Why wood is back at the top of the tree for architects
Strong, clean and versatile, engineered timber is the ‘new concrete’. With wooden skyscrapers in the offing, could it be the answer to the global housing crisis?
Culture
The 20 best food books from 2001-2017
To mark 200 issues of Observer Food Monthly, we pick the most significant books published in the years since the magazine launched
It’s in the jeans: US fashion goes back to denim’s glory days
Catwalk revival of old styles immortalised by Hollywood stars sees surge in jeans market
From beehive to mohawk: the hairdos that topped off 50 years of fashion
A new exhibition looks at hairstyles though the decades
Ralph Lauren snow gear and arty socks: what to buy this week
Get back to the 90s with snowboarder gear from a cult range, don specs from Andy Warhol’s eyewear makers and check out iconic Irving Penn images in Paris. Here are our top style tips for the week ahead…
Andreas Gursky review – godlike visions from the great chronicler of our age
Hayward Gallery, London
From raves to road trips, from the icecaps to the trading floor, from Amazon to the Rhine, these breathtaking panoramas take aim at globalism – and reinvent the very notion of photography