When Ottawa unveiled the design of its new central library in 2020, the mayor promised it would be “more than just a building with books.” The design of the $192 million edifice, to be split between the city’s main library and Library and Archives Canada, “connects the facility to Ottawa’s rich history and natural beauty,” the city elucidated. “Its shape is reminiscent of the Ottawa River; its stone and wood exterior reflects the adjacent escarpment and surrounding greenspace.”

WE CAME ACROSS the beautiful kitchen of designer Jasper Conran’s vacation home on the island of Rhodes on Instagram and instantly fell for its rustic charm. Nothing looks too perfect, and yet everything looks perfect. There are stacks of old pots and pans on lower shelves and large terracotta platters displayed casually above, a pebble mosaic floor (something we had never seen before), irregular white plaster walls and a thatched ceiling. We, of course, were intrigued to see the rest of the home, which once belonged to Baronessa Beatrice Monti della Corte von Rezzori.

Late in October, when Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the rebranding of Facebook as Meta, he did so in an immersive video designed to reveal his vision of the future in which virtual he, Mark Z., gave a virtual tour of all of the exciting things we will able to do in the new virtual world otherwise known as the metaverse. There was experiential art. There was a meeting where attendees floated around a table as if in a spaceship. Yet there was our host himself, as a cartoon representation, in black jeans, white sneaks and a long-sleeve navy T-shirt, looking very familiar, only a little more fit.

THIS WEEKEND was a classic homebody one with slow mornings and late evenings. P stopped by the local delicatessen for a fancy loaf of bread for brunch and contemplated making Fideuà …

The products of mass culture have learned to speak a new language: the language of the occult. Come in, an app pleads, and listen to an algorithmically curated playlist of songs that “fit the vibe.” “We caught a vibe!” yelps a voice in one of those songs; it isn’t immediately clear whether this means caught as in brass ring or caught as in disease. It’s hard, a marketing email laments, to build an organization filled with people whose “energies align.” An AI-generated horoscope ascribes to today’s events a total “Taurus full moon during Scorpio season mood.” From every corner you are buffeted by vibrations and waves, moods and intensities.

THIS WEEK’S décor inspiration is the Paris apartment of Diego Delgado-Elias, a Peruvian architect who lives in Paris. After ten years working on major hospitality and private projects at large international agencies, Delgado-Elias founded his own agency in Paris in 2014 …