Simon Upton
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Articles by Simon Upton
Simon Upton on RMA reform: ‘Significant taking back of regulatory power by central government’
Chris Bishop, the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, introduced the Planning Bill and the Natural Environment Bill at an official launch at the Beehive on December 9, 2025.Robert Kitchin / THE POST The Minister who guided the Resource Management Act through Parliament 35 years ago - now the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment - took the unusual step of writing to MPs following the Environment Select Committee’s report on the Planning Bill and Natural Environment Bill, introduced...
Time, Not Trends, Shaped This 1870 Brooklyn Town Home
When Jessica Sailer and her husband fell for an 1870s Italianate building on a quiet block in Brooklyn Heights, they were willing to endure a number of attendant concessions. Given considerable renovation delays, the couple and their three young children went through a series of small rental apartments and, for a period, lived exclusively on the home’s top floor.
In Fabiola Beracasa Beckman’s Greenwich Village Town House, Art and Family Unite
Fabiola Beracasa Beckman, a filmmaker and fashion industry veteran, grew up on New York’s Upper East Side. The daughter of Veronica Hearst, one of her era’s most stylish society swans, she was raised in a lavish Fifth Avenue apartment designed by Renzo Mongiardino featuring columns, tapestries, and Old Master paintings. “I had the great honor of spending many afternoons with him,” she says of the legendary decorator.
Sienna Miller vende su ‘cottage’ de cuento de hadas por 2.2 millones de euros: “Es un santuario donde reunir a la familia y amigos”
Sienna Miller vende su cottage inglés del siglo XVI por más de 2 millones de euros Tras dos décadas como feliz propietaria, la actriz Sienna Miller ha decidido despedirse de su encantadora casa de campo en la campiña inglesa. Rodeada de flores silvestres y con un tradicional techo de paja, esta vivienda del siglo XVI se vende, según publica Mansion Global, por unos 2.2 millones de euros. Miller adquirió la propiedad en 2004, cuando buscaba un refugio lejos del foco mediático.
An Open Landscape, Between the Beach and the Bay, Becomes a Family's Dream Home
When Julie Frist was 12 or 13, her father would take her for driving lessons on a narrow spit of land, not much wider than a football field in places, that separated the flat calm of Long Island’s Shinnecock Bay from the roaring waters of the Atlantic.
Step Inside Castle Howard, a British Icon in the Midst of a Major Restoration
All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
A Peeling 17th-Century Palazzo and the Man Who Was 'Crazy Enough' to Buy It
WHEN RAFFAELE FABRIZIO was growing up, he lived in a small village close to Lake Como called Fino Mornasco that was near the headquarters of Dedar, the Italian fabric house that his parents, Nicola and Elda, founded in 1976. Fabrizio, 55, and his sister, Caterina, 56, have spent their careers at Dedar, bringing the firm into a new era by introducing novel combinations of color, pattern and texture, attracting clients like Hermès and the movie director Luca Guadagnino.
Beata Heuman Shows Her Serious Side in a Landmark London Town House
All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. If the ability to shape-shift is one of the true superpowers of an accomplished designer, then underestimate Beata Heuman at your peril. The Swedish-born, London-based AD100 talent is well-known for her delicious designs emboldened with captivating color, a masterful mesh of furnishings, and a smattering of whimsy.
Tour a Fashionable Couple’s Romantic London Town House
All products featured on Architectural Digest are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, we may earn an affiliate commission. One of the most romantic town houses in London—the kind that resembles an aristocratic dwelling straight out of a Jane Austen novel—stands solemnly on a sun-dappled corner of Cheyne Walk overlooking the glittering River Thames.
Visit Plum Sykes’s Flower-Filled Cotswolds Oasis
It was the ultimate gift: A few weeks before I got married in 2005, Miranda Brooks offered to design my garden as a wedding present. Miranda needs little introduction: She is one of the world’s leading landscape designers and, luckily for me, she was my colleague at Vogue, where we collaborated on many stories for the magazine and had become great friends. I was thrilled, but there was a hitch—I didn’t have a garden for Miranda to design. The pressie was put on hold.
Magdalene Odundo Gives New Life to a Historic British Country House With Her Ceramic Creations
To go to Houghton Hall is to experience British country house grandeur at its most powerful and luxurious: lofty halls, exuberant carvings, acres of ancestral portraits and giltwood furniture, all set in a park populated by herds of white deer. Seat of the Cholmondeley family for centuries, the Norfolk pile has also become one of the nation’s most galvanizing stages for contemporary art, thanks to David Cholmondeley, the filmmaker seventh marquess of the line, and his wife, Rose.
Step Inside a Revitalized Palm Beach Manse Original
It's hardly news when a historic Palm Beach estate undergoes an extensive restoration, unless of course, one of the design world’s leading dignitaries is reimagining the residence as a retreat for her own family. AD100 designer Victoria Hagan and her husband, businessman Michael Berman, were looking for an airy beach house when Hagan fell for a 1920s Tudor whose hectic layout lacked finesse.
Inside a Grand 6,500-Square-Foot Madrid Pied-à-Terre
When it comes to creating a dream apartment in Madrid, few designers are more qualified than Michael S. Smith. After more than a decade as a part-time resident of the city—his first home was the residence of the U.S. Ambassador to Spain and Andorra, the role in which his partner, James Costos, served under President Obama—the LA-based AD100 Hall of Fame designer adores the city and knew exactly what he wanted.
Inside a Vibrant Countryside Castle Where Colorful Patterns Reign Supreme Original
“It felt like Trematon called us, and we had to accept the call,” says Frieda Gormley, one half of the British interiors brand House of Hackney. “We never expected to make a place like this our family home.” In a curious bit of serendipity, she and her husband, Javvy M. Royle, have become custodians of the Castle of Trematon, a storied motte-and-bailey estate built by a nobleman in 1068 and bestowed on the Duchy of Cornwall in 1337 (Prince William is Trematon’s current owner).
Adwoa Aboah ci apre le porte della sua accogliente e coloratissima casa londinese
Nella casa ci sono molti ricordi personali di Aboah, che danno allo spazio un carattere autentico. Sparsi qua e là ci sono contributi creativi da parte di familiari e amici: persino il giardino è stato progettato da sua zia, la paesaggista Sarah Husband.
Estilo francés: La decoración perfecta para un hogar de ensueño
El estilo francés es una decisión arriesgada pero siempre certera. "Esta casa tenía que ser un pabellón para el nuevo periodo de luna de miel en su vida, con los hijos ya mayores", dice el arquitecto Bobby McAlpine de la morada contemporánea que diseñó para sus clientes, la anticuaria europea Susan Roland y su esposo, Jim, en St. Francisville, Luisiana. "No está pensada para albergar a todo el mundo, pero sí para alimentar y entretener a todos".
This Serene Home Is Located on a Private Louisiana Lake and Looks Like a Glassy Riverboat
“This house needed to be a pavilion that was about the new honeymoon period in their life, with the children grown,” says architect Bobby McAlpine of the contemporary abode he crafted for his clients, European antiques dealer Susan Roland and her husband, Jim, in St. Francisville, Louisiana.
La nuova villa di Aerin Lauder, nipote della leggendaria Estée, è un magnifico sogno romantico
“Mi ispiro al passato, quindi capire la storia della casa era importante per me. Per comprendere il futuro, bisogna conoscere quello che c’è stato prima”, spiega Lauder, che ha lanciato Aerin, la sua azienda di lifestyle di lusso, nel 2012, dopo una carriera di successo nell’iconica azienda di cosmetici di famiglia. “Quindi ho voluto preservare il più possibile la casa”.
Inside Adwoa Aboah’s Colorful and Comfortable Victorian-Era Home
The front door of the Victorian-era home of model, actor, and activist Adwoa Aboah, it turns out, is brilliantly deceptive. Painted a discreet black, it gives little indication of the decor behind it but suggests, perhaps, an owner with a penchant for the pared-back. Step into the entry hall, however, and that is all subterfuge.
Inside Sonam Kapoor Ahuja's intimate, art-filled London home and studio
When Sonam Kapoor Ahuja first started dating Anand Ahuja, she also fell in love with the setting of his London perch. Notting Hill is one of the last truly bohemian ‘villages’ left in the city and the couple set their hearts on a home among one of its leafy stucco squares. Lockdown offered the actor an unexpected opportunity to roost.
Why NoMad London Is The British Capital's Most Bold And And Dramatic New Hotel
When NoMad New York opened in 2012, the New York Times opined that the hotel ‘stands out for its bohemian glamour and opulent yet intimate interiors’. Fast-forward almost 10 years and the interiors of its new sister hotel, NoMad London, have caused equal sensation in design circles, signalling an exciting era for London Hotels.
7 Design Books to Put on Your Radar
This new crop of design books cover everything from interiors to exteriors—and are sure to motivate, teach and (most of all) inspire. VICTORIA HAGAN: LIVE NOW By Victoria Hagan Spending time at home took on a whole new meaning last year—and that was a big motivator behind why designer Victoria Hagan decided to put together this book (her third), which debuted at the end of October.
5 unmissable details from Sonam Kapoor Ahuja's sumptuous London home
Sonam Kapoor Ahuja's elegant Notting Hill home, that she shares with husband Anand Ahuja, is testament to her curatorial prowess. Brought to life by Rooshad Shroff, the home is filled with stunning details— from warm wooden flooring to gorgeous wallpapers, and antique finds. Scroll to take a peek into her regal, art-filled residence that is an ode to Indian craftsmanship.
A Cotswold-Style Guest House in Atlanta
Home Tours / August 25, 2020 A Cotswold-Style Guest House in Atlanta Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook Share Twitter Facebook start slideshow In Atlanta’s Buckhead neighborhood stands a historic home built in 1928.
Step Inside Dakota Johnson’s Midcentury-Modern Home
"This is the front door," actress Dakota Johnson says in a dramatic flourish as she greets a visitor to her Los Angeles home. “And so is this,” she says, opening an identical front door next to it. “And this one too!” The fact that an entire wall of her living room is a series of oversized front doors is just one of the unique quirks that drew Johnson to this midcentury-modern house buried in the trees of a sleepy Los Angeles cul-de-sac.
How Jeremy Irons Rescued and Restored a 15th-Century Irish Castle
Just as I began to wonder if my knocks on the big door were being heard, a smaller, hitherto unnoticed cutout door within the big door popped open, and through the opening bent the lanky body and familiar face of Jeremy Irons. It was an entrance evocative of Gene Wilder’s halting, hobbled first appearance in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Irons looked ashen as he beckoned me in and led the way, with a conspicuous limp, up a flight of outdoor stairs.
Tom Scheerer Transforms a Picturesque Flat on ˆIle Saint-Louis Into an Inviting Home Away From Home
Loosely translated, the French term appartement de réception means an apartment for entertaining. It’s a description that fits designer Tom Scheerer’s new Paris home to a tee. With its expansive layout and dreamy perch overlooking the Seine on fashionable Île Saint-Louis, the Haussmann-era aerie can happily accommodate a crowd.
An Incredible London Mansion Is Transformed by Timothy Haynes and Kevin Roberts
Back in 1930s London, few young millionaires cut as wide a swath as Sir Alfred Beit. The handsome MP was rapturously rich, thanks to South African diamond mines and Rhodesian railways, and also notably amorous, having been named co-respondent in a headline divorce suit. Little surprise that such a bon vivant would plump for lively living quarters in the city.
Come Have a Look at Lenny Kravitz's Mansion Outside of Rio
By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Lenny Kravitz knows a thing or two about seduction. As a Grammy Award-winning musician—and as a designer—he has crafted an extraordinarily idiosyncratic vision that fuses disparate genres, periods, styles, and influences. The 54-year-old rocker remains one of the coolest cats on the planet, constantly upending expectations and forging new paths of artistic expression.
Studio Gang to Transform the Mississippi River Waterfront
Today, Studio Gang and landscape firm Scape have revealed their ambitious design for Tom Lee Park in Memphis, Tennessee—30 acres of Mississippi River–facing green that will restore the waterway and connect locals to it. The park was included in Studio Gang's 2017 master plan for six miles of the riverfront, divided into five areas and shaped by community input from more than 4,000 residents and visitors.
AD Design Show Will Return to Pier 94 this March
For the past 18 years, vendors and designers have descended on New York's Piers 92 and 94 each March for the AD Design Show. Unlike many other trade shows which focus on specific categories, ADDS is wide-reaching: Visitors can find handmade ceramics or loom-woven rugs in the MADE section, then hop over to Furnish for a dining table, then to Refresh to pick out a dishwasher.
The Story Behind the Terrazza Sofa's Iconic Design
Swiss designer Ubald Klug was known for taking on unconventional projects. There was his so-called bed for working, a prefab housing prototype, a study for the cockpit of a French airline. So, in the early 1970s, when Klug presented the furnituremaker de Sede with a fresh idea, it’s no surprise that he put forth something groundbreaking, pun intended—a sofa that resembled a pile of earth. Custom Terrazzas in Martyn Lawrence Bullard's Palm Springs screening room. Photo by Douglas Friedman.
Another Quirky Mirror We're Pining For + 4 More Clever Finds
Here at Clever, we’re all about finding the good stuff—unexpected decorating ideas, day-brightening accents and furnishings, news you need to know—and then delivering that info directly to you. Here’s a roundup of five things that stopped us in our tracks this week that we wanted to be sure you don’t miss. L.A. Studio Entler Made the Cutest Mirror It was love at first sight when New York City design boutique Coming Soon debuted Entler's quirky, bulbous lamps.
15 Facts About 15 Hudson Yards, New York’s Buzziest Residential Skyscraper
As the first residential tower of the long-anticipated Hudson Yards development site, 15 Hudson Yards has New Yorkers asking where they can sign their leases. Yesterday, a select group of press got a first look at the Rockwell Group–designed model apartments and luxe communal areas inside the tapered skyscraper, designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro as the lead architects.
Dowe Sandes Morocco Home
Waking up to the mesmerizing calls of the muezzin in the heart of the ancient maze that is the walled old town of Marrakech, Morocco, is a poetic existence; add a toddler and a big black Labrador named Cricket, and the situation gets complicated. "We lived in the medina for five years and loved it," recalls Caitlin Dowe-Sandes, who along with her husband, Samuel, owns the Moroccan tile company Popham Design. "But if you have a demanding job and a family, it's hard work.
Veere Grenney Brings Contemporary Comfort to a Classic English Home
Even the most intrepid world traveler needs a place to stow her luggage and rest her head. In other words, a place to call home. A couple of years ago, when her father decided to give up his house in central London, Nina Flohr decided to let go of her Notting Hill flat and take the opportunity to make the family home her own.
Jérôme Faillant-Dumas's London Townhouse Is a Jewel-Tone Dream
Any space inhabited by Jérôme Faillant-Dumas and Anda Rowland is going to be full of color. Faillant-Dumas, an interior designer who also designs furniture (and works on branding and packaging for global luxury brands) via his company L.O.V.E. Editions, cut his teeth at Chanel before spending 15 years working for Yves Saint Laurent . Rowland manages Anderson & Sheppard, her family’s Savile Row tailors, who have been suiting dapper men from Fred Astaire to Prince Charles for more than 100 years.
Oscar Winner Jeremy Irons on His Irish Castle and Antiques Obsession
Jeremy Irons, with his dog, Smudge, at Kilcoe Castle, in Ireland. Top: Irons and a team of workers spent six years restoring the 15th-century structure, where, he says, they did “everything from scratch.” First comes the dog. Then, Jeremy Irons appears, filling most of the door frame of the small mews house in West London that serves as his pied-à-terre in the city. “Smudge! It’s a friend,” he calls out.
Francis Sultana's Palace In Malta Perfectly Balances Classic With Contemporary
When the United Kingdom’s future prime minister Benjamin Disraeli visited Valletta, Malta’s capital (and one of this year’s European Capitals of Culture), in 1830, he described it as “a city of palaces built by gentlemen for gentlemen.” And it is one of these palaces that Francis Sultana bought 12 years ago to create his own Maltese sanctuary.
Toni Garrn Fronts Seafolly's Summer 2018 Campaign, Lensed By Simon Upton — Anne of Carversville
THEN: Top model Toni Garrn is the face of Seafolly's summer 2018 campaign, styled by Sara Smith in colorful bikinis with underwear inspiration and sleek one-pieces. Simon Upton captures the German beauty and activist on the beaches of Esperance, Australia./ Hair by Sophie Roberts; makeup by Peter Beard. NOW: Post 2019 end and moving out of this channel due to slow loading, AOC moved all new swimwear to AOC Body. Today we posted Seafolly’s Summer 2024 Campaign, honoring the sun and Sicily.
Rose Uniacke Gives This Historic Home A Delightful Splash Of Color | Architectural Digest
Tucked high in an 1880 house in London’s storied Tite Street—that Chelsea lane of terra-cotta-red houses where Oscar Wilde so artfully once lived— Rose Uniacke stands in a double-height living room that is wrapped with tart shades of green that seem to tint the very air with freshness.
This Eclectic Manhattan Apartment Is Like a Movie Set, but Better | Architectural Digest
Decorator Shana Sigmond actually got her start on the silver screen—though not in the way you might expect. As a Hollywood set designer, Sigmond spent years hunting down props and transforming scenery for blockbusters like Ocean’s Eleven and Almost Famous . A decade working with directors like Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Cameron Crowe, and Francis Ford Coppola afforded her the chance to illustrate their visions on screen with detailed portraits of the characters’ lives.
Tour Insta-Famous Alice Naylor-Leyland's Dreamy English Estate | Architectural Digest
Alice Naylor-Leyland likes to create a scene. Last summer, the golden-haired, bright-eyed English beauty propelled herself into Instagram fame with a rainbow-hued 30th-birthday party that rivaled most weddings.
Danny Moynihan and Katrine Boorman's Oualidia Getaway | Architectural Digest
Back in the late 1960s Danny Moynihan, then seven years of age, was traveling in Morocco with his parents, British artists Anne Dunn and Rodrigo Moynihan, when their car hit a cow near the fishing village of Oualidia. It wasn’t the most convenient place for an accident, an isolated rural track skirting an enormous lagoon.
A Sophisticated Manhattan Apartment That's Both Timeless and Chic | Architectural Digest
This article originally appeared in the May 2011 issue of Architectural Digest. Ask Nina Bauer who occupies the top slot on her list of style icons, and she’ll say Audrey Hepburn. In fact Bauer is so inspired by the Breakfast at Tiffany’s star that she is the proud owner of three framed photographs of her—two by Norman Parkinson, one by Cecil Beaton.
Designer Jérôme Faillant-Dumas's Family Getaway on a Greek Isle | Architectural Digest
Many are smitten by Patmos, the mystical Greek island in the Aegean Sea, but a golden few own a house there. “We lucked out,” says Je?ro?me Faillant-Dumas, the French interior decorator. He and his partner, Anda Rowland, met architect Dimitri Konstantinidis, who had a shepherd friend with an attractive bit of land to sell. “There really was nothing there,” the decorator recalls.
Rafael de Cárdenas Decorates a London Mansion | Architectural Digest
On a quiet street in west London, there’s a five-bedroom mansion whose charmingly retro Arts and Crafts–style exterior offers little indication of the exuberant modernity within. Beyond the front door a slender, dark-paneled vestibule leads to a dramatic double-height entry hall where a gleaming fiery-orange abstract sculpture by Anselm Reyle stands on a sleek Macassar-ebony plinth—a dazzling 21st-century sentinel. And there isn’t a scrap of William Morris wallpaper in sight.
A Colonial Revival Home in Connecticut is Reimagined to Reflect a Museum-Worthy Art Collection | Architectural Digest
As newlyweds in the late 1990s, Allison and Warren Kanders cultivated a buttoned-down aesthetic, and they hired acclaimed designer Mica Ertegun to decorate their sprawling Colonial Revival house in Greenwich, Connecticut, in a traditional vein AD, October 2001. Inspired by the home’s stately proportions, Ertegun fashioned patrician interiors with an assortment of Empire, Georgian, Regency, and Louis XVI antiques and select Art Deco pieces.
Richard Meier Creates a Striking Minimalist Home in the English Countryside | Architectural Digest
As they have since the first Bentley took to the road, many Brits still motor into the countryside to weekend in great country houses. But for guests of a family living in the rolling hills of Oxfordshire, the house at the end of a winding, hedge-lined lane is not a Downton Abbey pile or a rambling, thatch-covered cottage. What awaits instead is a bracing specimen of white geometric abstraction designed by American architect Richard Meier, so pristine inside that you can see a pin drop.
Studio Peregalli Revisits the Swiss Villa They Designed with Renzo Mongiardino | Architectural Digest
One day at the beginning of the 1990s, a man arrived at Renzo Mongiardino’s studio in Milan. His demeanor was gentle but decided, and he asked the architect and designer, our mentor, to create a Palladian villa in Switzerland, on a wooded hill overlooking Lake Lugano. He explained that he had devoted his whole life to finance but he had a passion for the classical villas that Andrea Palladio had erected in the Veneto during the 16th century.
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