What’s Happening: Since winning its bid for the FIFA World Cup over a decade ago, Qatar has been eager to bolster its cultural clout with substantial investments leading up to the marquee event, which kicked off yesterday. The Persian Gulf country has debuted world-class museums, an ambitious public art program, starchitect-designed stadiums, five-star hotels, and a glimmering airport, but thousands of migrant worker deaths, dubious sustainability claims, and criminalization of homosexuality are overshadowing the hype.

The Download: The 22nd FIFA World Cup is a complicated affair. The decision to host the event in Qatar has proven highly contentious from day one, with the Persian Gulf country racing against the clock to realize zealous $300 billion construction plans as it anticipates an eye-popping 1.5 million visitors to attend the quadrennial soccer event. The development includes eight state-of-the-art stadiums designed by a roster of acclaimed architects, a 47-mile-long rail system, dozens of luxury hotels, world-class museums, and an expansion of Hamad International Airport, which usurped Singapore Changi Airport’s eight-year reign as the world’s best.

Qatar has delivered on those plans—proof of the country’s oil-driven wealth and aspirations to flaunt its cultural credentials. The construction boom hasn’t been seamless: The country is embroiled in controversy stemming from anti-LGBTQ laws, poor living conditions causing thousands of migrant worker deaths, a dubious human rights history, flimsy sustainability commitments, and allegations of bribery and corruption within FIFA. The Guardian estimates that an average of 12 migrant workers, many hailing from South Asian countries, have died every week since Qatar landed the World Cup. Others are trapped in the kafala system—an arrangement often compared to modern slavery resulting in unpaid wages, excessive hours, mountains of debt, and illegal recruitment.

Controversy aside, Qatar’s building fever has yielded an array of ambitious projects that have established its capital, Doha, as a formidable arts destination. Among them is the National Museum of Qatar designed by Jean Nouvel, whose petal-like structures form an unmissable landmark at the southern end of the Doha Corniche’s waterfront. Joining nearby is The Art Mill, a serene creative campus designed by Elemental, and the blocky Museum of Islamic Art, whose renovation brought the late I.M. Pei out of retirement. OMA, tapped for the Qatar Auto Museum, also completed the Qatar National Library, which brings millions of books and heritage texts related to Arab-Islamic civilization to the sprawling campus of Education City.

Further on the cultural front, Qatar Museums recently unveiled a massive public art program encompassing sculptures and installations from blue-chip names—Jeff Koons, Faye Toogood, Katharina Fritsch, Olafur Eliasson, Ernesto Neto, and Rashid Johnson—to parks, shopping centers, train stations, the airport, and the stadiums. The organization is chaired by Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, sister of the ruling emir and one of the world’s most prolific art collectors, whose annual acquisitions budget is estimated to exceed $1 billion.

With flight bookings to Doha jumping more than 4,000 percent this year, accommodations are going fast. The country opened an influx of hotels in anticipation of high demand, including Marriott’s Andalusian-inspired 193-room Pearl Qatar, spanning the entire St. Regis Maria Arabia Island. Playing off the Hindi word for “personal style,” the country’s first Andaz property near tony West Bay is adorned in locally inspired motifs and artworks.

The Waldorf Astoria Lusail, meanwhile, features resort-style amenities including a private beach, an on-site water park for children, full-service Espa Life spa, and the Bywater brasserie inspired by New Orleans’ French Quarter. The Ned, an exclusive members club co-created by Soho House founder Nick Jones, follows up its New York debut with a location in the former Ministry of Interior Building, offering six restaurants, a tranquil spa, and 150-piece art collection.

But as more than a million soccer fans descend on Qatar, all eyes will be on eight new starchitect-designed stadiums overflowing with architectural moxie. For the colorful Stadium 974, Fenwick-Iribarren Architects repurposed the same number of shipping containers—a nod to Qatar’s international dialing code. Zaha Hadid Architects relied on its signature sweeping forms for the boat-shaped Al Janoub, which features a fully retractable roof. Dar Al-Handasah oversaw two stadiums: the tent-like Al Bayt, which hosted the opening game, and the renovation of Khalifa International, which opened in 1976. The final match will be played at Lusail, a glimmering jewel clad in a curved exterior of gilded triangular panels, which designer Foster + Partners likens to a “golden vessel.”

In Their Own Words: Pulling off $300 billion worth of development over a decade is impressive, but Qatar—a country mostly populated by expats—“faces the risk of an empty feeling once the fans go home,” Simone Foxman and Adveith Nair write for Bloomberg. “The government hopes that an end to the World Cup frenzy will herald the dawn of a more viable knowledge and service-sector economy, but the path between a major sporting event and the next phase of economic growth remains unclear. That makes the post-tournament transition as important as the buildup if the investment will ultimately pay off.”

Surface Says: Given Qatar’s egregious record of human rights violations, is it still acceptable to watch and enjoy the World Cup? Multiple organizations are putting pressure on FIFA, which is establishing a billion-dollar legacy fund when the event wraps up, to invest a significant amount toward compensating workers and their families. It’s one tiny glimmer of hope within a problematic history, but is a key first step in righting some wrongs.

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At Miami Art Week, Surface is partnering with Polygon—a web3 platform building technology to create opportunity for generational impact—on a multi-day experiential activation at the W South Beach. The Surface x Polygon Bungalow will be an immersive hub for creative discovery with installations by MokiBaby, OffLimits, Spatial Labs, LNQ, RECUR, Prism Collective, and WORTHLESSSTUDIOS. Learn more about the Bungalow here.

The Bungalow will also be home to a series of intimate, salon-style panels focused on the power of web3. On Monday, Nov 28, we’ll kick off with SUSTAINABILITY: Actually Doing Something. Blockchain technology has a notorious carbon footprint—or does it? In this salon session, we’ll introduce the next-gen thinkers and doers who are leveraging Web3 technologies and real-world action to fight against climate change. Come prepared to discover your place at the intersection of art, design, climate action, and the chain.

This is an intimate gathering and space is limited. RSVP to get on the list.

Earlier this year, a select few had the chance to preview Stella McCartney’s foray into home goods—a welcome collaboration between the fashion designer and Italian furniture mainstay B&B Italia—at her Future of Fashion installation during Milan Design Week. Now, the full capsule collection, including a reinterpretation of Mario Bellini’s bulbous and beloved Le Bambole armchair, Bibambola double seater sofa, and Granbambola three seater sofa, is nearing its official launch next week at Art Basel Miami Beach.

The collection is produced with McCartney’s trademark attention to circularity and sustainability. Her hand-drawn burgundy “Fungi Forest” print, which debuted on the summer 2022 runway, is produced as a biodegradable, microplastic-free finishing touch to each piece’s recycled polyethylene frame and other recycled elements in the foam and fabric. The collection will be available for purchase in B&B Italia showrooms starting December 1.

Each textile created by Los Angeles atelier Studio Ford, founded by longtime printmaking devotee Josie Ford, celebrates the timeless art of Indian block printing through considered handmade fabrics with an exploratory, soulful spirit. For its fifth collection, a series of quilts, throws, pillows, and table linens called Interwoven in Bauhaus-inspired primary colors, the studio is honoring the seminal movement’s oft-overlooked women—Gunta Stölzl, Anni Albers, Otti Berger, and Benita Koch-Otte among them—through abstract geometric patterns that verge on the architectural.

When: Nov. 29–Dec. 13

Where: Solana Spaces, Wynwood, Miami

What: During Art Basel, artist Mike Han, PROWL Studio, 3D motion designer Natalie Liu, and Model No. Furniture are joining forces on an installation that features work transforming salvaged wood waste into wanted objects using 3D manufacturing. A story of circularity meets technology and imagination, the collection harnesses the physical and digital to create coveted objects without environmental harm and sheds new light on the enduring question: Is there a better way?

For those traveling to Miami, Surface is co-hosting an intimate celebration of the installation on Wednesday, Nov. 30, from 5–8 PM. Interested parties can RSVP.

Memorials tend to follow formulas: figurative statues or monumental buildings commemorating a sole historical figure or casualties of war, disease, and disasters. But how does one design a memorial for tragedies that are ongoing, such as mass shootings, a scourge that continues to claim the lives of 40,000 Americans every year? Some memorials to specific incidents (Las Vegas, Pulse) are underway but not yet finished—a testimony to the frequency of gun violence events, the fraught political approval process, and the complexities that designers must address to create thoughtful places of reflection.

The Clearing, a newly opened memorial to the 20 students and six educators who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT, on Dec. 14, 2012, may have an answer. Instead of going down a traditional route, Dan Affleck and Ben Waldo of Bay Area landscape and urban design firm SWA opted for a tranquil outdoor reprieve within a wooded area a quarter-mile from the school. As visitors enter the five-acre site through three curving terraces lined with indigenous dogwood and maple trees, they descend on a single London planetree planted on an island in a water feature.

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BDDW is an American furniture brand dedicated to the creation of well-crafted timeless designs. Artist and engineer Tyler Hays, the company’s founder, designs each piece in his Philadelphia studio. Known for its heirloom-quality solid-wood furniture, BDDW has also created dozens of classics and is constantly producing innovative work.

Surface Says: BDDW’s furniture has a personal touch. Hays brings his detail-oriented approach to everything in the collection, from sofas and coffee tables to armoires and bed frames.

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