Paul Cocksedge’s Living Staircase

The British designer plants around a staircase in Soho to fashion a creative spiral

Paul Cockedge's living staircase

The life and death of Agnes Thor

See how this young Swedish photographer tries to capture the transience of life in her images


Steve McCurry on the Afghan Girl, beauty and 9/11

The Magnum photographer describes his working practices and his view of the world in an Italian TV interview

Steve McCurry on Rai 3's Che Tempo Che Fa last Saturday

Lady Gaga mimics Marina Abramović

The singer draws on Warhol, Koons, Botticelli et al to promote her new album

From left: Marina Abramović, Portrait with Scorpion (Closed Eyes) (2005) and Lady Gaga’s Venus artwork (2013)

From shorts to shaving - a secret history of leg fashion

Colin McDowell's Anatomy of Fashion offers thousands of insights into how we dress - here's a few of them


Will this vertical garden take root in Berlin?

Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus believe their Green8 scheme could transform the city's Alexanderplatz

Agnieszka Preibisz and Peter Sandhaus' Green8 proposal

Carlo Scarpa praised by New York's Artists

Leading figures in the New York art world praise the architect's work, to mark the opening of Scarpa's Met show

The Gipsoteca Canoviana (1955-57) by Carlo Scarpa

Ben Marcin photographs the last house standing

German-born US-based photographer looks at single houses that hang on when the neighbours have gone

Baltimore, MD. from Ben Marcin's series Last House Standing

High praise for The Chinese Art Book

The world's press seems to agree: The Chinese Art Book offers an unrivalled overview of one nation's art

Sitting on the Wall: Haikou V (2001) by Weng Fen, from The Chinese Art Book

Art as Therapy extends to photography

Alain de Botton thinks painful photographs like Eve Arnold's below can be therapeutic

Divorce in Moscow, 1966 by Eve Arnold

Tomi Ungerer's Fog Island is one of The New York Times' Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2013

Tomi Ungerer's brilliant children's book just won a place in the newspaper's prestigious annual list

from Tomi Ungerer's Fog Island

Tony Kaye on how he changed advertising

The greatest British ad director of recent times comes back to London to explain how he did it

Acclaimed director Tony Kaye

Sara Naim goes tree spotting in Dubai

The British-born photographer finds hardy specimens hanging on among the office blocks and sand dunes

From Portraits of Natives by Sara Naim

Modernist masterworks recovered in Munich

1,500 works found in the Munich apartment of the son of Nazi-era Degenerate Art Exhibition co-curator

Comedy (1921) by Paul Klee. Though this work is currently on show at Tate Modern, other works by the artist have been recovered from a stash hidden in a Bavarian flat

The science and beauty of Edmaier's Grand Canyon

EarthArt offers both a fine collection of aerial views and a wealth of geological insight into our planet's beauty

The Grand Canyon from Bernhard Edmaier's EarthArt

What America’s banks did next

Michael Vahrenwald’s project, The People’s Trust, looks at how US bank buildings have been repurposed

Untitled, Detroit, Il, 2012, by Michael Vahrenwald

Colman Andrews reads from The Taste of America This week: Mayhaw jelly

The celebrated food writer and Phaidon author Colman Andrews introduces us to "the cranberry of the South"

Colman Andrews

The perfect imperfections life-sized doll furniture

When Slovakian design student Silva Lovasová scaled up toy lamps and chairs, she kept all the flaws in

Silva Lovasová's 1:1 project. Photo by Peter Sit

Sou Fujimoto’s secret Saudi tower

The Japanese architect’s master plan in Jeddah is both ‘confidential’ and practically transparent

Sou Fujimotot's Outlook Tower

Banksy’s NYC residency is over

The British graffiti artist signs off his month-long residency in New York with a plea to save outdoor art

Banksy's balloon lettering, his final New York piece

Herzog and de Meuron strips back Park Ave. Armory

Why the Pritzker Prize laureate has taken away all the more recent additions from this New York Institution

Herzog and de Meuron's reinvention of the Park Avenue Armory

Why Delhi is an Art City of The Future

Solid institutions? Global connections? What does a city need for its artists to make art as good as this?

Someone Left a Horse on the  Shore (2007) by Gigi Scaria

What is real and what is fake in this model town?

Photographer and model maker Michael Paul Smith has been photographing his own town for the last 25 years

Double Coupon Day at the A and P by Michael Paul Smith

Colin McDowell on how punk was defeated

Our author charts ripped clothing and safety pins from early modern mercenaries to Elizabeth Hurley

From left: early modern Landsknechte; Richard Hell on the cover of Blank Generation, 1977; Elizabeth Hurley's 1994 safety pin dress, by Gianni Versace

Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, now in Lego

Lego's architecture range now includes the pair's great collaboration, New York's United Nations Building

Lego's new UN Headquarters kit

Geeta Kapur's art of Indian citizenship

The world-renowned Indian curator and Phaidon author tackles statehood in the second of her five exhibitions

Geeta, Bikaner from Notes from the Desert 1999 - 2010, by Gauri Gill

Alain de Botton on Banksy and buying art

The public intellectual and Phaidon author believes galleries should help their clients to lead better lives

I can't believe you morons actually buy this shit (2013) by Banksy

Does this wrecked liner remind you of Fellini too?

Gigi Cifali's surreal photographs of the Costa Concordia revel in the wreck's dark absurdity

The Costa Concordia, from End of a Dream by Gigi Cifali

René Redzepi talks trash, brains and ants in London

Next month, hear the world-famous chef describe the year he tried to make Noma "a happier place to be in"

René Redzepi, founder and head chef at Noma

Wallis, Gilbert's concrete makes a comeback

One of the British practice's earliest creations is reborn as a modern, concrete-loving, mixed use hub

Promotional material for EMI's Hayes plant, now reborn as the Old Vinyl Factory

Stephen Shore shares his Lou Reed pictures

Following the singer's passing, Shore posted one of his Factory shots, featuring a young, vulnerable Reed

Stephen Shore's Facebook shares, earlier today

Hear Brice Marden at NY Public Library next week

The celebrated American artist talks with Phaidon's Dr David Anfam and Phaidon Focus author Eileen Costello

Grove Group III (1973) by Brice Marden

Marc Wilson's accidental war memorials

The British photographer captures Europe's WWII battlements as they disappear into the coastline

Newburgh, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, 2012, from The Last Stand by Marc Wilson

When Diego Rivera turned propaganda into art

Upon the publication of Art and Place, we take a look at Rivera's murals at the Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo

Murals in the former chapel at the Escuela Nacional de Agricultura, 1925 - 27, by Diego Rivera

A great body of praise for The Anatomy of Fashion

Colin McDowell's magisterial overview of clothes, anatomy and culture meets with universal praise worldwide

1947 tennis outfit, photographed by Toni Frissell

Arthur C Danto 1924 - 2013

The critic and Warhol advocate, who popularised the term 'the artworld' has died

Arthur C Danto

Whose hometown is this?

John Maclean photographs the hometowns of his artistic heroes, adding a little of their style into his shots

Oklahoma City, Ed Ruscha's hometown, by John MacLean

Tubular hotel opens in the Russian Caucasus

LEAPrus 3912 by Italian architects LEAPfactory is built on the side of a dormant volcano

LEAPrus 3912 - LEAPfactory

Olafur Eliasson wins MIT Award

The Danish-Icelandic artist will receive the $100,000 Eugene McDermott Award

Artist and Akademie X contributor Olafur Eliasson

The extreme performance art of He Yunchang

Physical endurance, self mutilation and the removal of a rib - The Chinese Art Book has the story

Dialogue with Water (1999) - He Yunchang

If the cap fits . . . wear it!

The Anatomy of Fashion author Colin McDowell talks us through the historical importance of the hat

President Obama -

Colman Andrews reads from The Taste of America This week: Sparkling Cider

In the latest reading from his wonderful new book The Taste of America, celebrated food writer Colman Andrews spins a fascinating story about one of our favourite fizzy drinks

Colman Andrews and friends

New York approves bean-pole slim addition by SHoP

410 metres tall but only 13 metres wide - New York's new addition will offer sweeping views over Central Park

111 West 57th Street - SHoP Architects

First photorealism retrospective comes to the UK

The Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery brings together the poppy pictures that look like photographs

America's Favourite (1989) by Ralph Goings

The New York Times is at Home with Wild Art

US paper of record features our book in today's Home & Garden section and delights in the wild architecture

The Nautilus, a work from 2007 by Javier Senosiain

Why Steve Jobs tried to join Norman Foster’s team

In a new planning application video, the British architect describes the late Apple CEO's commissioning style

The new Apple Campus design, by Foster and Partners

Where Phaidon figures in ArtReview’s Power 100

Our artists, authors and advisers feature highly in the art magazine’s list of contemporary art’s big players

Super curator and Phaidon contributor Hans-Ulrich Obrist, 5 in the ArtReview Power 100

Sir Anthony Caro 1924 -2013

British sculptor dies of a heart attack aged 89


Listen to Robert Capa speak

To commemorate the centenary of the Magnum founder's birth, the ICP unearths his only radio interview

Robert Capa

Mexican architect rethinks the Egyptian pyramids

Juan Carlos Ramos adds windows, a garage, bedrooms and balconies to an ancient architectural form

Pyramid House - Juan Carlos Ramos

Air France's flying cutlery

Eugeni Quitllet playfully redesigns the French flag carrier's knives, forks and dishes

Eugeni Quitllet's new cutlery for Air France

How Rothko mocked up his Houston chapel in NY

Art & Place reveals how the artist scaled an interior world of private spirituality designed to engulf the viewer

Rothko Chapel Murals from Art & Place

How the Kent State shootings inspired Richard Prince

In a new essay the artist describes how he was arrested for lowering his college flag to half-mast

Richard Prince's Protest Paintings, at London's Skarstedt gallery until 20th December

Mingei: Are You Here? updates Japanese tradition

Folk art movement Mingei finds favour with contemporary artists courtesy of curator Nicolas Trembley

Sgrafo Modern, 33 Vases. Korallen Series (design by Peter Muller) ca.1960-1980. Porcelains.

Climate change chief reduced to tears

UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres obviously needs to read Jonathon Porritt's The World We Made


Josef Koudelka shows Prague '68 shots in Bucharest

The Magnum photographer who captured the Prague Spring praises Romania, as his show opens in its capital

Prague, August 1968 by Josef Koudelka

Introducing The Anatomy of Fashion

Author Colin McDowell MBE introduces an engaging book that delights in defining why we dress as we do


How Rauschenberg's photos structured his art

A new Manhattan show looks at how photography fitted into the late American artist's practice

Untitled (self-portrait, Black Mountain) (1952) by Robert Rauschenberg

Could this Manet painting relight your fire?

Alain de Botton thinks so and has an interesting theory about how to make love last in his new book Art as Therapy

Édouard Manet Bunch of Asparagus 1880

Judd, Serra and co help you unpick Art & Place

Can these excerpted writings by prominent artists aid our understanding of Site-Specific Art? We think so


Chris Burden's guide to buying meteorites on Ebay

On the opening of his New York retrospective, the artist offered some choice insights into his work

 Porch and Meteorite (2013) by Chris Burden

Shigeru Ban's paper-tube tree house

The Japanese architect brings his "evolved wood" architecture to a suitably arboreal setting

Yakushima Takatsuka Lodge by Shigeru Ban Architects

Chris Johanson makes a folk art exhibition

The Californian artist curates a Craft and Folk Art Museum show that champions “the positive ritual of artmaking”

untitled, (2013) by Alicia McCarthy

Do Ho Suh's Specimen Series

Korean artist's latest project focusses on elements of his Manhattan apartment

Specimen Series - Do Ho Suh pic courtesy Lehmann Maupin Gallery

Why did these R'n'B videographers win an art prize?

Niko the Ikon picked up one of the inaugural Re Rebaudengo Serpentine Grants for young artists this week

Niko the Ikon

Mumbai artists get a new concrete base

Sanjay Puri Architects create fittingly sculptural bulbous structure in concrete for Bombay Art Society

Bombay Art Society - Sanjay Puri

Carlo Scarpa by Louis Kahn

The last thing Louis Kahn wrote before his death was a poem to his friend Carlo Scarpa - this is what he wrote


The World Loves The World We Made

Jonathon Porritt's positive take on the future of our planet finds an approving audience across the globe

The World We Made author - Jonathon Porritt

OMA splinter group's mega-estate in Singapore

Does this blocky design remind you of Northern European social-housing estates? Or Jenga blocks?

The Interlace by Ole Scheeren © OMA

My friend Alex Atala by Alain Ducasse

"Alex’s understanding of ingredients borders on fervent passion. Going to a market with him is like diving into the very depths of the Brazilian land!" he says about the chef and author of D.O.M. Rediscovering Brazilian Ingredients

Alex Atala and Alain Ducasse

Elderfield and Zilczer on Gagosian’s de Kooning show

MoMA’s Chief Curator Emeritus and the noted art historian discuss this key reappraisal of his 1980s works

Willem de Kooning in his studio, Springs, Long Island, late October 1983. © 2013 Arnold Newman Artwork © 2013 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Arnold Newman/Getty Images

Surrealism's American perspective

The Philadelphia Museum of Art's Surrealists exhibition looks at its European origins as well as its US impact

Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War), 1936, Salvador Dalí, Spanish, 1904‑1989, Oil on canvas, 39 5/16 x 39 3/8 inches (99.9 x 100 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, © Salvador Dali, Gala‑Salvador Dali Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

The Bauhaus: now offering sleepovers

Bunk down where the design school's greats once slept. Prices include communal showers and shared restrooms

The Bauhaus Studio building

Come to our Wild Art launch

Head east tonight to celebrate works of art that thrive outside the gallery space

Emily Duffy's Mondrian Mobile, from Wild Art

What the world's press are saying about Frieze

As London's international art fair opens for previews in Regent's Park today, we round up global opinions

Mnuchin Gallery's stand (B6) at Frieze Masters, featuring a late Willem de Kooning painting

Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson remodel the Leica

The Apple design chief and the Aussie design star remake the M model for Bono's RED charity auction

Jonathan Ive and Marc Newson's Leica

Shanghai developers plan to rebuild Crystal Palace

ZhongRong Group say the Victorian building's "ingenuity and scale is magnificent" and want to bring it back to life

Crystal Palace - ZhongRong Group

The Chinese conference centre that thinks it's a city

Coop Himmelb(l)au say the rooms in their new Dalian Conference Centre have 'identifiable addresses'


Alex Atala helps São Paulo's kids get into the kitchen

The world-class chef and author outlines his take on cooking and ecology and raises cash for a local non-profit

Alex Atala (left) with Gastromotiva's David Hertz

Hirst remakes the Pharmacy as a desert juice bar

The Prada Oasis and Damien Hirst's Pharmacy Juice Bar pitched up north of Doha as part of his Qatar show

Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy Juice Bar

How much would you pay for a Hadid dolls' house?

Bidding is up to £9,000 for Hadid's model, as big-name architects build tiny houses to benefit a children's charity

Zaha Hadid's dolls' house

How Picasso and co. weaved carpets into their work

The show at Paris' Musée d'Art moderne looks at the reintroduction of decorative arts into a fine-art setting


New York loves Mike Kelley

The late artist's huge retrospective at MoMA PS1 receives glowing write-ups

Animal Self and Friend of Animal (1987) by Mike Kelley

Phaidon takes over Topshop in London and New York

Vera Wang, Iris Apfel, Stephen Jones and Dirk Standen head up our all star launches for The Fashion Book

Kirk Standen, Iris Apfel, Vera Wang and host Simon Collins, Dean of Fashion at Parsons The New School for Design - Photo courtesy BFA

Colman Andrews reads from The Taste of America This week: Cowpeas

Our critically acclaimed and mellifluously-voiced author returns with another enthralling story from his new book

Cowpeas from The Taste of America - illustration by Joel Penckman

Bouroullecs reinvent the Stone Age with jewellery

Ronan and Erwan follow Ettore Sottsass, Konstantin Grcic and Naoto Fukasawa with Perles for Gallerie Kreo

Perles - Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec

Architects protest Zaha Hadid's Olympic stadium

Fou Sujimoto, Toyo Ito and Kengo Kuma say the design will dwarf its surroundings

Japan National Stadium - Zaha Hadid

David Gilbertson's Wine Bar Theory: Cut smart

Smart businesses re-examine each element of what they do and ask whether the customer really needs it

Bill Butcher's illustrations for Wine Bar Theory

The World We Made on CBS This Morning

Jonathon Porritt tells morning show's three million viewers how we can create a truly sustainable world


Designer joins forces with algorithm for new bridge

Arturo Tedeschi’s latest parametric design Cloudbridge spans two mountainsides

Cloudbridge - Arturo Tedeschi

Banksy speaks to the Village Voice

The graffiti artist talks Jackson Pollock and how “street art can feel like the marketing wing of an art career”

Banksy's Crazy Horses piece, lower Manhattan, earlier this month

All aboard the floating Dutch apartment block

Waterstudio's Citadel block consists of 60 stylish homes floating in six feet of water near Rotterdam

Waterstudio's Citadel

David Gilbertson's Wine Bar Theory: Keep asking

The more time you spend asking simple questions, the smarter those questions become, says our business author

Bill Butcher's Wine Bar Theory illustrations, for David Gilbertson's book

Tree house turned inside out by Kazakh designer

Aibek Almasov created this arboreal retreat for a businessman who prizes nature over privacy

Aibek Almasov's Tree in a House

Street artists rework Spotify's New York office

Wild Art adorns the walls at Music streaming service's latest New York outpost

Spotify New York

Daniel Patterson on how to run a creative kitchen

The Coi chef shares his managerial and culinary wisdom with Bloomberg's Francine Lacqua

Daniel Patterson says consistency is the key to his success at Coi

How's Banksy's New York residency going?

Can the British graffiti artist overcome rival graffiti artists, flat batteries and opportunist thieves?

Banky's latest work in his October self-described 'residency on the streets of New York'. Banksy.co.uk says this work is in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

More Wine Bar Theory advice from David Gilbertson

Why a retrieved customer becomes an advocate, but an aggrieved one tells everyone not to deal with you

Bill Butcher's illustrations for David Gilbertson's Wine Bar Theory tip no 26: Say Sorry

Korea’s National Library gets an outpost by Samoo

When is a library not a library? Apparently when it's an E-brary’, a compound of ‘emotion’ and ‘library’

National Library of Sejong City - SAMOO Architects & Engineers

Koons remodels Lady Gaga as Venus

The artist's cover for the singer's forthcoming album reflects his recent obsessions, as well as her star qualities

Lady Gaga's Artpop cover by Jeff Koons