surreal. As Andre Breton said, ‘Mexico is naturally surrealistic’

For a Meander In the La Roma neighbourhood you could spend days just wandering around enjoying eclectic architecture that includes Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and modernist buildings.

Cultural Excursions For contemporary art I love Museo Tamayo, and for being lost in time – Museo de Bellas in downtown.

Regional Cuisine It’s hard to pick just one restaurant because Mexico City has amazing food, but I do love Rosetta, which is in a grand Colonia Roma townhouse.

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TRAVEL

PARADISE FOUND

Trancoso – the lost Brazilian utopia explored

BY GEORGINA WILSON-POWELL

t’s hard to imagine a paradise in 2017 that hasn’t been commercialised and featured a million times in various magazines and blogs, but they do still exist if you know where to look. When Wilbert Das first visited the sleepy, beachside town of Trancoso in Brazil, he knew he’d found a paradise untouched by the kind of mass consumption he was used to as the creative director of Italian fashion powerhouse, Diesel.

Fast forward eight years and Das’ creativity has woven itself into the very fabric of the town. Physically, his UXUA (which means marvelous) Casa lead hotel has extended its beautiful tendrils into the town’s traditional village square, the Quadrado - where anything and everything of any note happens.

Primary-coloured single story fisherman’s houses line the square on three sides, while the traditional Portuguese whitewashed church, Igreja de Sao Joao Batista, presides over the end nearest the sea. It might not sound like much, but for some Trancoso residents this square kilometre is enough for them for their whole lives. People don’t leave Trancoso. With its laidback pace of life and a thriving community spirit, it feels like a lost utopia.

Hippies certainly thought so when they arrived in the 1970s, bringing with them free love and macrobiotic cafes. The Trancoso residents barely raised an eyebrow and many of the European travellers, the first non-local people to find Trancoso (back then it was only accessible on foot or by boat), never left.

Today, Das has bought a few of the houses from the hippies (he won’t buy a local’s home) and turned them into cooler versions of themselves - filling the little houses with upcycled furniture (think wooden chandeliers with wine bottle light fittings) and the kind of ‘found’ artwork that takes a lifetime to perfect.

He’s also become something of a town champion. When he first arrived and decided to turn the home he’d built into a hotel (which was more of an excuse to indulge his newfound love of architectural design than a desire to be a hotelier), time-keeping didn’t exist. Neither did routine or standard process or anything

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else required to run a normal business. So he enlisted help. Since then he’s set up a hospitality school, runs language classes, and supports schools in the community. In designing a range of homewares and furniture for hotel guests to purchase, he’s revived traditional crafts and brought new ones to the Quadrado; a loom has been installed in the hotel so it create its own rugs and throws, inspired by traditional patterns and overseen by a local artisan. He even employs an environmental lobbyist to help protect the amazingly pristine coastline.

But Trancoso is more than just UXUA. The town itself has a charm that’s bewitching. Visitors here visibly relax as the sultry sunny days go on, and with thick jungle beyond the town’s outer limits on three sides and a deserted beach on the other, the feeling of being cut off is incredibly liberating. Money and stress have no place on the Quadrado, many of the fishermen’s homes are worth millions but they still head out to sea every day to get their catch, while other local homeowners sit on the grass and sell jewellery they’ve made, content to gossip in the sun and drink cachaca. Kids run about barefoot and half naked, swinging from trees like the local wildlife, without a care in the world and no parents in sight.

Out here, an hour’s flight from Salvador, there is no winter, just the odd cooling downpour which creates some of the most fertile land in the country. It’s as if the plants feel the peace and love vibe that hangs over the town like a patchouli-scented fog and decide to grow like crazy.

And yet despite all of this, the town is set up for international visitors. Leonardo Di Caprio is often in town; magazines like Brazilian Vogue use UXUA as a location regularly, and those in the know have bought hideaway homes here to escape paparazzi in LA or London. The guy in flip-flops and a dirty old shirt next to you drinking Caipirinhas on the square is just as likely to be a billionaire as he is a bum and that’s certainly part of the charm.

And Wilbert certainly has played a part in attracting the fashion crowd to town. The only problem now is trying to keep it a secret.

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Images courtesy of Getty Images

TRAVEL

WHAT TO DO

CREATE BESPOKE FURNITURE

RIDE ALONG THE BEACH

VERY LITTLE

SHOP

Trancoso’s stretch of beach is one of the most unspoilt along the Brazilian coastline. You’re in the midst of the Discovery Coast – a protected UNESCO area – and down the road at Porto Seguro is where the Portuguese first landed. Hire beautiful horses from Fabio Rocha and gallop down the sand with the wind in your hair - or plod away slowly taking in the deserted jungle.

Images courtesy of Getty Images

Trancoso is awash with creators, makers, and artisans. Some of them can be found working at UXUA, which has set up a homewares programme in collaboration with a lot of the local artists. Many of the shops close by the Quadrado double up as workshops where you can chat with the makers and design something bespoke with them.

Really you’d be missing the point of the place if you rushed around with an action packed itinerary, and it would certainly leave the locals scratching their heads. Shops don’t open until around 4pm; the vibe is so laidback it’s almost horizontal. So find a hammock, grab a book, and just let the world slow down a little. A few days here will feel like a year.

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For a hippie town, Trancoso has some seriously chic shops, even if they’re disguised as brightly coloured houses. Achingly hip Parisien furniture dealer James has just moved here; Brazil’s best bikini designer, Adriana Degreas, also has a store in town - part of the charm is that Trancoso has the hippie vibe but a very hip clientele.

TRAVEL

WHERE TO STAY

UXUA

Really there’s only one place if you want to be in the heart of the action in the Quadrado. UXUA was originally meant to be the home of Wilbert Das until he turned it into a hotel, and each of the 12 homes that have now been built or restored have a home away from home feel. The latest is Casa Anderson, built for CNN’s Anderson Cooper, which is available to rent and sleeps

six across three casas on the one (very private) property. The hotel also has the best restaurant on the Quadrado, right next to the ‘Table of the Old’, where the elder villagers congregate to natter and jam with their guitars.

Casas at UXUA start from $550 per night. www.uxua.com

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FASHION

STONE WASHED

The most popular colour shown by designers this season was stone, a versatile shade that lies between white and sandy beige

Suede belt, Loro Piana, $385

Canvas backpack, Alexander McQueen, $763

Applique sweatshirt, Rick Owens, $401

Shirred suede loafers, Officine Creative, $356

Linen blazer, Isaia, $1,528

Linen tie, Canali, $98

Suede desert boots, Balmain, $840

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Hermès, S/S 2017

FASHION

Checked cotton coat, Balenciaga, $1,753 Cotton twill trousers, Brioni, $471 Giorgio Armani, S/S 2017

Cap top sneakers, Lanvin, $317

Cropped linen trousers, By Walid, $627

Striped merino wool sweater, Alex Mill, $139

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HOROLOGY

ONES TO WATCH Some of the world’s finest new timepieces from the best luxury watchmakers

RICHARD MILLE RM 50-03 MCLAREN F1 Last year, Richard Mille inked a ten-year deal with F1 racing giants McLaren-Honda, and this is the first timepiece to mark that collaboration. At a mere 40 grams, including the strap, it’s the world’s lightest split-seconds chronograph with a tourbillon. RM and McLaren created an all-new material called Graphene TPT to build this watch, only 75 of which will be manufactured. $980,000 A. LANGE & SÖHNE TOURBOGRAPH PERPETUAL POUR LE MERITE Walter Lange, the vanguard of German fine watchmaking and custodian of A. Lange & Söhne, passed away during the annual Salon International Haute Horlogerie earlier this year. It was there that this flagship watch made its debut to the world’s press. It features a fusée-and-chain mechanism, tourbillon, and chronograph with rattrapante function, all brought together in a typical Lange dial aesthetic housed in a 43mm platinum case that would make Walter proud. $500,000

AUDEMARS PIGUET ROYAL OAK PERPETUAL CALENDAR This blacked-out timepiece hits a high-note for AP fans who love ceramic. Not only is the entire case of the watch in matte black brushed ceramic, so is the bracelet. The use of ceramic means that it’s going to be able to weather several blows without as much as a scratch, meaning there is less wear and tear as the years go by, and it's resistant to high temperatures and thermal shocks. It is military-grade wrist wear for the urban warrior. $85,000

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All prices approximate

VACHERON CONSTANTIN LES CABINOTIERS CELESTIA ASTRONOMICAL GRAND COMPLICATION 3600 It took a highly skilled master watchmaker five years to create this timepiece that packs in an incredible 23 complications, most of them with celestial indications. These include equation of time, solstices, and equinoxes, among several others. The ultra-complicated timepiece displays three kinds of time: civil time, solar time, and sidereal time. Just one watch is available for sale, which explains the astronomical price tag. $1 million

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