architecture

Art & Design, Lifestyle, Polo News

Gianfranco Brignone (1926-2022)

17. January 2022

It is with profound sadness that the Brignone family announces the passing of Gianfranco Brignone founder of Careyes, at the age of 95 years surrounded by his loving family.

We honour his vision, creativity, passion and perseverance which allowed for Careyes to develop into one of the most important architectural wonders of the pacific coast, resonating for all times to come: the true Magic of Careyes!

He is survived by his children Emanuela, Giorgio and Filippo and the younger generation who will in unison honour respectfully his legacy.

Born in 1926 in Turin (Italy) and one-time banker, Gianfranco flew over the jagged cliffs and jungle hills of Careyes on the Pacific Coast of Jalisco in 1968, and immediately decided to make this unique place his own personal frontier and utopia. Careyes was blessed to meet Gianfranco and he was, in return, exceptionally privileged to discover Careyes.

Deploying some of the world’s most talented and imaginative architects beginning with Marco Aldaco, Alberto Mazzoni, Diego Villaseñor and Jean-Claude Galibert — together with summoning skilled local artisans — in harmony enthusiastically embraced and realized his vision with the pivotal obsession that the landscape is essential and to be preserved: ‘I am not an Architect, but a framer of Nature’.

He developed many important architectural landmarks such as the houses Mi Ojo, Tigre del Mar with its Casa del 3000, together with the mirroring houses Sol de Oriente and Occidente amongst many others, always designing without any straight lines, as they don’t exist in the environment and utilizing mathematical measurements based on the number twenty-seven.

`I have given my life for my dreams and my dreams have given me life.` — GFB

‚One eye to see and one to feel’ he once said and, on this hue, he designed and built beautiful land interventions such as the Ojo de Venado, Arbol de Corazón, and Copa del Sol of which images have circulated all over the world as a result of their strength and vibrancy.

For over 50 years, Gianfranco has closely guarded and preserved the 15km of coastline and beaches of Careyes, which encompasses a wild, virtually uninhabited area, stretching along the Pacific shoreline, and includes about 2000 hectares of jungle, mangroves and cliffs.

Together with the Careyes Foundation established to catalyse innovative programs in education, sports, ecology, and the arts to improve the well-being of local communities along the South Pacific coast of Mexico. The Sea Turtle Protection & Conservation Center was opened in 1983 releasing over 1.9 million new-born sea turtles safely into the ocean.

Careyes has now become one of the rare sustainable and socially responsible communities in Mexico counting more than 42 different nationalities and 287 Caballeros y Damas del Sol.

In September of 2006, he was honoured the “Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca” from Mexican President Vicente Fox, the highest achievement for a foreigner in recognition his work over the years.

Copyright © 2022 Costa Careyes, All rights reserved.

It is with profound sadness that the Brignone family announces the passing of Gianfranco Brignone founder of Careyes, at the age of 95 years surrounded by his loving family. We…

Art & Design, Asia, Lifestyle, Polo News

Contemporary Art Exhibition Louvre Abu Dhabi Art

27. August 2021

INTERNATIONAL JURY PANEL FOR LOUVRE ABU DHABI ART HERE 2021 AND THE RICHARD MILLE ART PRIZE UNVEILED

• Comprising esteemed art experts from around the world, the jury will select the artists to be featured in the Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 exhibition from 16 November 2021 to 27 March 2022

• The call for proposals for UAE-based artists is open until 11 September; proposals can be submitted via Louvre Abu Dhabi’s website

Abu Dhabi, UAE, 18 August 2021: Louvre Abu Dhabi and Swiss watchmaking brand Richard Mille have revealed the jury for the inaugural edition of their contemporary art exhibition Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 and The Richard Mille Art Prize. Composed of four members, the jury has been drawn from diverse artistic spheres including curatorial, architectural and institutional. The distinguished panel will first select a shortlist of artists to participate in the upcoming exhibition, from the ongoing open call for proposals, and following the exhibition launch will award a $50,000 cash prize to the 2021 recipient of The Richard Mille Art Prize.

The 2021 jury members are H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Chairman of UAE Unlimited, an art collector and patron of the Centre Pompidou, the British Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, and an honorary patron of Art Dubai; Christine Macel, the Chief Curator at the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou and an art critic; Hala Wardé, founding architect of HW Architecture, long-term partner of Jean Nouvel and the lead of the Louvre Abu Dhabi project; and Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director.

“Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 breathes new life into the role of the museum by not merely celebrating the past, but rooting and contextualising contemporary art in its present setting through interactions and links with contemporary artists,” said Dr. Noujaim. “We are happy to launch this new chapter in collaboration with Richard Mille, marking Louvre Abu Dhabi’s continued extension into contemporary art and highlighting our ever-present dedication to local artistic talent. For this first edition, we are privileged to have the support and expertise of our esteemed jury members, who have demonstrated their commitment to Louvre Abu Dhabi and their strong interest in the local contemporary art scene.”

The artists shortlisted by the jury will showcase their work in the Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 exhibition, on view from 16 November 2021 to 27 March 2022 in the museum’s Forum, a space of interaction and exchange dedicated to contemporary art. From among these shortlisted artists, the jury will select the recipient of the first edition of The Richard Mille Art Prize.

For this inaugural year, UAE-based artists are invited to submit proposals around the theme of ‘Memory, Time and Territory’, with the exhibition and prize shining a spotlight on local talent as part of the UAE’s wider 50th National Day celebrations. Proposals from the open call may be submitted until 11 September 2021 via the Louvre Abu Dhabi website.

For more information about Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here 2021 exhibition and The Richard Mille Art Prize, please visit www.louvreabudhabi.ae.

For 2021 jury members’ biographies, please click here.

www.richardmille.com

INTERNATIONAL JURY PANEL FOR LOUVRE ABU DHABI ART HERE 2021 AND THE RICHARD MILLE ART PRIZE UNVEILED • Comprising esteemed art experts from around the world, the jury will select…

Fashion, Lifestyle, Polo News

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

30. April 2020

You know those stories about Rolls-Royce? They are all true

Upon announcing that Rolls-Royce equips its motor cars with a refrigerator that has two cooling modes: ‘Summer’ and ‘Winter’, thus ensuring occupants’ beverages are delivered at the optimum temperature for the relevant season, the marque has witnessed significant interest in the myths and legends that endear so many to the brand. In this spirit, the time is now to reveal more of the truths that have defined the modern Rolls-Royce success story.

Images: Rolls-Royce

1) At prototype stage the 6.75-litre Rolls-Royce V12 engine had to faultlessly revolve 750million times before being approved for production.

2) The mechanism that retracts the Spirit of Ecstasy to prevent theft and damage is comprised of 24 unseen linkages and bearings.

3) 14 highly qualified Rolls-Royce engineers run a fleet of 16 intensive test vehicles 365 days a year on top of their normal workloads. They do this without complaint.

4) The sensors in a Rolls-Royce are so sensitive they are able to detect if a driver or passenger shifts their body weight from one side to the other and adapt accordingly.

5) The 1300 Watt, 18 speaker Bespoke Audio system in a Rolls-Royce is so exhaustively tuned, interior designers must seek the permission of the audio engineer who created it before making any design changes.

6) Much like the wood veneer inside a Rolls-Royce motor car, the weave of the carbon-fibre that makes up the central spine of Dawn’s ‘Aero Cowling’ tonneau cover is expertly hand book-matched to achieve a perfect chevron pattern.

7) The marque’s lauded Starlight Headliner began as a Bespoke request. A Rolls-Royce client was suffering from Photophobia, an extreme sensitivity to light, and was only able to enjoy reading his daily newspaper under the starlight on his rural ranch. He requested that the marque develop a similar ambience in his Rolls-Royce.

8) The marque’s Bespoke designers increasingly facilitate commissions via mobile messaging services. Indeed, one of the first clients to take delivery of her Cullinan commissioned the motor car entirely via WhatsApp, witnessing the finished product for the first time upon its arrival at her home in the United States of America.

9) Before building the ‘Clean Room’ where the ‘Gallery’ fascia within Rolls-Royce Phantom is assembled, Associates from The Home of Rolls-Royce visited pharmaceutical and microprocessor Clean Rooms in order to fully understand these complex manufacturing laboratories.

10) A Rolls-Royce Wraith ascended the famous hill-climb at the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed in just 52.71 seconds. A feat that could not be bettered by two Maserartis, a Porsche and a Bentley.

11) Sommeliers advise that the optimum serving temperatures of non-vintage Champagne is six degrees centigrade and vintage Champagnes is 11 degrees centigrade. Rolls-Royce equips its motor cars with a refrigerator that operates two cooling modes, chilling to six degrees and 11 degrees respectively.

12) Phantom’s world-leading sound insulating properties were employed by London-based musician Skepta, who was able to record a track in its entirety from the rear seat.

13) 4,500 automated electronic test and commissioning sequences are executed during assembly to ensure the car is crafted to its correct specification. A further 3,500 take-place once the car is finished. A car must pass every test before it is permitted to leave the factory.

14) Over 100 microprocessors decipher 130 million lines of code, ensuring every Rolls-Royce’s suite of cutting edge technological features can be called upon instantly and seamlessly by the driver or passengers.

15) Over 25m of cabling is used to transfer audio data in a Rolls-Royce. Fiber-optic cabling is used to ensure immunity against interference.

16) In 2018, Rolls-Royce added shooting stars to its celebrated Starlight Headliner with eight shooting stars that fire at random across the ceiling panel.

17) To achieve the marque’s mirror-like finish, 5 layers of paint are applied by the only robots you will find at the Home of Rolls-Royce. Any hard-to-reach spots are painted by highly skilled paint experts. In total the process of applying a flawless exterior finish takes seven days and uses over 100lb of paint.

18) Paint quality is checked by the most sophisticated measuring tool in the world: the human eye. If a car does not meet with the approval of the marque’s notoriously fastidious auditors, it will be scrapped.

19) It takes 17 days to hand-craft the leather elements of a Rolls-Royce interior.

20) The most detailed single piece of embroidery to feature in a Rolls-Royce motor car is a Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird in the world. The photo-realistic design consists of nearly 250,000 stitches and took a team of designers, craftspeople and engineers over one month to develop.

21) The 48 painstakingly crafted wood parts that comprise a Phantom interior take 28 days to produce. A sense of seamless flow of grain is ensured by only using wood from one tree for each motor car.

22) Mark Court is the only man in the able to hand-apply a perfectly straight Phantom coachline. In total it takes 3 hours per side. He uses special brushes made from ox and squirrel hair to ensure the line is precisely level and a uniform 3mm in width. He honed his steady-hand painting pub-signs.

23) Engineers will analyse cavities with an endoscope during monsoon water tests to ensure no moisture ingress. Should a car fail this test it will be scrapped.

24) A Rolls-Royce is so quiet, Sir Henry Royce ordered the fitting of signs at the factory proclaiming ‘Caution, Silent Cars’. Modern health and safety dictates that craftspeople maneuvering cars around the Manufacturing Plant must intermittently sound the horn as a warning.

25) A Rolls-Royce rides on a 16litre air cushion married to dampers and springs that dynamically adjust themselves every five milliseconds to deliver the marque’s sovereign magic carpet ride.

26) When driven in a spirited manner the Rolls-Royce suspension system can draw on two high-torque electrical motors to minimise body-roll.

27) Legend has it that during a particularly spirited birthday celebration, Keith Moon drove his Corniche into a hotel swimming pool. This story is untrue – he was far too fond of his Rolls-Royce to let it come to harm.

28) When creating the Rolls-Royce Architecture, on which all contemporary Rolls-Royces are built, engineers incorporated a resonance chamber into the body’s sill section. This, essentially, transforms the body of the motor car into a subwoofer, delivering exceptional low frequency audio performance.

29) A tailor made heat station brings every Rolls-Royce body to an exact temperature of 25 degrees Celsius to ensure that the rubber seal between the sunroof and the body is perfectly mated, this eliminates any road and wind noises over many years of driving.

30) It takes 60 pairs of hands 400 hours to build a Rolls-Royce – this can more than double depending on the complexity of a Bespoke commission.

31) Rolls-Royce sells cars on five continents. Should a customer live in a country without a dealer, specially trained technicians will fly to their home country to service their car. This small band of experts have been affectionately dubbed ‘Flying Doctors’.

32) The brief given to the marque’s engineers tasked with developing the roof mechanism for the Rolls-Royce Dawn was to create a silent ballet. They emphatically succeeded. While being the largest production convertible roof in the world, it is also the quietest.

33) During the testing period of the Rolls-Royce Dawn, lead Test and Analysis engineers were required to wear shorts so they were able to detect unpleasant airflow around their legs and feet. This testing was conducted in January at three degrees centigrade.

34) At 70 mph, a Rolls-Royce still has 90% of its power left in reserve.

35) A sensor within the Gallery Clean Room continually measures the particle concentration in microns – an alert is sent if particles are detected at a size larger than 0.001 of a micron. The width of a human hair is between 50-100 microns in diameter.

36) Every single component that makes a Phantom Gallery is painstakingly cleaned by hand inside a particle proof cleanroom before final assembly – this takes two people two hours to complete.

37) The Spirit of Ecstasy is so valued by the marque that there is a safe lock on the shop floor containing no more mascots than the necessary for one day of production. The code is known only by a small circle of craftspeople.

www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com