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LONDON GARDEN BRIDGE London mayor Sadiq Khan is addressing what he sees as a lack of transparency over plans to build a Garden Bridge over the Thames by putting a temporary halt to the project. The proposal, given clearance by previous mayor Boris Johnson, has already won £60 million from the public purse – work on Temple tube station is required to support elements of the flowery scheme, but Khan has now stalled the process to allow Transport for London to assess the request for an extra £3 million for this work.

ESPIONAGE EERO SAARINEN ← Whether playing with the laws of gravity or pushing the copyright law, architects often find themselves on tricky territory – not least Eero Saarinen, now known to have designed weapons and buildings for the CIA. Working for the US intelligence service in the 1940s, then called the Office of Strategic Services, the Finnish-American designer worked on military schools, weapons and displays, all in the name of truth, justice and the American way.

FILM DIETER RAMS ← Filmmaker Gary Hustwit is back with another ambitious documentary. The man who directed Helvetica (2007), a feature-length movie about typography, has turned to crowd-funding platform Kickstarter to fund a film about Dieter Rams. Hustwit previously made a short, Objectified, about the famed designer of products for Braun and Vitsoe, but has now been granted permission to depict his entire life and work. Perhaps with a minimal aesthetic – who knows?

TRAVEL PHOTOGRAPHY → Rich McCor, aka Paperboyo, has been giving an identity makeover to global landmarks, holding paper cutouts of unexpected objects in front of these famous structures. McCor’s refreshingly incisive take on these well-known vistas is getting him noticed, and getting him commissions from tourist boards and brands such as Lonely Planet: ‘I’ve been to Hong Kong, Singapore, Nanjing, Val d’Isère, New York and Las Vegas, turning my hobby into paid work,’ he rejoices.

TECHNOLOGY BEER ← London-based IntelligentX claims its new range of beer is the first brewed with the help of artificial intelligence. Codes printed on bottles guide drinkers to a Facebook Messenger bot, which quizzes them about their preferred flavours. The makers then amend their processes accordingly. They hope the system will gain the beers – available in golden, amber, pale and black – awards. And perhaps success too.

BRAZIL HOT TOPIC ← Advertising agency FCBBrasil has created a range of dolls that can suffer from sunburn for skincare brand Nivea, to encourage children to apply sunscreen. Nivea distributes the dolls made of UV-sensitive material to families on Rio de Janeiro’s Ipanema beach. As the dolls turn red they pique the childrens’ curiosity – parents can then apply sunscreen to their offspring, as the children apply it to their dolls.

00-SCENE-September_DR_JJ.indd 24 18/07/2016 16:34