Construction Maison

Marie Veis has what she calls a “no risk, no fun attitude.” It was this spirit that compelled her and her partner, Roland Hofer, to leave behind their recently renovated apartment and buy a nearby rundown wine tavern that had fallen into bankruptcy. They had been living not far from the tavern in the upscale Austrian spa town of Baden bei Wien , about 20 miles southwest of Vienna. The property consisted of a ramshackle two-story, 19th- century house facing the street and a concrete-and-wood pavilion in the courtyard. The tavern owner lived in the house, and drinkers gathered in the rustic pavilion. By 2011, the compound was in receivership, and the couple figured the $410,700 asking price was a bargain. Ms. Veis, now 40, and Mr. Hofer, now 39, decided to tear down the pavilion and build a new three-story villa on the property, with a funky, wide- open floor plan and freewheeling finishes. They kept the small historic home , with plans to turn it into a studio later. For now, it i...

Photo by Andrea Yori | CC BY 2.0 In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, Washington pursued its elusive enemies across the landscapes of Asia and Africa, thanks in part to a massive expansion of its intelligence infrastructure, particularly of the emerging technologies for digital surveillance , agile drones, and biometric identification. In 2010, almost a decade into this secret war with its voracious appetite for information, the Washington Post reported that the national security state had swelled into a “fourth branch” of the federal government — with 854,000 vetted officials, 263 security organizations , and over 3,000 intelligence units, issuing 50,000 special reports every year. Though stunning, these statistics only skimmed the visible surface of what had become history’s largest and most lethal clandestine apparatus . According to classified documents that Edward Snowden leaked in 2013, the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies alone had 107,035 employees and a combined “b...

Château d'Artigny As we drove up the hill and around the bend, a magnificent, regal château suddenly appeared and took my breath away. Perfectly symmetrical with a large garden and pond with fountain in front and framed by trees in the background, the Château d’Artigny is truly one of the most sumptuous places I have ever stayed. With 56 rooms, eight lounges, two dining salons, a pool and spa, guests are well taken care of. Located in Montbazon in the Loire Valley, 15 kilometers from Tours, the 65 acre grounds are a manicured oasis of quiet nestled on a hill looking out over the Indre Valley with the Indre River flowing peacefully below. Besides the château, there are two smaller properties, Ariane Pavillon and Fragrance House, that also include guest rooms . Château d’Artigny As I entered the spacious Belle Époque lobby, I was overcome by its size, beauty and grandeur. Though there is an elevator, glide up the elegant curving staircase that leads to rooms on the first floor. Pas...

Former footballers Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs have revealed a new Hodder + Partners- designed tower  for Manchester, England, after dropping their original designs following uproar over the plan to raze several historic buildings . The former Manchester United players -turned-devlopers are working with  Burnley Football Club owner Brendan Flood on the plans for the St Michael's scheme, which they first unveiled in August 2016. But the plans drawn up by Ken Shuttleworth of London studio Make were met with furore from residents and heritage body Historic England as they involved the demolition of a number of culturally signifcant buildings on Jackson's Row. The Manchester Reform Synagogue – one of the oldest in the UK – a 1930s police headquarters and the 19th- century Sir Ralph Abercromby pub were all to be bulldozed to make way for the development, which includes a five-star hotel, as well as apartments, offices and a shopping centre. Revised plans for the site by forme...

There were nine of us living in my first flat in Paris. It was grand on the outside, with a trompe l’oeil and marble staircase in the entrance hall, but grimy and dark inside. Only three of my flatmates had full-time jobs, and they all smoked. All the lights in the hall were broken. I moved there from London nearly four years ago, during the gloomiest days of François Hollande’s presidency, long before the youthful reformer Emmanuel Macron took power this year. Economic growth at the time was weak, unemployment double that of the UK today, and polls showed two-thirds of French people thought the nation was in “decline”. My flatmates, who I found online, were all 25- to 35-year-olds from the provinces who had come to Paris to find work and, passing their days in our tiny kitchen, were victims of this faded France. Within rigid labour markets many struggled to find jobs, or the right jobs, and were frustrated and angry. They protested in the street, talked incessantly about politics a...

Regeni was undeterred. Proficient in five languages, he was insatiably curious and exuded a low-intensity charm that attracted a wide circle of friends. From 12 to 14, he served as youth mayor of his hometown, Fiumicello. He prided himself on his ability to navigate different cultures, and he relished Cairo ’s unruly street life : the smoky cafes, the endless hustle, the candy- colored party boats that plied the Nile at night. He registered as a visiting scholar at American University in Cairo and found a room in Dokki, a traffic-choked neighborhood between the Pyramids and the Nile, where he shared an apartment with two young professionals : Juliane Schoki, who taught German, and Mohamed El Sayad , a lawyer at one of Cairo’s oldest law firms . Dokki was an unfashionable address, but it was just two subway stops from downtown Cairo with its maze of cheap hotels, dive bars and crumbling apartment blocks encircling Tahrir Square . Regeni soon befriended writers and artists and practi...