BITCOIN BLUES WALL STREET ISSUE Can the currency bounce back? 200 years of the NYSE WE WORK ARTISAN WORLD 135 The US firm reshaping offices Portrait of a London globe-maker
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How the world’s richest families manage their wealth
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CONTENTS UPFRONT 14 DRIVING THE FUTURE What can we LIVING expect from our cars in the future? 74 HOTEL A converted palace on the 18 banks of the Grand Canal is ARTIFICIAL a Venetian wonder INTELLIGENCE The rising influence of AI in our business 78 and personal lives WHAT TO PACK From Cairo to Hong Kong, 22 we’ve got you covered MOST WANTED The best products 84 that money can buy FOOD & DRINK We profile some of Budapest’s most up and 24 coming chefs PROPERTY A Florence villa with a difference 88 EXHIBITION A celebration of ancient Chinese art in Singapore 90 COLUMN A insider’s look at the crazy world of Silicon Valley
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CONTENTS
FEATURES 34 GLOBAL AMBITIONS Artisan London globe makers 42 WORK-LIFE BALANCE The US firm attempting to change the way we live and work 52 FAMILY FORTUNES The new rules of family wealth management in 2017 60 ORIENT EXPRESS A stunning celebration of this most iconic of routes 68 WALL STREET A photographic journey through 200 years of the New York Stock Exchange
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What can we expect from our future cars? Dejan Jovanovic explores the trends that are set to dominate the motoring industry in the years to come
oo bad Moore’s law – wooing the public with displays of the famous prediction jet cars and autonomous Scalextric- by an Intel co-founder like highways. Seriously, where are who claimed my Jetsons flying cars already? computers double in Today, in an increasingly Tpower every year – doesn’t apply to homogenised industry with a automobiles, or by now we’d have narrowing global supplier base, progressed fast enough to make it to automobiles are all much the the moon in an hour, using only a same. When every luxury car single gallon of fuel. comes powered by the ubiquitous Instead here we are, a century 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged of mass producing motor vehicles V6 engine mated to an eight- later, getting about the same speed automatic transmission mileage in our SUVs as a 1920s (because they already kind of do) Ford Model T, and going about as then what’s to differentiate one far on a single charge in our plug- premium brand from the other? in hybrids as a 100-year-old Baker What’s to pull you towards a Electric. They call it progress. BMW or a Mercedes or anything, Automobiles have remained if they all use the same global quite the same since, well, forever. parts suppliers fulfilling the same Engine in the front, drive in global regulations – the headlights the rear, driver in the middle. are yay high, the windscreen just Combustion, pollution, propulsion. so raked, and the bonnet exactly There was a period of positivity – this far above the engine. 14 15 stunning concept cars of the 1950s We are, however, in a transitional envisioned an encouraging post-war phase, in a limbo era where car scenario, particularly in America manufacturers don’t really have a where Detroit’s all-powerful auto clue what the future holds so they manufacturers put on country- put one egg into each basket, and wide travelling roadshows of fancy, there are hundreds of them.
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Some are doing electric drivetrains, car it’s stuck in the middle of the next-gen vehicle development – others stick to petrol and diesel, lane so that you can slow down. Volkswagen is only a single example, others still are chasing hydrogen fuel That’s just one simple scenario. having acquired BlackBerry’s cells, and no one is sure what will Car-to-car connectivity algorithms European research and development prevail. There are technologies we will run everything, and the link centre for just such a purpose. can predict, though – Moore’s Law continues with infrastructure, Similarly, automotive electronics might not apply to automobiles, including highways, traffic lights… supplier Harman recently revealed a but ‘Merc’s Law’ does. That is to Waiting at red lights will be a thing new security framework with a “series say, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class of the past on a fully connected of protective layers, like an onion”, luxury limousine has always been a road. The push for connectivity for car infotainment units, and others good sign of what exciting kit will is two-fold – people today simply are moving as quickly. To date there soon trickle down to the average aren’t emotionally capable of being hasn’t been a single malicious car cars most of us drive, so S-Classes ‘unplugged’ from the world and hacking or cyber threat to consumers and BMW 7 Series and Porsche so far their car’s been a medieval (the documented Jeep Cherokee, Panameras are a good indicator of internet-less cave as far as the Ford Escape and Toyota Prius where the industry’s moving. general public is concerned. Second, hackings were done by researchers) autonomy will never happen without and if the industry continues to CONNECTIVITY full connectivity. prioritise cyber security it may If we’re serious for a moment and stay that way. Around the world just catch a breath to stop all the CYBERCRIME consumer aspirations are changing hot talk of driverless cars, legislated The drawbacks of living in an always- with connectivity being a key feature extensive use of autonomous cars on world is the same as in living in buying decisions. Harman says by is way more than just a decade in any privileged neighbourhood: 2020 there will be a billion cars on away. Most point to beyond 2030. somebody else will want what you the road, and carmakers will have Instead of thinking about how have. Cybercrime, then, is another to respond with reassurances their to take away the steering wheel, big one concerning our cars of the connected cars are completely safe. manufacturers have to take baby very near future, and a very real steps first and figure out the number one, since a society of autonomous TRAFFIC LIGHTS one catchphrase in cardom today: driving will bank completely on the Red light stops are not just a handy connectivity. Carmakers around the internet. There is in turn a risk of place to check your messages and world are digging deep to ensure cyber attacks and potentially fatal In the future cars the contents of your nostrils. Even cars in the very near future ‘talk’ outcomes, which is why every single will be able to though they protect us most still warn drivers to each other – a stricken vehicle company out there is prioritising about weather and view traffic lights as a hindrance around a blind bend will ‘tell’ your connectivity and cybercrime for road conditions and a chore, and everyone’s a bigot when it comes to signals – we only want the green ones. The good news is car companies are actually doing something about it. Ford, Jaguar, and others are busy prototyping tech that will make red lights on your morning school run or work commute become a thing of the past, in the future. The first steps of the technology will incorporate a simple speed advisory signal (you maintain the indicated speed to ride the almost-mythical ‘green wave’ in a city grid of traffic lights), before connectivity takes over with complex formulas to figure out the 16 17 optimum flow of red and green lights. Premium cars like Audi’s A8 already have online traffic light data onboard, and the move to smart traffic lights is a welcome one considering that in countries such
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as the UK, drivers spend on average at the tactile-less surface. I asked closer to fully autonomous cars two days a year waiting at traffic the Panamera interior designer what there seems to be a need to remain lights. That’s a lot of boogers. the big idea was, and he replied, attached to vehicles with which “Well, Mercedes and Audi are doing you have less and less physical GESTURE CONTROL it…” Of course that’s simply not connection. Companies such as The all-new BMW 7 Series that good enough, and manufacturers Jaguar and Hyundai are offering surfaced last year already premiered are already working on holographic some potential solutions – Jaguar some exciting if slightly flawed tech displays, virtual dashboards, and already has a wristband out that that allows the user to wave their way more gesture controls. So, no, you wear like a bracelet to lock hand around and prod and pick that guy in the 7er is not zapping and unlock your car keylessly, and at empty air. Provided you use the you, he’s just trying to call his wife. Hyundai is chasing smartwatches to right hand signals and motions, Other ways gesture control can be 1bn alert owners of vehicle status when the BMW 7 Series responds, by used is to monitor the movements Number the two are separated. Wearable lowering the volume, or taking a of children sitting in the back so of cars on tech will also add an extra layer of call. This is all in a slow and sure the front passengers can keep their the road security to the cybercrime fighters, move away from physical switchgear attention going forward while the by 2020 as will biometrics. Cab company in cars. The new Panamera has also car’s gesture system ‘chaperones’ the Uber is already introducing selfies ditched its traditional button-laden kids’ behaviour. as a means of identity and safety centre console in favour of a sleek measures for its drivers, so that only touch surface. Of course, never BIOMETRICS AND after affirmative facial recognition 16 17 mind the fact that without physical WEARABLE TECH using their phone, can the driver buttons you can’t feel for anything If we can’t stay offline for even start your journey. Similar tech, on the move, and familiarity flies out just a second, we will have to find such as biometric fingerprint access the window. For any adjustments ways of being connected to our to vehicles and engine start-up, the user has to take their eyes off the transportational hubs (cars) when will filter down into consumer cars road completely and pick and prod away from the wheel. As we inch within a generation.
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their own internal logic based on their training. Machines trained with deep Intelligent life learning are more efficient and Marianne Guenot explores the opportunities and threats make faster split decisions. In surrounding the rise of artificial intelligence the case of automated cars, for instance, the car will simultaneously be able to compile the information rtificial intelligence, large amounts of data. Advances from its multiple sensors, compare or AI, is in computer data storage and it to datasets of car types, size, everywhere. It is processing now enable machines weight, speed, and better predict in our phones, to analyse and compare huge sets the outcome of a dangerous our computers, of data. Computer scientists have situation than a human. itA controls our financial markets. utilised these new capabilities to This has prompted the AI With the leaps and bounds made create a new way of processing community to put forward a new in machine learning technology information called “deep learning”. concept, that of “augmented” or over the past decade, AI is showing Deep learning is the latest “extended intelligence”, whereby remarkable capabilities, unforeseen iteration of an approach called the machine is seen as an extension even by its original creators. Its “machine learning”. In machine to the human decision-making sheer power makes it a remarkable learning, a machine is fed sets process. This was put to the world tool, opening the door for machines of labelled data. The machine trade conference 2017 by Nick to be made an integral part of the analyses and categorises the data Jennings, computer science pioneer decision-making process. by looking at a set of markers. and vice provost at Imperial In February, the European Deep learning takes this a step College London, who proposed parliament voted on a momentous further, because the machine will that machines no longer be used as document, for the first time casting “learn” from its mistakes. “slaves” but rather as an integral judgement on legislative proposals Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor $5bn part of a problem-solving team, or to officially set regulations on the of the University Of Sheffield and Investments “human-agent collectives”. use of artificial intelligence. But co-founder and co-director of in start-ups The integration of AI into the as the Global Risk Report 2017 the Foundation For Responsible using AI as decision-making process has already identifies AI as the emerging Robotics, explains: “If you wanted core part of started. Artificial intelligence drives technology with the most potential to train a deep-learning algorithm their products Google and Tesla cars. Matilda, for negative consequences, one has to recognise the difference between in 2016 a 30cm-high Australian robot, to ask, is it all too little, too late? a cat and a dog, you would give conducts job interviews. Earlier At its inception, no one could examples of a dog or a cat, labelled this year, Watson Explore, IBM’s have predicted the capabilities of as ‘dog’ or ‘cat’. These get turned artificial intelligence interface, artificial intelligence, not even Sergei into numerical form and go to a replaced 34 claims staff of a Brin, co-founder of Google, who lot of numerical processes. At the Japanese insurance company. admitted at the World Economic other end, if it says ‘cat’ instead of This approach represents a Forum’s Annual Meeting last ‘dog’, the machine then looks at the growing market for investors today. January that like many of his label, recognises that it is the wrong According to CB Insights, global colleagues in the 1990s, he “knew label, and make a mathematical investment in start-ups using AI as a that AI didn’t work”. correction through those numbers. core part of their products reached The fantastic progress made by After a few thousand, or maybe a a five-year high in 2016, with more 18 19 artificial intelligence relies on one few million, times of doing that, it than $5 billion in funding, or an fundamental truth: computers are will get it right.” increase of about 60 per cent. data-hungry. Humans are better at Deep-learning algorithmic There is growing concern that translational thinking, combining machines therefore no longer follow while AI is gaining increasing several thought patterns into one, what has been coded by their prevalence in decision-making but lack the memory to process programmer – they are developing processes, which could have
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potentially damaging consequences “What we need is for AI to by corporations or the public?” to human life and livelihood, to become tools that other disciplines – For Sharkey, governmental date, no legislation or regulation ethicists, sociologists, philosophers, action needs to be more integrative, has been put forward to redefine lawyers, artists, civil servants – can and needs to be taken now. the role of the human in this use,” he adds. “To make sure that “They’re well behind the time, they automation, or how far should the way that machines augment and should have started a while ago, but automation be allowed to supersede extend our collective intelligence it’s still good that they started,” he human judgment. are in tune with a future we want says. “[The EU parliament’s text] is Sharkey argues that the problem to live in with the moral and ethical not really a set of laws, but it’s the is that “[deep learning] can be systems that we aspire to, not just beginning. What I’d like to see is wildly wrong. It is a kind of what the market will produce when more joined-up thinking about how programming, but it’s not explicit. left to the dynamics of economics.” it all works together, because it’s We don’t know what the rules are”. “It’s very difficult to even like an AI ecosystem. In this scenario, who should be imagine what happens when, for “I think that we need to keep liable for fault? If the programmer instance, a machine is statistically machines in their place, really. I and manufacturer have put more effective at judging, at can’t help feeling that while we’re everything forward to ensure the flying planes, at driving cars, or talking about AI taking over the An MIT student wellbeing of the user, should the using a computer at diagnosing patients,” he says. world, it really is taking over the responsibility fall with the machine? in 1966 (bottom) “Should these machines be owned world by the back door.” Countries like the UK and the US have engaged in some debate about AI governance, but the EU parliament is the only governmental institution that has formerly started a process of legislation of AI. Joichi Ito, director of the MIT Media Center, says: “[Legislators] are behind the times. It doesn’t mean that they should over-regulate, but the technology is moving very quickly and is going to challenge laws fundamentally.” In January, the MIT Media Lab and the Berkman Klein Center For Internet And Society of Harvard University launched a $27 million initiative on AI ethics and governance, which aims to advance artificial intelligence research for the public good. For Ito, legislation should go further than defining liability, and should investigate whether ethical use of these machines means empowering public ownership. “AI, for the most part, is being developed within for-profit corporations and by computer scientists,” says Ito. “The problem is that the business model of 20 PB most companies that have the engineering capability to develop advanced AI isn’t about empowering the users and society with tools, but rather to sell them closed completed products.”
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2 LG SMART INSTAVIEW FRIDGE Cutting-edge tech from South Korea in the shape of this fridge. How cutting edge? Well, you can use the Amazon Echo voice assistant to order groceries or control your home’s temperature settings. It also has a translucent 29-inch screen so you can look inside without opening the door. LG, $8,499, lg.com
SEN.SE WIRELESS THERMOMETER Sen.se is a French company that has created a number of beautiful home appliances to take advantage of the Internet Of Things. The ThermoPeanut is a wireless thermometer that will tell you – via your smartphone – what the temperature is in every room the device is placed. 1 Sen.se, $31, sen.se 22 BELL & ROSS 23 Bronze is big right now, as illustrated by this stunning 3 Bell & Ross bronze skull watch on calfskin strap. A talking point as much as a timepiece, it’s both playful and a serious statement of intent. Bell & Ross, $5,450, bellross.com
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KNOLL CHAIR This stunning 18-karat gold plated lounge chair from Knoll manages to combine mid-century charm with a modern twist. Perfect for the living room or the bedroom and a surefire conversation starter. Skandium, $6,834, Skandium.com
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6 JEALOUS PRINT 22 SAMSONITE COSMOLITE SUITCASE Jealous is a gallery space in London’s Shoreditch that 23 We love this copper-blush Cosmolite, made out of Curv, a showcases street artists from around the world. A case in material known for its high energy absorption and impact point is Ben Eine, whose letterform work harks back to the performance – translation: it can weather the worst baggage earliest days of graffitti. In 2010 David Cameron gave one of handlers. It looks good too. Eine’s works to Barack Obama. Samsonite, $452, Samsonite.co.uk Jealous, $1,783, jealousgallery.com
PF_32017.P22-23_Upfront_MostWanted.indd 23 2/19/17 5:20 PM UPFRONT Tuscan idyll A sprawling rural haven just 30 minutes from Florence
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erfect for those looking a famous Dutch painter, lived using the finest Tuscan materials, for a rural getaway just and worked there from his atelier which brings a quintessentially outside Florence, this between 1989 and 2000. One of Italian feel. remarkable Chianti his sculptures, The Horse, can The magic of the property Classico Renaissance still be admired in the Lavender is its rural setting, while only Pvilla features more than 1,900 Garden. Today the estate boasts 30 minutes from Florence, one square metres of living space across 10 acres, characterised by the Florence of the great cities of Europe. two private villas, three atelier beauty of the surrounding Explore the birthplace of the apartments and four Fattoria landscapes, refined gardens, PRICE Renaissance, and world-famous Marzocco apartments. Dating back historical works of art, patrician From $18,279,000 attractions such as the Duomo, to the 13th century, the property chapel, vineyards and olive groves. the Museo Di San Marco and has a noble history and is one of Set in the bucolic setting the Basilica Di Santa Croce, and 26 PB the finest examples of traditional of the Chianti Classico Hills, make it home for a long supper christiesreal- Tuscan estates in Chianti Classico, the property is surrounded by estate.com on the villa’s stunning terrace. a 30-minute drive from Florence. cypresses, vineyards, olive groves A mix of seclusion and access Once used as a convent for and forests. The villa’s stylish to one of Europe’s most beautiful girls and later as an agricultural interiors have been carefully cities make this a rare opportunity estate, more recently Karel Appel, renovated by a local craftsman in the heart of Tuscany.
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to Honduras and bought 5,000 acres of land, the start of his murky dealings with The Fish That a country the American government saw as part of their dominion. This reached its nadir in 1910, when the Honduran Ate The Whale president, Miguel Dávila, pushed back against Zemurray. Zemurray hired By Rich Cohen mercenaries, fermented a sham revolution and replaced Dávila with a more compliant president. At this stage, his company, United Fruit Company, was second only to United Fruit, which bought him out in 1929 (in return for 300,000 shares) and he retired to New Orleans. The quiet life was not for Zemurray, however, and as the Depression ate up United Fruit’s stock price, he staged a boardroom coup and installed himself as CEO. It was a masterstroke, and Zemurray soon led United Fruit into the black, and inveigled himself into more Central American machinations, when he took on Guatemala’s democratically elected leftist president, Jacobo Arbenz, who had started giving away United Fruit’s uncultivated land to peasants. Zemurray didn’t hire mercenaries this time – he went down a different route, hiring the PR guru, Edward L Bernays to blacken Arbenz’s name and lobby the Eisenhower administration to intervene. In 1954, he did, and the CIA staged a coup that ended Arbenz’s rule and caused decades of chaos. Zemurray would die in 1961, at age 84, content he had done what was needed to further the cause of American ‘freedom’. History does not treat Zemurray well, although even now his rags-to-riches tale ich Cohen’s look at the based in the raucous coastal city of New holds a fascination. His story is in safe mercurial rise of Sam Orleans, and one that would play a key hands with Cohen, a wildly entertaining Zemurray, America’s greatest role in America’s foreign policy in the writer who treats Zemurray with the fruit tycoon, is at times early part of the 20th century. same zeal he brought to his book on Ramusing, at times shocking, but always Cohen paints a vivid picture of the Rolling Stones. Zemurray, for all fascinating. Ruthless, smart and driven, swashbuckling capitalists, men of action his hardnosed realism, comes across as Zemurray arrived in America in 1892, who created plantations out of thick a mercurial, almost PT Barnum-like aged 14, a penniless immigrant from jungle, built up private armies, toppled character, although his name is loathed Moldavia (now Moldova), and soon governments and shafted competitors, in many parts of Central America, started hustling on the city’s scrapyards, all in the service of the humble where he is seen as the worst example 28 PB buying and selling metal for profit. He banana. He was most definitely a man of American capitalism. For those who drifted south to Alabama, and began of his time, driven from poverty to want to understand America’s role in buying bruised bananas on the cheap unimaginable riches by an iron will and the region in the first half of the 19th and transported them inland for sale an insatiable drive to succeed. century, or how a man came from before they blackened. This was the Zemurray’s road to fruit oligarchy nothing to run a fruit empire, Cohen’s beginning of a commercial empire, began when he bought a steamship, sailed work is hugely rewarding.
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pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, it was designed as a stateless currency that is bought and sold directly, rather than through a Bitcoin battles bank, and that has a decentralised, Emma Woollacott examines whether bitcoin – currently on an peer-to-peer structure. There’s no upward swing – could be a worthwhile investment in 2017 central authority to rubber-stamp transactions; instead, they are all recorded in a permanent public f you’d bought a single bitcoin example, who invested the princely ledger known as a blockchain. six years ago, it would have sum of 150 krones ($26.60), getting Bitcoins enter circulation by cost you just a dollar – and 5,000 bitcoins in exchange. being ‘mined’: essentially, issued you’d be sitting on an asset He promptly forgot all about as rewards to individuals who worth around $1,000 now. them – until four years later when verify the blockchain sequences of IThe paperless cryptocurrency, press reports about the digital transactions. The system has been first created in 2009, has recently currency caught his attention. set up so that the number of new been trading at or around its He discovered his investment was bitcoins issued annually falls by highest level ever, prompting many now worth five million krones half every four years, meaning there investors to consider whether it’s ( 886,000) and sold just one-fifth will never be more than 21 million 30 $ 31 worth taking the plunge. of his holding to buy himself a in circulation (there are 15 million Plenty of people who have done smart new apartment. now). This, claim its proponents, so have seen massive profits, in Stories like this are just one means that bitcoin’s value can only some cases even without trying. One of the reasons that bitcoin is go up in the long term. of the earliest bitcoin buyers was no ordinary investment. The Bitcoins can be traded for Norwegian man Kristoffer Koch, for creation of the mysterious and conventional currencies with
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other users through online exchanges or through companies such as Coinbase, which will withdraw cash from your bank account and convert it to bitcoins at the current exchange rate. As the example of Koch shows, bitcoin was initially regarded by most as an interesting curiosity. However, for many, it’s since become a serious investment product. This is the case particularly in China, where investors have been concerned about the long- term devaluation of the yuan, and where they have appreciated the secrecy bitcoin provides – at least until national regulators imposed transaction fees in January and warned about its volatility. While the immediate effect of this was for trading volumes to plummet, the price has still been holding strong. But is bitcoin really a good bet? On the surface, it would certainly seem so. In five of the last six years, it has outperformed all other currencies worldwide, by as much as 5,400 per cent. And proponents, such as Michael Dunworth, CEO of bitcoin firm Wyre, have made some startling claims. “Bitcoin will replace gold, and internationally it “It will replace gold, and internationally it will replace the will replace the US dollar as the global reserve US dollar as the global reserve currency – 20 years or so from now, that is” currency – 20 years or so from now, that is,” he recently told Investor Daily. And in turbulent times, bitcoin, for commercial transactions. As Others are suggesting that like gold, is increasingly being such, bitcoin has frequently been the price could double over the seen as a way of hedging against described as a sort of Ponzi scheme. next 12 months; even that it real-world currency fluctuations. However, World Bank will continue to double every By 2020, predicts mergers and economist Kaushik Basu year. Most startlingly of all, acquisitions consultancy Magister disagrees. “Contrary to a widely- Wences Casares, CEO of bitcoin Advisors, it will be the world’s held opinion, Bitcoin is not a start-up Xapo, has told The Wall sixth-largest reserve currency. deliberate Ponzi. And there is Street Journal that he thinks one “Bitcoin has proven itself as little to learn by treating it as bitcoin will be worth between an established currency,” says such,” he says. $500,000 and $1 million within Jeremy Millar, partner at Magister But, he adds, “Trouble started the next 10 years. Advisors. “Blockchain, more when people began speculating It’s certainly true that, as well as fundamentally, will become the that the value of bitcoin 30 31 beating conventional currencies, default global standard distributed would rise, thereby raising the bitcoin has been out-performing ledger for financial transactions.” demand for bitcoin and making gold as an investment over the last However, in a report, the firm the value-rise a self-fulfilling 12 months. It more than doubled concludes that as much as 90 per prophecy. In other words, what in value during 2016, while gold cent of bitcoin by value is being we witnessed recently in the put on less than nine per cent. held for speculation, rather than bitcoin phenomenon fits
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summer, nearly 120,000 bitcoin, worth around $78 million, were stolen from Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex, causing a 20 per cent drop in the value of the currency. As for whether it’s a good idea to invest in bitcoin, that depends on your attitude to risk. Even the most optimistic investor should never put in more than they can afford to lose. And while the price has shown a steady average increase over the years, there have been some spectacular temporary falls – bad news for anybody forced to sell. On January 5 this year, for example, the price tumbled from $1,153.02 to just $887.47 before a partial recovery later in the day. One way of minimising the risk is through dollar cost averaging: spending a set dollar amount every month, week or even day, regardless of the cost, to average the price over the course of the year. This, though, only really works for a long period of investment. Ultimately, with no national or institutional backing, bitcoin is only as good as the faith of the people buying and selling it – and that the standard definition of a Transaction fees vary from faith could evaporate at any time. speculative bubble.” exchange to exchange, but are There are several other While bitcoin may not be generally between 0.2 per cent cryptocurrencies to choose a deliberate Ponzi scheme, in and one per cent of the currency from already, including litecoin, other words, it shares a lot of bought – plus bank transaction ethereum and dash (formerly its characteristics. charges – and there are fees of up 90% known as darkcoin). Each of these If you do fancy trying your hand to one per cent on sales. of bitcoin adds its own tweaks to the basic at bitcoin trading, you’ll need to You’ll also need a so-called by value cryptocurrency concept, from know how to go about it. The first “digital wallet” to store your is being faster transaction processing or 32 PB step is to buy your bitcoins, from bitcoins and manage your held for better security to easier mining. an exchange such as Coinbase, transactions. These can exist on speculation Thus, there’s always a chance that Coinmama or Bitstamp. You don’t your own PC or in the cloud, a newer and better alternative could have to buy a whole bitcoin, with managed by the bitcoin exchange. pull the rug from under bitcoin – some sites offering fractions, or If you opt for the latter you’ll in which case the currency could ‘bits’ worth as little as $10. need to trust your provider: last collapse overnight.
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SPHERES OF INFLUENCE David Whelan discovers the world of globes, as reimagined by the London-based artisans, Bellerby and Co
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I was really lucky that this out-letters. The studio itself is a beautiful, airy happened. I was really lucky that room, where tiny earths hang from the ceiling that happened. I was really lucky,” like a celestial dream. Maps cling to drying lines, says Peter Bellerby, with a mixture flashing tiny windows into far-flung locations. It’s of pride and bewilderment. We’re a room filled with multiple worlds, endless – each discussing his company, Bellerby & similar, but also unique. “Eighty per cent of people “Co Globemakers, that has, since its inception who order a large globe will come to the studio,” in 2008, revolutionised the way we see the he says. “People will make an excuse to come world. Or worlds. “I’m working on a speech I’m here. We have a beautiful place. They’ll often stay giving in Switzerland,” he continues. “And I’ve for hours. I love going up to our foundry, where put that phrase in so many times. we have some of our bases made. There are so many reasons why It’s like Boy’s Own Stuff – molten this should have failed – and yet it “Eighty metal things. People have the same didn’t. I was lucky. I mean it. When per cent of experience coming here. It’s a really you’re dealing with spheres, there cathartic experience.” is the tiniest tolerance for error. people who Nine years after founding the Everything is exaggerated.” order a globe company, Bellerby still sounds In 1492, German geographer will come to disbelieving. “I didn’t know what Martin Behaim made the very I was getting into,” he says. “I first world globe as we know them the studio. thought: this can’t take more than today. Erdapfel, or earth apple, as We have a a few months, a few thousand it’s known, comprised a laminated beautiful pounds. It’ll be a bit of a challenge, linen ball reinforced by two pieces and then I’ll go back to normal life. of wood that connect just south of place” And it just went completely out of the prime meridian. It contained control – financially, everything. In an expanded version of Eurasia the end, it took almost two years and no Americas – Christopher and cost £200,000 to make the Columbus would not return from his seminal first one.” He went through four breakthroughs A globe-maker voyage until a year later. The first of its kind, it’s during this process that helped him master the at work. After the initial success at once a wondrous piece of art and an item of art of globemaking, all of which he keeps firmly of his company, intellectual curiosity. There’s a reason we do not to his chest, in case a rival gets their hands on Bellerby realised it see that many globes today – with the evolution of them. “It’s quite difficult to break into a market was impossible to digital technology, the world has once again been when no one has been buying expensive globes continue on as a solo project – and now his rendered flat. Maps are now scrollable with our for 200 years,” he adds. ‘But within about three company employs a fingers on smart phones and computer screens. or four months of beginning my first globe, I total of 15 people Places we have never heard of can be discovered in a search that takes seconds. Destinations are accessible in hours. In a way, we’ve lost a sense of the curve of our planet and, with that, the beauty that lurks just beyond the horizon. Bellerby’s globes are fighting against that. They’re objects to be cherished and admired. The earth is once again round – and it’s never looked better. But it didn’t start with such a grand vision. “It wasn’t a moment of inspiration – it was me trying to find a birthday present for my dad. I was bored sick of buying socks and ties, so I thought I’d get him a globe. He was 37 getting on, so I thought, ‘I’ll buy him a nice globe.’ I couldn’t find anything around at all. So I decided to make one myself.” Bellerby’s speaking from his studio in London’s trendy Stoke Newington, a globe-spin from Church Street, with its boutique cafes and designer
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took the decision to turn it into a company. I had Bellerby takes a breath, reflects on the process. done no market research, or projections of cost – “Depending on the size of globe, that could be anything. It really was just a punt.” “We use 12 pieces of paper to 48 pieces of paper. It takes So, how did it set sail? “We tend to sell most varying amounts of time to do each one. It’s never globes directly,” he tells me. “Try and find a buyer lovely earthy fast. We source the highest quality materials for in a shop – you’ll get nowhere.” The majority of materials. pretty much everything. They must work for what his customers come from direct contact, and a lot Woods, we’re doing. It’s not just about the most expensive, that has come from his online presence, but it’s it’s what works best. For example, I commission not always easy. “Someone e-mails me in 2009, paper, plaster people who make the patterns and they’ll typically for example, interested in a globe, and they didn’t of Paris” be pattern makers from Formula 1 cars, because actually buy one until 2012. Globes take time and we need to have absolute precision.” money, but they’re incredibly worth it. Our wait Bellerby’s globes, however, are not just about list for a globe is around six months. We cannot looking beautiful, they also serve a deeply personal rush our process. There’s a limit to how many purpose to each buyer. “We have people doing we can make. Last year we made 400, this year around 600. We’re never going to let it go crazy. It’s nice keeping it a niche product.” Bellerby’s dedication to artefact runs right through him to his products. A brief inspection of his website will show you the care that his company put into everything: from The Albion to The Gallileo to The Churchill, each globe looks like a shiny planetarium chocolate for the eyes. Something to look at, cherish, spin. “We use lovely earthy materials. Woods, paper, plaster of Paris, modern composites like resin. Lots of different metals. The actual globe itself is a sphere formed using plaster of Paris, resin or GRP and then we mark up the sphere and begin the long process of attaching the map.”
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Bellerby says there’s a bespoke things all the time,” he says. “It’s quite “some people see it as Russia and others Ukraine. six-month wait list for surprising that there isn’t actually a world body Some alterations mean a lot to people, and we’re a new globe. “There’s of cartography – they can’t really be, because more than happy to do that. But we always a limit to how many we can make. Last every country has its own view on how they see maintain integrity. We won’t remove countries off year we made 400, the world. We’re open to that.” Globes are not just a map, for example.” this year around 600” simply things that are fun to spin, they tell stories. After the initial success of his company, “It’s surprising how often heads of state and Bellerby fast realised it was impossible to government change,” Bellerby tells me. “We keep continue on as a solo project – and now his up to date with changes all the time. We include company employs a total of 15 people, including historical, political and economic information on a variety of trainees reviving the forgotten art. all our globes. We update that on a weekly basis. “It’s an unbelievably difficult process to learn,” Things in the world change very fast. India has a says Bellerby. “New trainees take about six great love of changing state names, for example. months to learn – and that’s them coming in Odisha, for example, used to be known as Orissa.” every single day. I’m a hands-off teacher. I think “If you’re Sepp Blatter, you think there’s I hated being taught, throughout my education. I 350 countries in the world, while most of us much prefer to find out things by myself.” just see around about 200,” he jokes. “We can Bellerby is, in many ways, digging history accommodate for that.” With the world being what back up every day – there’s no rulebook to globe it is – diverse, complicated, making, so he allows his trainees to make their own expansive – maps change all mistakes, “so that they can see the difficulty of the “New trainees take the time. Bellerby isn’t working process. A trainee will come in every single day 39 about six months to learn with his head in the sand and try and make a small globe – or as much as on old maps from the 18th they can. At the end of the day, they’ll strip it back – and that’s them coming century. Everything he does is and start again the next day. It’s a really intensive in every single day” painstakingly contemporary. apprenticeship – there’s no mucking around.” It “With Ukraine and Crimea, sounds like a Sisyphean exercise, but the results at the moment,” he explains, are impossible to ignore. “I didn’t know
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anything about the process to begin with,” he says. “I assumed I would just get some maps printed to begin with and flatten them over globes. I didn’t realise quite how difficult that is.” The globes have become a sort of wonderful throwback to a time when the world was a mystery – and people told stories of distant shores. “Back when I first started, we had a little shop to begin with on a backstreet in Stoke Newington,” says Bellerby. “My studio was essentially a shop and, one day, this elderly gentleman walked by and noticed what I was doing. He knocked on the window, introduced himself and said he might he used to spin the original as a globe. It was be able to help – and I had no idea who he was. I “In 1942 the quite wonderful. I thought that was it. But then, didn’t think too much of it.” American someone from America called and insisted I speak This man was James Mosley, librarian and army made to his mother. And it turned out his mother’s historian of printing and letter design. He ended husband was the American army captain who up giving Bellerby his own font, Britannia, which two globes: delivered the globe to Churchill. He’d come via resembled the 18th century fonts of the first one for Northern Africa and it had taken him months wave of globes. “There’s some really nice stories to London. In the end, to get back he ended up 40 Roosevelt, in the world of globes,” Bellerby continues. “In hitching a lift on General De Gaulle’s plane.” 1942, for example, the American army made two one for Stories have come to Bellerby as his project has globes: one for Roosevelt, one for Churchill. We Churchill” expanded – like he’s entered a world of creators began using that design as a template for The who double as archaeologists, restorers of a long Churchill that we make. Then, just the other year, lost art form all drawn together by sheer force of Churchill’s grandson called me and told me how passion. “At the moment, we’re making a globe
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“Obviously, the Earth is not a perfect sphere. But we tend to make ours as perfect as can be”
Once completed, this globe will be suspended above the Louvre’s entrance, an item linking the present to the past. The fundamental designs are also modern, with respect to the past. An upgrade, rather than a reinvention. “For our Churchill globe, we’ve installed contemporary bearings that won’t degrade – unlike the original. Most of our globes fit on three bearings. You can lift the globes off the base. Hold them.” Speaking to Bellerby, it’s obvious that there’s also something incredibly contemporary about all this – he constantly remarks on his luck and the quirks of time. Evolutions in printing, he explains, have not only improved his production, but made it possible: “Even 10 years ago, we’d have had to have used lithographic printing, which would have been far too tough.” It’s an amazing quirk of time, to be in this position to bring back something old because of the modern epoch. But, in the end, these globes are still, primarily, made to be pieces of art to be admired. Bellerby is keen to stress how personal this can be. “One of our unique points is that we allow our buyers an element of design,” he says. “If someone wanted a pink globe with orange spots on, they can have it. If you wanted an illustration, no problem. If you come from a very small village and want that village on the globe? Of course.” Bellerby and Co’s By the end of our conversation, I had become globes are a throwback convinced that these globes were more than just a to a time when the flight of fancy into reviving an antiquated pursuit world was a mystery – and people told stories for the Louvre, which was first made in 1582 – – they were a product of our time just as much as of distant shores they still have the original copper plates, which the past. We all live in a world, now, that has never I’ve literally had delivered this morning. They felt so small. Sometimes, this proximity makes us are amazing. Essentially, no one has been able to forget how large and mysterious the world still remake these for several hundred years, but we is, no matter how imperfect and individual. “I 41 are.” His piece for the Louvre is a humungous like the idea that if you go around to a friend’s celestial sphere originally made by Vicenzo house and you see one that they will be the only Coronelli, Italy’s great founder of the world’s person you know who owns one,” says Bellerby. “I premier geographical society. Bellerby struggles like them being such a rare thing. Obviously, the to keep his excitement in check – “it’s a wonderful Earth is not a perfect sphere. But we tend to make world of makers going through history,” he says. ours as perfect as can be.”
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You might not have heard of it, but there is a company in New York that is aiming to change the way we live and work in the 21st century. Gavin Jennings explores the WeWork world
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The company’s Holyoke location in Seattle
urrently valued at $10 billion, and having raised more than $700 million in venture capital, WeWork is at the forefront of changes in how we both work and live in the 21st century. This Cis a lifestyle of the mobile, affluent young men and women with jobs in tech, in media, in law, who want to take the hassle out of renting, as well as co-habit with likeminded people. The way we work has, of course, changed immensely over time. In the post-Industrial Revolution era, workers were no more than cogs in the machine, interchangeable commodities in service of the bottom line. Workers’ spaces reflected that: impersonal and utilitarian, even up to the early 1990s, the most an office would have in the way of personalisation was a framed photo of loved ones on a desk. Recent decades have seen various attempts at remaking the office, from the invention of the cubicle in the 1960s, to free coffee and table tennis in the late 1990s, all the way up to the present day, where tech companies in particular try to make the workspace as welcoming as possible. The likes of Google and Facebook understand that the more comfortable a workspace, the longer staff will stay – hence the trend for free breakfasts, yoga studios, extracurricular classes and all manner of work-late incentives. Into this new world comes WeWork, founded by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey in New York in 2010, with a simple idea: rent office space from landlords wholesale, break it into smaller units, and sublease it at a profit. Both McKelvey and Neumann are entrepreneurs at heart. McKelvey started his first company English Baby! after living in Tokyo, where he spent an inordinate amount of time explaining American pop lyrics to Japanese 45 speakers. After he moved to New York, he worked for an architecture firm, although he admits he was nothing more than a “glorified handyman”. If WeWork has an aesthetic, then it’s McKelvey, where he is in charge of all the architecture, design and construction work.
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But if McKelvey is the eyes of the company, you could argue Neumann is the soul. When he moved into his sister’s New York apartment in 2001, Neumann was surprised at the silence of the elevator rides. He told Fast Company: “Why is nobody talking to each other. We are living in the same building, how come you don’t know everybody.” Things were different in the neighbourhood he grew up in. “If I’m in a neighbourhood and I need some salt, I don’t even need to know the person – I knock on the door
“Where I grew up, if I needed salt, I don’t even need to know the person, I just knock on their door”
and ask for some salt,” he said. He decided to try something new – to see if he and his sister could make friends in the building. “Let’s see which one of us can meet more people on every floor. So after a month, we can go to that person, knock on the door and see if we can hang out and have a cup of coffee.” His sister ended up making more friends than he did, although that might have something to do with the fact she was a model. Neumann is a born entrepreneur, and his early years in New York saw him launch a number of ventures, including, bizarrely, a line of baby clothes. Around the same time, he approached the landlord of an empty warehouse in the Dumbo area of Brooklyn, hoping to take over the management. The landlord, Joshua Guttman, was not impressed, wondering what a 23-year-old baby clothes entrepreneur could possibly know about real estate. Neumann, nothing if not persistent, eventually convinced Guttman and Miguel McKelvey to use 46 the building to create an environmentally themed co-working space called GreenDesk. Despite the poor timing – it was the spring of 2008, and New York real estate was experiencing a big downturn – the concept worked and the space was soon full. Around this time Neumann
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Below: Members in WeWork’s Moorgate premises in London
the company had 1.5 million square feet of space, 10,000 members and 200 employees. It also had – catnip to investors – gross margins of 60 per cent. When Fast Company visited WeWork’s offices, it described an ethos very much at home in 2017: “People at WeWork feel comfortable taking their shoes off. They sit on windowsills, and they don’t even ask if you mind before plopping their MacBooks down next to yours at a cafe table. Startup teams sit in their tiny glass offices, whose transparency serves the dual purpose of met Rebekah Paltrow (now his wife), a former Above: A member preventing claustrophobia and reminding you stockbroker and Buddhism student (she was works in the that in this vast floor plan, even when huddled invited to the Dalai Lama’s birthday party). Amsterdam office in your own personal hobbit hole, you are never, Paltrow introduced Neuemann to the concept of ever alone.” wellness, and a lot of WeWork’s more community- While Neumann says the close working space focused beliefs are thanks to her. helps build community, it’s also good business – By 2010, Neumann and McKelvey had sold WeWork can earn far more per square foot than their stake in GreenDesk and launched WeWork, it would from traditional office space. It’s Time which they envisioned as a global network of Square office is rented at $58 per square foot, workspaces. Unfortunately they had no building and it rents space to its members for around 47 and only $300,000. Equally problematic was $160 per square foot. the fact that many landlords did not want to Not everyone is convinced by the company’s let to co-working spaces, wary of the transient model, however. Charles Clinton, who runs a real- tenants and constant foot traffic. They did find a estate-funding platform called Equity Multiple, is willing landlord, however, and WeWork was born. dubious. He told Fast Company: “Their multiples Growth since then has been spectacular. By 2014, are more like a tech company than what a
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real estate company would get,” he says. “There’s a feeling that that doesn’t really make sense.” Indeed, if the economy takes a hit, and job losses rise in the tech sector, many of WeWork’s customers will leave. So far though that hasn’t happened and, as the founders proved with GreenDesk, even tough Clockwise from economic times can result in opportunities for bottom left: WeWork co-working spaces. locations in LA, Austin, WeWork is hoping that its experience with London, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia co-working can be transferred to housing. and New York According to a pitch deck leaked last August, the
company estimated that WeLive would account for 21 per cent of its revenue – $606 million – by 2018. In those documents, WeWork planned that WeLive would span across 10.3 million square feet of real estate and serve 34,000 members within the next three years. The company opened its first co-living space on Wall Street at the end of last year, and it currently houses 600 people on 20 floors. Along with the apartments (which range from $1,900 to more than $7,000), there are cleaning and laundry services and a social network, all of which can be accessed through a mobile app. The building comprises 200 units, mostly studio 48 and one- and two-bedroom apartments, each of which has a private kitchen and bathroom. The units are all fully furnished – think Danish furniture – and equipped with cable and internet. Each floor has a common area such as a yoga studio or movie theatre. The idea, it seems, is that residents
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Numbers game 35 cities
150 office locations will never have to leave the building, similar to the ‘singing and dancing’ Silicon Valley office that encourage works to get in early and leave late. 90,000 The idea of common living is nothing new, and members recent years have seen a number of entrants into the market. The idea is to provide comfortable living spaces without the hassle of traditional renting, leaving the residents – usually affluent twenty- and $10 billion valuation thirty-somethings – time to focus on their work. WeLive raised its prices at the end of 2016, with a studio apartment in its Wall Street building now costing $3,050 a month, up from $2,800 at the $220 start of April. The most expensive four-bedroom cost per month apartments now cost 8,000 a month. WeLive of a hot desk $ 49 faces the same issues many start-ups face – getting customers used to full-price offerings and weaning them off the discounts that attracted them in the $3,050 first place. WeLive’s Manhattan living quarters are cost per month of now slightly above the market rates, but that is a private studio understandable given the amenities on offer. on Wall Street
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The company opened its first co-living space on Wall Street at the end of last year, housing 600 people on 20 floors
do, the better we do.” While WeWork has done this type of deal in India, Detroit is the first city they have rolled it out in the US. The deal structure addresses one of the biggest criticisms of WeWork’s business model: the company signs five- or 10-year leases, which means that if real estate prices fall, it will be locked into relatively expensive leases while its tenants, who pay by the month, expect lower prices. There have been other problems. Not long after the company raised $434 million in the summer of 2015 – giving it a value of $10 billion – the union that represents New York’s cleaners protested outside WeWork locations, complaining that most of their contracted non-union workers made only $10 an hour. The sheer size of the company’s valuation also made it a target. It’s strategy – expand aggressively – also raised eyebrows. A leaked investor document outlined plans to open 336 more work spaces by 2018, the equivalent of 260,000 new members and 34,000 people to join WeLive. The company hopes part of this growth will come from its new focus on enterprise. Instead of just attracting solo entrepreneurs and small startups, it wants to entice bigger companies to One thing that sets WeWork apart is its scale Top: The Manhattan rent with it. A recent example of this is HSBC – it currently operates 120 locations in 30 cities Laundry location in taking 300 spaces in WeWork’s new space in Washington, DC globally, everywhere from Montreal to Mexico City, Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay. If companies such Berlin to Seoul, a total of more than seven million Above: WeWork’s as HSBC see WeWork as a viable way to place its square feet, catering to more than 90,000 members. founders, Miguel workers, the bold projections might not seem so One of WeWork’s most interesting locations is McKelvey and fanciful. The company claims that flexibility is a Adam Neumann Detroit. That once-great city is in desperate need big attraction for clients, both big and small. The of innovation and while WeWork’s office space will ability to lease on a monthly basis and add extra look the same as in its other cities, the business desks on short notice gives confidence to clients side will operate a bit differently. The company that they will be able to grow as fast as they need 51 usually signs traditional leases for its properties, to within the WeWork framework. which it then sublets to tenants, but in Detroit, There’s no doubting WeWork’s ambition and things work a bit differently. WeWork’s real estate the scale of its plans. Whether it can continue partner, Bedrock, has including a profit-sharing to grow at the same speed as it has is open to component. As Bedrock CEO Jim Ketai says: “It’s question, but the way we work and live in the 21st almost a percentage rent deal, so the better they century will continue to change.
PF_32017.P42-50_Feature_WeWork.indd 51 2/19/17 5:28 PM THE NEW RULES OF WEALTH MANAGEMENT
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PF_32017.P52-58_Feature_FamilyInvestment.indd 52 2/19/17 5:30 PM Lauren Razavi examines how families are protecting themselves and growing their assets in these turbulent times
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ags to riches tales never truly end with the closing credits. While earning a fortune can make a great story, maintaining it isn’t quite so glamorous: according to the Williams Group wealth consultancy, some 90 per cent of wealthy families have lost their wealth by the third generation. What’s more, it’s an issue that will affect growing numbers of Above: The Standard Oil Company made John D R Rockefeller, seen here with his son in New York, the world’s people. In North America alone, the next three decades will see first US dollar billionaire in 1916 roughly $30 trillion in assets transferred from baby boomers to their Right: Rockefeller Center heirs. So as money passes from one generation to the next, families should plan carefully to ensure their financial legacies live on. The concept of professional financial planning has been For some wealthy individuals, these developments have around a long time. Kings, queens, tsars and maharajahs have led to a dangerous temptation: the idea that the best person for centuries employed specialists to manage the finances of their to manage their fortune is themselves. If they happen to be countries, and in England the Tudor monarchs, who ruled from a highly successful and well-informed investor, that might 1485 to 1603, created the position of Lord Steward to handle the possibly be true, but for the vast majority the evidence points royal household’s financial affairs. to this simple conclusion: that professional financial advice and But as economies developed and wealth spread beyond royal management get the best results. families and their aristocratic cousins, new models of wealth “You’d be surprised how many people invest money into management arose. For example, in recent history few clans unregulated investments,” says Richard Curtis, a financial adviser have commanded as much global wealth and influence as the at AMAS Investments, based in the east of England. “Most advisers Rockefellers. The Standard Oil Company worth their salt will be able to tell you whether made patriarch John D Rockefeller the an investment opportunity is a scam.” world’s first US dollar billionaire in 1916. “The families we A survey by management consultancy By this time, the famed industrialist was deal with have a Aon Hewitt and investment advice firm already two decades into retirement, and long-term view. Financial Engines found that participants part of his fabled success was down to who received investment advice earned, his decision in 1882 to set up his own Whether it’s for net of fees, 2.92 per cent per annum more office of finance professionals to organise them personally than those who didn’t get help. Qualified his business operations together with his or for the next advisers and wealth managers have the family’s growing investments. In doing so, expertise that matters. he created what is often known today as generation” It’s also worth noting that family wealth a “single family office”: a private wealth won’t always be maintained if funds are management firm dedicated to overseeing simply tucked away in trusts that are the fortune of one family. spent or neglected by beneficiaries. Active Since the heyday of the Rockefeller dynasty, the financial investment is important. But it’s critical, too, that wealthy world has become immeasurably more complex. Globalisation families seek advice and investment services that will result 54 55 has opened up new markets and investment possibilities, in good returns over the longer term, rather than potentially innovative companies and individuals have created whole spectacular but risky returns in the short term. classes of new financial instruments, governments and financial “Most of the families we deal with have a long-term view. authorities have put in place tier upon tier of new regulations, Whether it’s for them personally or for the next generation, and information about market conditions and investment they’re looking after their money in the long term,” says Robert opportunities has never been more widely available. Paul, executive director of the US Family Office at London
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Clockwise from top: Karol Vail, granddaughter of Peggy Guggenheim and curator of the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum; Benita and Peggy Guggenheim; the Guggenheim 56 family estate in New York, 1910. In the 57 late 1800s the Guggenheim family possessed one of the largest fortunes in the world. They later became known for philanthropic activities
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& Capital, a global wealth and asset management company. “The families that have money these days are less interested in sexy products. It’s about clear, transparent investments.” The amount of estate or inheritance tax levied on a fortune varies by country. In Japan, estates worth more than 600 million yen are subject to a 55 per cent tax rate, the highest in the world. In the UK and the US, inheritance above a designated threshold is taxed at 40 per cent. Setting up trusts and succession guidance can help to safeguard against inheritance tax. But the relatively low thresholds for inheritance tax mean that business magnates are not the only ones who need measures in place to keep their wealth within the family. Once an individual is wealthy enough to be vulnerable to taxation, it’s probably time to seek professional advice. “Distribution of wealth is something you need to consider as you start to reach the threshold for the amount of money you can pass on to your family tax-free,” says Curtis. “When you’re Meyer Guggenheim, the patriarch of the Guggenheim family young, perhaps your priority is buying a house. You start saving once you’ve got more disposable income. Then you speak to a financial adviser to help steer you in the right direction.” Another potential problem, according to Alexandra Altinger, establishing trusts and other investment vehicles. The key to CEO of London’s Sandaire, an international investment office that getting the formula right is to consult a specialist. caters to wealthy families, is the natural expansion of families over For the newly wealthy, a financial adviser might be a time. “With every generation the number of children generally practical first port of call. These professionals offer advice grows,” she says, “so when the wealth is passed down it becomes on many elements of their clients’ financial lives, including fragmented. The greater the fragmentation, the smaller the investments, mortgages, taxes and estate planning. Financial individual pots become, and the harder it is to invest in a diversified advisers often specialise in different products and planning way, or in illiquid opportunities.” services, and prospective clients should seek out advisers with Further, the rate that money vanishes will depend on the the expertise they’re looking for. spending habits of the heirs. A study High and ultra high net worth individuals by Ohio State University’s Center For can also turn to wealth managers to build them Human Resource Research found that the “When we have an investment portfolio and coordinate future average adult who receives an inheritance new high net planning. Various types of finance specialists – only saves about half of it. The rest is from investment brokers to private bankers – can spent, donated or otherwise lost. worth clients on brand themselves “wealth managers”, but the Uncontrolled spending even gets a board, one of the key point that sets wealth managers apart from mention in the Bible. In the parable of the first things we do financial advisers is that they manage a client’s prodigal son, the younger of two brothers portfolio directly. In some cases, this can mean asks his father for his inheritance, only is make sure that playing the role of coordinator across a client’s to run away and squander it. It would be they have an estate existing network of tax and legal specialists. easy to attribute this kind of behaviour to a planner, a lawyer “When we have new high net worth clients person’s being spoiled, but the underlying on board, one of the first things we do is make cause is often not self-indulgence alone, and an accountant” sure that they have an estate planner, a lawyer but the struggle faced by the children of and an accountant who understands all the the rich to find a sense of purpose in the jurisdictions that this family have to report shadow of a successful relative. “One of to,” says Paul. “We might say, ‘This is how the greatest challenges for second and third generation wealth- we should manage the money,’ but we have to make sure it’s holders is shaping their own identity in light of the legacy they’ve managed in the right structure.” received,” says Diana Chambers, president and CEO of the Beyond wealth managers, there’s one further possibility for Chambers Group, a wealth-mentoring firm. “First generation ultra high net worth families who want truly personalised wealth creators are often powerful figures. When the legacy is attention: family offices providing services not typically available 56 57 very significant, second and third generation family members at traditional investment houses. There are two types of family may struggle to identify and follow their own unique paths.” office: single and multi-family. A single-family office will serve one So whether the problems faced by a particular family relate ultra high net worth family, while a multi-family office will deliver to tax, family conflict, excessive spending, or fragmentation, expertise to a number of wealthy clients. Some multi-family action is necessary. That action could include putting offices are simply expanded single-family ventures, while others legal agreements and structures in place, or it might mean are divisions of existing wealth management firms.
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Clockwise from left: Miwako Date, president of Mori Trust Hotels & Resorts, a unit of Mori Trust Co; a view of Tokyo; a boy and his mother look at visitors waiting outside Toranomon Hills, developed by Mori Building Co, in Tokyo
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The difference between a wealth management firm and a multi-family office isn’t always easy to pinpoint, especially if the former specialises in providing planning services to families. However, the distinction can usually be found in the degree to which a company’s offering is tailored. For instance, family offices will often help their clients set up philanthropic outlets for their wealth, and will provide guidance on lifestyle management. “Wealth management firms mainly manage money, and that’s only part of what a really wealthy family needs in the long run,” explains Patricia Woo, a trust fund and tax lawyer at international law firm Squire Patton Boggs. “Some people do want to manage their money, but sometimes they want to invest in things that banks or wealth managers don’t want to touch. The advantage with single- family offices is that families are able to hire the people that they need to create something that’s otherwise not available.”
ast year, multinational professional services firm Ernst & Young’s Family Office Report stated Akira Mori (left), president and CEO of Mori Trust Co, and Minoru Mori, his brother, who passed away in 2012. The Mori family is one of that there are more than 10,000 single-family the wealthiest in Japan, where estates are subject to a 55 per cent tax offices in operation globally, at least half of which rate, the highest in the world have been established in the past 15 years. The document cites the increasing concentration of Lwealth held by ultra high net worth families, paired with rising “Family offices have to be fully aware of what the family wants globalisation, as the reason for the growth in single family to achieve in the long run,” explains Woo. “This can only be done offices. But Woo has also observed increasing dissatisfaction through education and communication, by building understanding with the wealth management products offered by major banks, in the family. Family governance is an internal system that is especially in emerging markets. documented so that families have that understanding.” “If you go to a big private bank, or to a global custodial Any family making use of wealth management services has a bank,” she says, “they’ll tell you that they have some products twofold responsibility: to understand where their money is going for emerging markets, but they’ll be embedded in a fund that is and to understand their relationship to it. Even if establishing run by the bank. If a family wants something formal family governance isn’t part of a very specific, they can only achieve it within family’s chosen solution, family members their own family office.” “Family offices and their advisers must be committed to One factor that will determine which have to be fully transparency. Without transparency, the task wealth management structures are of managing conflicting personalities and accessible to a family is net worth. Evidence aware of what the expectations will be all but impossible. cited in Ernst & Young’s Family Office family wants to “Families that are successful are skilled in Report suggests that a full-service family achieve in the long multiple dimensions,” says Chambers. “They office would cost a minimum of $1 million communicate effectively about their wealth per year to run, which means that a family run. This can only and the topics of concern to their family, they should be worth somewhere between $100 be done through genuinely trust and support one another, and million and $500 million for a family office education and they prepare their next generations for the to be financially viable. For international responsibilities that will be theirs.” consulting firm Capgemini the net worth communication” Outsourcing wealth management threshold is lower: in 2012 it published a responsibilities to trusted professionals is a report which said multi-family offices are time-honoured tradition for wealthy families. affordable for ultra high net worth families In today’s world, the picture is more complex, with wealth of around $50 million. more concerned with technology and more likely to involve While choosing the right professionals is key to creating a objectives – such as sustainability – rather than simply maximising prudent portfolio of investments that will deliver long-term returns. But whether you’re using the services of a small wealth 58 59 returns, so is preparing heirs to inherit wealth. Communication management firm or a multi-family office, the goal is the same: to between advisers and family members is key, for example, no preserve your financial legacy across generations. matter who a family decides to employ to manage their wealth. While few can hope to replicate the success of the Rockefellers, Ultra high net worth families using family offices will often use finding the right professional advice and investment guidance will a family governance structure to manage their relationship to certainly help high net worth families maintain, and even grow, their wealth and businesses. the wealth they pass on.
PF_32017.P52-58_Feature_FamilyInvestment.indd 59 2/19/17 5:31 PM PF_32017.P60-67_Feature_OrientExpress.indd 60 2/19/17 5:33 PM TRAIN DREAMS A new book shines a light on the world’s first luxury train experience: The Orient Express
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he Orient Express is a celebrity, a train so fully incarnated that it always seems to be travelling somewhere in the wide world, as if it had escaped from its tracks and was lunging at full speed over Tvast imaginary plains. From its first trip in 1883, it impressed people. The first-ever train with sleeper and restaurant cars to link West and East, it carried its travellers to the Orient, from Paris to Constantinople, passing through the great European capitals of Vienna, Budapest, Milan, and Venice. Both a means of transportation and a meeting place, this hotel on wheels was a vehicle for many fantasies. On its journey, the Orient Express seduced writers and artists, as depicted in articles, stories, fables, novels and movies. Joseph Kessel, Graham Greene, Agatha Christie and Sidney Lumet made it a character. Today a new book, Orient Express: Legend Of along with Paris and London, were the cultural Travel, celebrates its unique qualities. The Orient capitals of Europe, popular among worldly Express brought together the talents of engineers, people and writers who fantasized about the artisans and artists to create a luxury train that journey even more than the destinations. became a true nomad’s oasis, embodying the In 1914, the First World War put an abrupt art of travel envisioned by its founder, Georges end to the northern train routes as the land fell Lambert Nagelmackers, the symbol of a way of under occupied control. But in 1919, the Allies life that, more than a century later, still fascinates. broke away from this situation by inaugurating From its beginnings, the name of the Orient The train a southern route, thanks to the Simplon tunnel Express operated as a passport: a passage from the managed that had been dug under the Italian-Swiss Alps real to the imaginary and from yesterday to today. before the war. By avoiding Germany, travellers to cross a were able to reach Constantinople via Milan and DEPARTURE FOR THE dissonant Venice and saved valuable time on this route, CAPITALS OF THE WORLD Europe on which was called the Simplon Orient Express. Vienna, Venice, Budapest, Constantinople…. At the same time, Venice supplanted Vienna in This train without borders, this link between the its first trip the hearts of lovers and scholars. Asia Minor’s geopolitical and the diplomatic, was the original in 1883 railways had been entrusted to the Deutsche dream of Georges Lambert Nagelmackers. Since Bank since 1888 and so was now in the opposing its creation, the Orient Express reflected the camp. As of 1903, Berlin began investing in the game of European alliances and misalliances. construction of the Baghdad Railway, a project 62 63 During its first trip in 1883, the train managed to link Berlin with Baghdad. This route, which to cross a dissonant Europe that encompassed allowed access to the Mesopotamian oil fields, both president Jules Grevy’s France and reached Aleppo in Syria in 1912. François-Joseph I’s Austria-Hungary, as well Some years later, in 1930, on the ruins of as Alexander I’s Serbia and King Ferdinand’s the Baghdad Railway, the Taurus Express, an Bulgaria. At that time, Vienna and Budapest, extension of the Orient Express, would become
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The Orient Express embodied the art of travel envisioned by its founder, Georges Lambert Nagelmackers
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the first luxury train to venture around the Orient. Its route included Aleppo, Beirut, Jerusalem, Cairo, Baghdad and Tehran. The Orient Express was once again successful in its gamble, linking the Occident to the Orient. Again, the trips were historical, touristic, and cinematographic. They opened all of the Orient to adventurers of the Gilded Age. On board there were flappers and sheikhs, princes and nurses. This cultural kaleidoscope will forever be the hallmark of the company. Novelist Agatha Christie, an important Orient Express traveller, transposed this cosmopolitanism onto a boat in Death On The closing The Nile. Published in 1937, this story would become a bestseller. of the Iron The Second World War marked a period of Curtain made downtime, with equipment and personnel being the journeys commandeered once again. The Orient Express Dining car on the Orient Express. resumed service in 1945, but it had lost its lustre. Wood engraving published Paris, c1885 uncertain and The closing of the Iron Curtain the following dangerous year made the journeys uncertain and dangerous. up along the walls: the gandouras, the shawls, the Sleeper and dining cars were gradually replaced burnous, caftans, jackets, embroidered with silver by regular cars. The 1960s dragged on without any and gold, carelessly hung...” The Oriental fantasy sparkle, while the aeroplane borrowed its designs began with turqueries of the court of Versailles from the luxury trains. The Orient Express from and became a reality with Napoleon Bonaparte’s Paris to Istanbul stopped for good in 1977. expedition to Egypt in 1798. The drawings that Dominique Vivant Denon returned to France AT THE GATES OF THE ORIENT with and Jean-Francois Champollion’s work on In the late 19th century, Orientalism was in full deciphering hieroglyphics, which was garnering swing. In Paris, painters’ and photographers’ widespread interest, both brought the Far East studios, covered with exotic objects, transformed closer. Eugene Delacroix’s trip to Morocco the models of Montmartre into odalisques. in 1832 capped off an influx of thrill-seeking Theophile Gautier described the atmosphere artists and aristocrats, who were undertaking in his book L’Orient in 1882, a year before the odysseys that did not yet qualify as tourism, maiden voyage of the Orient Express. “All this as travel was unpredictable and sometimes lovely barbaric luxury still had its trophies lined dangerous. During the 19th century, however, the development of railroads and sea routes made adventure accessible. Thus, the first trip on the Orient Express in 1883 helped popularise the myth of the Orient, to which Constantinople was the front gates. Westerners disembarked on the Bosphorus in search of picturesque views. The British travel agency Thomas Cook, which would be purchased in 1930 by CIWL to form the first worldwide network of travel agencies, and the Guides Joanne, predecessor of the Guide Bleu, met with real success. Constantinople was being developed on all levels: its population doubled between 1844 and 1885, and Ottoman intellectuals prided themselves on their knowledge 64 65 of western culture, with many translated French works being available in their libraries. On this side of the Bosphorus, Paris appeared – like a mirror, a fantasy city – located in the West, to where the Orient Express led. The modernisation Posters for the Simplon Orient Express of the city was confirmed by the election of the
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Clockwise from top: Officials attend a ceremony in Athens to mark the re-opening of the Simplon Orient Express after the Second World War; the train arrives in Istanbul, 2012; 64 head waiter Eugene Monnier, famous for his ability to choose 65 wine. In the Simplon Orient Express, six kinds of bourgogne, five of bourdeaux, and six of champagne could be purchased
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Right: The Istanbul Sirkeci Terminal Below: The bell on the exterior of the terminal
Right: Interior of one of the restored sleeping cars. Vologda, Russia, 2002
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first president of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Life Magazine journalists Liwan Roy and Jack Atatürk, in 1928. Renamed Istanbul, the city Birns, who in 1950 made a journey aboard the became committed to modernity as tour groups Orient Express, with its stops, searches and eerie began to visit. Beginning in 1930, the Taurus tunnels. One morning in 1950, however, the Express extended the route of the Orient Express luxury train lamented its first real death, the only beyond the Bosphorus, carrying tourists and one throughout its operation: the body of Captain archeologists to Cairo, Baghdad, or Jerusalem in a Karp, an American diplomat, was found torn to great storm of sand. pieces on the tracks following a long and complex After the Second World War, it was always this spying mission. oriental chimera that traveller came to see, woven Literature and cinema took over the legends in gold and embroidered in colours by writers from The Orient of the Orient Express and the fantasies associated Montesquieu to Pierre Loti, from Joseph Kessel to Express was with it. In 1939, Alfred Hitchcock, who gladly Graham Greene. The Orient Express is thus the best the preferred used the trains in his films, adapted this thriller- way to ensure their nightly “lean to the East”, as like atmosphere amid the Austrian mountains Victor Hugo wrote in Les Orientales in 1929. mode of in The Lady Vanishes. In the movie, one can transport for recognise the journey of the Arlberg Orient INTELLIGENCE AND SPYCRAFT diplomatic Express, inaugurated in 1932, without it ever The late 19th century coincided with the being directly referenced. A fake nun wearing development of intelligence agencies. In France, pouches heels, a patient covered in bandages, and a brain the 1870 defeat by Germany alerted the surgeon, along with two Englishmen whose only military authorities to the need for an external concern, with regard to the missing woman, information department. is that they arrive in London in time for their The railway was not immune to this new cricket match. As for Sean Connery, he was activity. In February 1855, a decree act created James Bond in From Russia With Love, the 1963 a unit of special commissioners for the police adaption by Terence Young from the novel by in charge of railways, border crossings and Ian Fleming. On the journey from Istanbul ports. This unit, dedicated to railways under to London, James Bond, as tradition dictates, the Third Republic, endured and became a sends Red Grant, the killer on SPECTRE’s prestigious instrument of political intelligence. payroll, flying out the train door, and seduces the As the first European transcontinental route, beautiful Russian Romanova in a sleeper car. the Orient Express was naturally the preferred transportation for diplomatic pouches and double agents from its inception. This cross- border train with its mysterious passengers was a wonderful playground. Moreover, spies from different periods would relish dressing up, never wanting for style. This was the case for Mata Hari. The young Dutch woman became famous for her erotic Javanese dancer character–turned–charming spy following a reversal of fortune. During the First World War, the Orient Express became her general headquarters before she was arrested in Paris at the Élysée Palace; she was executed in 1917. Or even Robert Baden-Powell, another legendary Clockwise from above: spy, who played the role of a lepidopterist and Orient Express, by drew butterflies in the dining car. The lieutenant Sixtine Dubly, is out general’s coded wings were of great help to the now on Assouline Royal Navy on the Dalmatian coast during the Books. $85, assouline. Great War. There was also the enigmatic character com; From Russia With Lawrence of Arabia, who was once in the service Love; Murder On The 66 67 of Her Majesty the Queen of England. Orient Express At the other end of Europe, communist Russia would also make good use of the luxury train – from the Revolution of 1917 and for almost 60 years thereafter. The atmosphere could sometimes be cut with a knife, according to
PF_32017.P60-67_Feature_OrientExpress.indd 67 2/19/17 5:34 PM PF_32017.P68-73_Feature_WallStreet.indd 68 2/19/17 5:34 PM WALL STREET Two-hundred years ago this month, the New York Stock Exchange opened for business. We take a photographic journey through the highs and lows of the world’s financial centre
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Interior view of the Old Stock Exchange. The building was constructed in 1865
In a London club, members watch fluctuations during the Wall Street crash (1929), as changes are chalked up by telephone operators in direct contact with New York
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Black Tuesday (October 24, 1929): The most devastating stock market crash in the history of America
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A Wall Street worker in Lower Manhattan, 1958. The post-War economy in America saw a boom during the ’50s and stock markets climbed to greater heights
Black Tuesday signalled the beginning of the Great 71 Depression, which affected most industrialised western countries, most of all the United States
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Traders on the floor of NYSE moments after the opening bell on October 22, 2008. The 2007- 2008 financial crisis – the worst since the Great Depression – led to a prolonged recession
September 19, 2008. US stocks surged as the government moved to halt the credit-market seizure and regulators cracked down on investors seeking to drive down shares of financial companies
72 Traders gather in front of the exchange on March 11, 2003
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1990: Traders react on the floor of the NYSE as the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaks 10,000
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The bull of Wall Street, a symbol of financial optimism and prosperity
PF_32017.P68-73_Feature_WallStreet.indd 73 2/19/17 5:35 PM PF_32017.P74-77_Living_Opener&Hotel.indd 74 2/20/17 10:04 AM MARCH ISSUE 135 On The Waterfront Overlooking Venice's Grand Canal, the Sina Centurion Palace is a stunning converted mansion with a modern twist
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WHERE TO STAY SINA CENTURION VENICE PALACE,
Salute, nique is an overused word, Venice but Venice has no equal. Set across 177 canals, 450 bridges and innumerable PRICE Upalaces, it is a city at once beguiling and From $550 intimate, thronged with tourists, yet with per night enough secrets to make it unknowable, at least to first-time visitors.
Set in the Pallazo Genovese, a 19th centurionpalace- century palace overlooking the Grand venezia.com Canal, the Sina Centurion Palace is a wonderful mix of classic design with modern touches. Witness the pop art in VCE the lobby or the playful furnishings in the bedrooms, all of which play second fiddle to the views of Venice just outside the window. That motif continues into the restaurant, which is minimalistic and very chic – think all white interiors, jazz 76 77 fusion on the speakers and an array of contemporary Venetian fare. Three Red Forks, courtesy of the Michelin Guide, ensure the standards are high. With 36-foot-high ceilings and two balconies overlooking Venice’s main
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waterway, the rooms marry modern styling with the traditional (wooden beam ceilings and French window frames). The modernist furniture works well in such a space, particularly the huge headboard, which also functions as the back of the wardrobe. The hotel has a private terrace on both sides – the main entrance leads you out to a quiet square; turn left and cross two bridges and you will reach the spectacular Basilica Della Salute, a 17th century Baroque church with an enormous dome, which reaches 230 feet high, and is an iconic part of the city skyline. Turn right and you reach the Peggy Guggenheim collection, one of the most impressive modern art collections in the world. Venice, of course, is glorious – a mix of myth and nostalgia, of faded glory, and of hope, hope that something so breathtaking could be created in what was a remote, inhospitable marshland. Venice is said to be home to 177 canals, and you are never more than a few seconds’ walk away from one. At night the streets empty out and soft lighting illuminates the winding lanes and canals – it is silent aside from the odd echo of a footstep and the lapping of the water.
76 77 PEGGY GUGGENHEIM COLLECTION DOGE’S PALACE CAMPANILE Located just a few steps away from the When Venice was one of the most At almost 325 feet, the Campanile is hotel, this palace houses a remarkable important city-states in Europe, it was from the city’s tallest building, built in 912, collection of modern art. With work from the Doge’s Palace that power emanated. before collapsing in 1902. It was rebuilt Pollock to Picasso, Mondrian to Dali on The palace is remarkably preserved with and offers spectacular views of Venice, display and set across Guggenheim’s the inner chambers, the staterooms and and, on a clear day, the Alps beyond the
THREE TO SEE house, this is unmissable. the dungeons, all fascinating. Treviso Plain.
PF_32017.P74-77_Living_Opener&Hotel.indd 77 2/20/17 10:04 AM LIVING / STYLE What to pack ...for spring in Athens and beyond
Average temp 14°c
Chance of rain: 35%
ATHENS MARCH
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ALSO WEAR IN... Rome Algiers Paris Amsterdam
WHAT TO SEE
ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS akropolis is the one in Athens, and The ancient hill city of Acropolis it contains the remains of several towers over Athens, both physically ancient buildings, the most famous and spiritually. Akropolis means being the Parthenon. ‘high city’ in Greek – most city- Greece is the cradle of western 78 79 states in ancient Greece had one, civilisation, and as such no visit to and they served as sites of worship the country would be complete or as places of refuge during without paying a visit to its most times of conflict. The most famous famous architectural complex.
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ACCESSORIES
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D.S. & Durga Freetrapper Eau De Parfum $183
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Berlutti Polished Leather Backpack $2,562
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Braun Rubber And Stainless Steel Watch $774 78 79
1. Acne Studios Wool and Cashmere Overcoat $1,014 2. Begg & Co Scarf $288 3. The Elder Statesman Cashmere and Silk T-Shirt $528 4. Tricker’s Nubuck Boots $539 All products available at mrporter.com
PF_32017.P78-81_Living_Style.indd 79 2/19/17 5:36 PM LIVING / STYLE What to pack ...for winter weather in Moscow and beyond
Average temp -2°c
Chance of snow: 52%
MARCH MOSCOW
0°C 1°C 5°C 4°C ALSO WEAR IN... Stockholm Helsinki Berlin Warsaw
WHAT TO SEE
GORKY PARK (during winter, of course), outdoor Do as the locals do and head to cinema (summer) and free Wi-Fi. this sprawling park – named in Other activities include honour of the communist-era writer cycling, rollerblading, beach Maxim Gorky – to escape the hustle volleyball, table tennis, and even 80 81 and bustle of Moscow. Reopened in pétanque. The park also hosts 2011 following extensive changes, top-class exhibitions and festivals the park boasts numerous cafes throughout the year. And the best and restaurants, a massive ice rink bit? It’s free entry.
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1. Vince Oversized Bomber Jacket $843 2. The Elder Statesman Alpaca Sweater $491 3. Missoni Fringed Crochet-Nit Scarf $208 All products available at net-a-porter.com
ACCESSORIES
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Chloé Two-Tone Smooth and Texture Leather Wallet $406
Marni Pod Color-Block Leather Backpack $1,698
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Erno Laszlo Detoxifying Cleansing Oil $63
PF_32017.P78-81_Living_Style.indd 81 2/19/17 5:36 PM Massachusetts General Hospital named among America’s Top Hospitals
To request an appointment, visit massgeneral.org/international
Ranked as one of the top three hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, Massachusetts, USA) is the only hospital in America to be ranked across all 16 specialties. MARCH LIVING / INVESTMENT ISSUE 135
L.U.C. Full Strike Experience a new level of crystal clear sound quality with a luxury precision timepiece from Switzerland
4 1 The watch chimes the hours, quarters and 42.5mm-diameter minutes on transparent rose gold material. crystal gongs. Transparent sapphire crystal provides scratch-resistant peace of mind.
2 Openworked dial houses showcase the world-class craftsmanship that goes into each watch.
5 Polished bezel and 3 case-back, hand- Strap in hand-sewn engraved case-back double-sided CITES- with a back fitted certified alligator with glareproofed leather, dyed with sapphire crystal. plant pigments and an 18-carat rose gold pin buckle.
PB 83 he first thing you notice about this timepiece is the sound. Apt, really, given this is Chopard’s first ever minute repeater, a piece of precision watchmaking that is in a league of its own. Striking the hours, quarters and minutes on sapphire gongs, this watch combines original construction, Poinçon de Genève finishing and, of course, its remarkable sound. The sapphire rings are an integral part of the watch glass, which creates a perfect loudspeaker to diffuse the chimes of T the hammers striking the sapphire. For a watch that sounds as good as it looks, the L.U.C. Full Strike is a surefire bet.
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Top Table James Brennan explores the Hungarian capital and discovers a city with a culinary scene very much on the rise
Ten years ago it was very hard At the Bocuse d’Or final, Széll and his to find really good places in team finished in fourth place and lifted Budapest,” says Hungarian chef the Special Plate Prize. He cooked a vegan Tamás Széll. The 34-year-old is dish inspired by Hungarian vegetables “talking fresh off the back of an astonishing called Under The Roots And Leaves, while Bocuse d’Or Europe victory in mid-2016, his meat platter, called Hungarian Winter and an impressive performance in the Forest, used Bresse chicken in a variety esteemed cooking competition’s world of preparations. But Széll’s latest project final in Lyon this year. “Now it’s absolutely promises simpler, more traditional food changed. We have some Michelin-star with no less attention to detail. restaurants, and new places are opened “In this [new] place me and my constantly. It’s changing every day.” partner, Szabina Szulló, will take an Széll’s recent success highlights an exciting detour from the world of fine upsurge in the fortunes of Budapest’s food dining, and will cook Hungarian dishes and restaurant scene. While most people’s in a free spirit,” says Széll. “There will be knowledge of Hungarian cuisine goes little some constant dishes on the menu like further than paprika and goulash, chefs like goulash and potato casserole, but we will Széll are beginning to change all that. also have a continuously changing menu Now the capital city has five Michelin- that will depend on the available seasonal
star restaurants, a plethora of small eateries HUNGARY Hungarian products.” and cafes, bakeries and pastry shops This reinvention of Hungarian cuisine (cukrászda) galore, and sprawling food has been at the heart of Budapest’s markets you could lose yourself in. restaurant renaissance. Szell’s previous place It’s at one of those markets, Belvárosi of employment, Onyx, won a Michelin star Piac, or Downtown Market, at Hold Utca, for beautifully presented classic Hungarian that Széll is opening his new venture, dishes with a modern twist. Costes, Costes Stand25 Bistro. The market is well known Downtown and Tanti have also been for its fresh produce at ground floor level, recognised by the famous Red Guide, as and the new bistro will slot in neatly has Borkonyha Winekitchen, which serves alongside the street food stalls on the Hungarian- and Transylvanian-inspired mezzanine above. food, and more than 200 local wines from diverse cellars throughout the country. Tourists are flocking to taste traditional BUDAPEST , Hungarian ingredients and dishes in a modern fine-dining context. But at a restaurant like Tanti, where two courses cost less than $15, the Michelin-star food is among some of the cheapest in Europe. BUD And yet, Michelin stars aren’t the be all and end all of Budapest’s food offering. Carolyn Banfalvi is co-founder 84 85 of Taste Hungary, which operates walking tours of Budapest’s prime food hotspots. For her, part of the attraction of Hungarian food for tourists is its mystique. “I think Hungarian cuisine has always been somewhat unknown
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The team outside The Stand 25
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“Most travellers still only think about goulash when they think about Hungarian food but it has moved on a lot recently”
to most people who do not have a connection with the country,” she says. “Outside of some small Hungarian enclaves, there are really very few Hungarian restaurants. Travellers who we meet are always very pleasantly surprised at what they find here, and most of them tell us that they only knew about goulash. However, even though things have changed so much within Hungary, I think people who have not yet travelled here to experience it for themselves still see a blank spot when it comes to Hungarian cuisine.” Most itineraries will take in Budapest’s grand gothic, renaissance and art nouveau you could spend half a day just wandering nibbling on pastries,” says Banfalvi, with architecture, its art galleries, museums and around the Central Market Hall.” an eye on the morning after. Indeed, monuments such as Heroes Square, or a Also known as the Great Market the 19th century New York Café at the lazy boat trip along the Danube. But one Hall (est1897), the oldest and biggest Boscolo Budapest is one of the most of Banfalvi’s tours might involve a leisurely indoor market in Budapest is a popular extravagantly beautiful settings for an poke around a local market, or a visit to a spot with tourists. Beneath its expansive espresso and slice of chocolate cake on vibrant street food pitch such as Karavan, vaulted roof, stalls groan under the weight the planet. From the old to the new, with its burger stalls and hot dog stands. of some fascinating fare. There’s more Budapest’s various restaurants, cafes and “Besides being simply a beautiful paprika than you can wave a smoked bars have been given a new lease of life. city to visit, it really is a perfect food Kolbász sausage at, but you’ll also find “The quality has been improving over destination,” says Banfalvi. “You can spend tinned foie gras as well as caviar. the past six or seven years,” says Banfalvi. days just visiting all of the many different There’s also plenty of the local firewater “Many Hungarians have gone abroad, neighbourhood market halls and admiring pálinka, a fruit brandy available in myriad and then have returned home to put their the ingredients for sale – at the very least flavours, as well as the ubiquitous staple experience to work in Hungary, and their Hungarian herbal liqueur Unicum, ambition really shows. There are so many made by the evocatively named Zwack small restaurants which have opened, Co. And don’t forget the wine. With which are full of creativity and talent.” almost 100 varietals of native grapes As well as Budapest’s Michelin-star and 22 wine regions, Hungary is an menus, Banfalvi recommends some of the oenophile’s playground. Wine can bought more traditional dishes such as húsleves at the market or sampled in the ambient soup or pörkölt beef stew. The likes of Terv surrounds of one of Budapest’s legendary Bisztro or Café Kör are cosy places to ruin pubs like Szimpla Kert, an old factory enjoy these hearty Magyar staples. Along reclaimed and revitalised by the city’s with a host of international restaurants, party-hardened night owls. from Georgian to Vietnamese, they “Of course there are also the famous provide firm evidence that Budapest’s coffeehouses, where you could spend restaurant scene is diverse enough to cater hours just taking in the scene and to a wide range of tastes. 86 PB THREE TO SEE
1. Parliament Building Completed 2. Memento Park Dedicated to 3. Basilica of St Stephen Budapest’s in 1902, it is one of Europe’s oldest Hungary’s communist era, Memento Park grand neoclassical cathedral was built over legislative buildings. has spectacular statues and plaques. half a century and completed in 1905.
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Different Strokes Beautiful Chinese art on show in Singapore
trokes Of Life: The Art Of landscapes. The exhibition is presented curator and an educator. For fans of his Chen Chong Swee is the in tandem with Rediscovering Treasures: work, this is a must-see. 88 89 largest ever retrospective Ink Art From Xiu Hai Lou Collection The National Gallery Singapore is of the Singaporean artist’s and Wu Guangzhong: A Walk Through one of Asia’s leading art institutions, career – one that spanned Nature at the Wu Guangzhong Gallery. and is home to the largest collection of Smore than 60 years. Chen was a pioneer The exhibition will also examine modern art in Asia. in the use of Chinese ink painting Chen’s work from the 1950s to the National Gallery Singapore, until November 2017. techniques to portray Southeast Asian ’80s, showcasing his role as an artist, a nationalgallery.com.sg
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A cock and chick, by Qi Baishi
Zhong Kui, by Xu Beihong
A painting in the spirit of Six Dynasties poetry, by Xu Beihong
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Kampong, by Chen Chong Swee
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The Rise of the Robots By Antonio Garcia Martinez
very new form of media initially advertising, the publisher played a critical emulates the forms of the past. The and powerful role. In the aughts, websites first radio shows were merely people like Yahoo! had an entire sales force (as reading books on air, or playing newspapers still do) that sold those little Einstruments, with no use of clever sound squares of characters and images directly effects or editing. The first TV shows were to advertisers. Many a fax and e-mail flew quiz shows that had originally appeared around just to sell one ‘insertion order’, in on radio, with mere headshots of the the industry argot. contestants. No sophisticated panning shots The ability to target was nil; at best, one or jump cuts; simply an addition of a face to could indicate a certain part of the website for the spoken word. an ad to appear in (say, the movies section). Internet advertising has the same atavistic Analytics and attribution – answering the resemblance to the newspaper advertising question of who saw and eventually bought that preceded it. The first such ads were run what – were equally non-existent. The only in La Presse, a Parisian newspaper in 1836. difference between the internet and highway Advertisement was originally a scheme to billboards was that you didn’t have to lower the paper’s selling price and capture physically glue a poster somewhere. market share. A successful By 2008, that had all changed, strategy, it was soon copied by which is why a former Wall all newspapers. “Media buying Street quant like me was at The ads themselves were was no longer Alchemy. A company called rectangular frames of advertiser Right Media was allowing created content, placed either about putting advertisers to segment users below or alongside regular a square on into specific clusters based on content, and marked as distinct the automobile their actions on a given site by their blocky frame and (eg putting something into a large, garish lettering. Sound or real estate shopping cart). Originating like an ad you saw on nytimes. section, but the notion of real-time data com recently. sychronisation between the Of course, advertising isn’t the about finding online world and specific only place where this happens. specific users publishers, Right Media even We refer to spacecraft as ‘ships’ anywhere let you tag users that came to given their resemblance to the your site (or anywhere else) seafaring kind, and given the and anyhow” and find them again later. intellectual origins of space Acquired by Yahoo! in 2007, it travel in the mathematics and engineering had developed the first programmatic media of marine navigation. This emulation is buying technology; programmatic meaning merely the result of the organic progression media controllable via computers talking to of our mad and clever species from one one another, rather than humans talking to technological toy to another. one another via sales talk. In the same way, marketers refer to Media buying was no longer about putting websites and mobile apps as ‘publishers’, a a square on the automobile or real estate quaint reflection of the advertising world’s section, but about finding specific users 90 PB origins in that of ink and newsprint. The anywhere and anyhow. From Chaos Monkeys by ‘publisher’ is simply the entity that brings All this data being generated, stored and Antonio Garcia Martinez © eyes to the auction block, whether via Pulitzer used, by both publisher and advertiser made 2016. Reprinted courtesy Prize-winning writing or a game in which you room for people who once priced credit of Harper, an imprint of launch irate birds against antagonistic pigs. derivatives to do the same for parcels of HarperCollins Publishers. During the early days of internet human attention instead.
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