2017 in review: Andrew Clement’s top 10 classical CDs
From some delightful Debussy to a bewitching Berlioz opera, via a scintillating set of Schubert sonatas, here are the recordings that stood out this year
UK Culture
The top 10 architecture and design events of 2017
It was a year that celebrated new dawns. From plywood to postmodernism, from the return of council housing to a Cornish art gallery, our critic picks his highlights
Top 10 books about high-tech
From histories of world-conquering innovations to fiction that explores their dark side, a leading chronicler of this giddying world chooses the best guides
Louvre Abu Dhabi: Jean Nouvel’s spectacular palace of culture shimmers in the desert
With its cosmic dome and starry latticework, the French architect’s water-lapped Gulf outpost shuns the petrodollar glitz of its neighbours. But there’s no whitewashing the appalling treatment of the labourers who built its light-filled halls
Meet Liz Diller, the rebel architect behind MoMA, the High Line and now a home for Simon Rattle
Her practice beat Foster, Gehry and Piano to clinch London’s new £250m Centre for Music. She talks about fuelling gentrification – and why arts buildings have to be more than corporate baubles
Mocaa, Cape Town: grain silo reborn as Africa’s answer to Tate Modern
Thomas Heatherwick pulls off an awesome act of architectural mutilation – just don’t mention the luxury hotel upstairs