Rising stars of 2017: architecture practice Interrobang

By daring to cross the disciplines of architecture and engineering, Maria Smith, Steve Webb and Andy Yates can approach their projects in a fresh way
Click here to see the Observer’s rising stars of 2017 in full

Laura Cumming: best art of 2016

Portraits woke up, the tiny Goldfinch flew in, the Switch House switched on, and junk art triumphed

• Observer critics’ reviews of the year in full

Tom Ford: ‘I wore a suit on set. It’s a uniform… I feel weak in trainers’

As his much-anticipated second movie, Nocturnal Animals, is released, the designer turned film director talks about dress code, family and eccentricity

John Pawson: ‘I love clear spaces. I love the absolute minimum’

The celebrated architect talks about his latest work – a new home for the Design Museum – and his dedication to clutter-free living

Philip Norman on the 60s: ‘I never took holidays because every day was like one’

As London’s V&A prepares to stage an exhibition assessing the cultural impact of the late 1960s, the Beatles biographer reflects on his experience of the time

• The revolutionary artists of the 60s’ colourful counterculture