What’s Happening: Two weeks of tense negotiations at the UN’s annual climate conference created an unprecedented reparations fund for poorer countries ravaged by climate disasters, but illustrated the calamity that awaits if nations don’t transition away from fossil fuels.

The Download: The mood was dismal when politicians and diplomats from around the world descended on Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, for COP27 two weeks ago. The tense negotiations, which concluded on Saturday, illustrate the challenges ahead as wealthy countries remain invested in fossil fuels and struggle to see eye-to-eye with developing nations ravaged by climate disasters. A study published during COP27 found only a few countries followed pledges from last year’s conference to cut emissions. According to climate scientist Rob Jackson, the inaction is due to shortsighted political leaders and human apathy.

The latter was addressed through a nearby artwork that sought to showcase the phenomenon for skeptical attendees. Research suggests attitudes toward climate change differ depending on the temperatures one is currently experiencing—a concept called “visceral fit.” Someone in a hot office, for example, is more likely to think global warming is a threat. It inspired Cairo artist Bahia Shehab to create Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene, an immersive artwork of two identical-looking rooms with different temperatures, sights, and smells meant to represent humanity’s two possible eternal outcomes. In one room, visitors enjoy nature sounds and orange blossoms; the other is dark, scorching, and reeks of decomposing fruit.

Other artists were less optimistic, echoing the skepticism and anger expressed by Ai Weiwei, Romuald Hazoumé, and Olafur Eliasson during last year’s conference. At the WHO’s Health Pavilion, a giant sculpture cast tree branches in metal and arranges them into an assemblage that resembles a pair of human lungs. Designed by Jon Bausor and Victoria Pratt of the Invisible Flock collective, it shows that lungs and trees bear more similarities than one may expect. “The price of not taking decisions to fight climate change is paid for by our lungs,” says Dr. Maria Neira, the WHO’s director of public health and environment. Another artwork features tiny bottles filled with artist Kasia Molga’s tears, which were used to sustain algae from the North Sea.

Though the conference and artworks may have skewed somber, the negotiations took a positive turn when diplomats agreed to establish a fund that would help more vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters caused by industrialized nations. The climate reparations deal calls for a global committee to hammer out logistics over the next year. It’s a crucial development given the world is currently slated to warm by up to 2.9 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, and every fraction of a degree means millions will be exposed to coastal flooding, heat waves, and water shortages.

In Their Own Words: “Entire countries that are present here will simply disappear from the surface of the planet,” Espen Barth Eide, Norway’s minister of climate and environment, told the conference on Friday. “Cities we love and live in will be gone. It’s such a drama in front of us that we simply have to make sure that we stick to what we were told to do [last year] in Glasgow.”

Surface Says: Illustrating the complexities of climate change through experiential artworks appealing to “visceral fit”—which may elicit a lasting emotional response—seems like a more noble pursuit than splashing priceless paintings with tomato soup and mashed potatoes.

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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. In addition to serving as an immersive hub for creative discovery, the Surface x Polygon Bungalow will host a series of intimate, salon-style panels focused on the power of web3.

On Wednesday, Nov. 30, we’ll hear from Iddris Sandu, the founder of LNQ—an innovative, state-of-the-art blockchain-enabled hardware platform—and one of the inaugural projects of sLABS. We’ll hear from the tech wunderkind and entrepreneurial genius about the future of fashion and technology, and how NFC technology and the blockchain are making authentication, iterative ownership, and supply-chain transparency more visible than ever.

This is an intimate gathering and space is limited. Get on the list here.

Whether masterminding sumptuous apartments in Rome or award-winning yacht interiors, each project by Achille Salvagni has the distinctive quality of feeling like his finest—a testament to the Roman designer’s avowed sense of modernism imbued with top-notch materials, impeccable craftsmanship, and a deeply layered narrative. Nearly two years after Salvagni brought an array of museum-quality furnishings to a pristine gallery space in London’s tony Mayfair district, the multihyphenate has unveiled a like-minded space on New York’s Upper East Side in partnership with longtime gallerist Maison Gerard.

It’s a full circle moment for both parties—Maison Gerard founder Benoist F. Drut convinced Salvagni to launch his own collection back in 2013. His materially rich pieces take pride of place throughout the newly opened 4,000-square-foot setting, Salvagni’s largest atelier yet. A new edition of the coveted Spider Chandelier sets the tone in a lustrous pink, as does a pair of Gae armchairs upholstered in an artisan-woven textile designed with Toyine Sellers. They join another imaginative lounge chair inspired by ancient Egyptian furniture whose backside mimics the silhouette of a lion’s hind legs. The roster of new pieces will intermingle with 20th-century rarities by the likes of Gio Ponti, Jacques Adnet, and FontanaArte.

Drut likens Salvagni to a design couturier whose uncompromising vision involves only the finest materials: bronze, precious stones, and sumptuous textiles, all crafted by the world’s most skilled artisans, including a longtime Vatican collaborator. “As a gallery whose origins are in fine French Art Deco, it’s no surprise that we embraced Salvgani’s work, which shares the same attention to detail and never-ending search for refinement as did the architects and designers of this period,” Drut says. “Much like a Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann or a Jules Leleu, Salvagni can be considered a contemporary décorateur ensemblier, masterfully creating entire rooms with nothing but original works.”

Once an enclave for wealthy families during the Gilded Age, Lenox, MA, punches above its weight in the cultural sphere. Home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer stomping grounds, Tanglewood, as well as Shakespeare & Company, the small Berkshires town also has a rich history of novelists who passed through during the mid-19th century such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Mellville, and Fanny Kemble. That legacy is front and center at the new Life House, a rehabbed ‘70s-era retreat that honors its lodge-style origins while bringing it into the modern age.

From the crackling fireplaces to library lounge stocked with vintage books to writing desks in the 65 guest rooms, the retro literary theme is tastefully executed. At the farm-to-table restaurant, Club Room, custom Murano glass chandeliers crafted in Venice by Sogni di Cristallo and and artist Lei Xing’s nature-inspired mural set a convivial atmosphere for elevated pub grub (short-rib grilled cheese, artisanal charcuterie boards). Art also plays a significant role in the rooms, where Annie Lynch’s collage works of female figures superimposed in local landscapes are displayed next to framed poetry by Russell Markus.

Prada’s Eternal Gold fine jewelry collection may attain the high standards one would expect from the Italian luxury house, but its supply-chain transparency is downright revolutionary. In fabricating the 48-piece line, which debuted in October, Lorenzo Bertelli, the label’s head of corporate social responsibility, and jewelry director Timothy Iwata turned to practices old (using certified recycled gold) and new (documenting manufacturing and material origins on the blockchain).

Fashion brands are becoming increasingly accountable to their customer base for the values represented by their labor and supply-chain practices. With this launch, Prada is setting the curve by rising above the industry’s trend toward opacity and identifying its suppliers and collaborators. Further, the collection’s pavé diamonds, a notoriously difficult-to-track material, meet rigorous standards enforced by Prada and set by the Responsible Jewelry Council for traceability, sustainability, and humanitarian impact.

Customers can then verify the specifics of the manufacturing and sourcing process behind their purchases thanks to documentation stored on the Aura Consortium blockchain, a ledger used by luxury fashion’s biggest names, like LVMH, Richemont, and, of course, Prada. After all, “exclusivity,” Bertelli told the New York Times, “makes no sense with sustainability.”

When: Until Jan. 15

Where: Mexico City

What: The debut exhibition of Casa Nueva, a livable Mexico City gallery space and apartment hotel, was built on the idea that art can be inhabited. Visitors can book stays in the apartment, which is outfitted with an array of functional art and design objects created by talents shaping both New York and Mexico City’s design spheres exploring concepts such as mass, volume, and weight. Among the highlights: a wavy tule fiber wall mirror by Joyful Objects, Yes, solid wood stools by Daniel Couttolenc in the golden ratio, and Studio H. Fernandez’s polished steel coffee table whose rigid rectangular surface contrasts its raw volcanic stone legs.

In the four decades since City Harvest’s humble origins in an employee’s station wagon, New York’s largest food rescue organization has gathered a billion pounds of excess food and fresh produce going to waste from nearly 2,000 restaurants and grocery stores, delivering them to mobile vendors and farmers’ markets serving New Yorkers struggling to put meals on the table. Operating a fleet of 23 refrigerated trucks seven days a week, the nonprofit retrieves more than 200,000 pounds of food per day—and more than 75 million per year.

As the nonprofit gears up for its most crucial holiday season yet, it’s also unveiling a sprawling new campus, where corporate offices, storage warehouses, distribution centers, and community facilities all operate side by side. Called the Cohen Community Food Rescue Center, named after philanthropists Steven and Alexandra Cohen, the 150,000-square-foot complex repurposes a 19th-century train repair depot in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood into a state-of-the-art hub.

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d line is a heritage Danish design brand that handcrafts enduring architectural hardware, sanitaryware, and barrier-free solutions. Its portfolio features blue-chip designers including Knud Holscher, Arne Jacobsen, and Bjarke Ingels, and is present in many celebrated buildings—from New York’s Museum of Modern Art to Copenhagen’s SAS Royal Hotel.

Surface Says: d line is an aptly named hardware company that connects Danish heritage to contemporary design. Its products embrace timeless midcentury minimalism, adding an understated sophistication to the architecture of today.

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