The newly built art depot of the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam can be considered a work of art in its own right. The architects at MVRDV have designed a massive, mirrored “bowl” with trees growing out of its “lid”. This new building can be admired already – even before the art objects have been installed …

With Celinde, a range of coffee tables with cross-shaped legs and an integrated serving tray, Lukas Klingsbichel celebrates urban coffee culture and becomes part of the World Wide Things Collection, a selection of design objects taken from the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Here, the designer talks about his favourite pieces in the collection …

Although we live in a materialistic world, “things” have a surprisingly bad reputation: they are seen as dead and soulless, and inferior to the organic world of plants, animals and humans in every respect. Anyone devoting themselves too enthusiastically to “things” is quickly suspected of being superficial. You might find that somewhat hypocritical considering we all invest a lot of energy in the quest for beautiful and valuable things, and in order to buy them we have to earn that thing called money…

Michael Kovacek is one of the founders of the Viennese auction house im Kinsky and, as he will tell you himself, has dedicated himself “body and soul” to art. We discuss the thrill of the auctions, the passion for collecting and why record prices are always worthy of making the headlines …