When visiting the newly restored private apartments of the Duke of Aumale at the Château de Chantilly outside Paris, you could easily think you were seeing the interiors of an 18th-century French castle. The rooms are sumptuous, with purple damask-covered walls, marquetry-inlaid furniture, parquet de Versailles floors and exquisitely carved boiseries, or wooden panels, depicting…
This column is part of a series for the Design special report of The New York Times. Readers are invited to send questions to designadvice@nytimes.com. I would like to install central air-conditioning in my prewar apartment, but I want something minimally invasive. What are my options, and how do I get started? First, ask your…
At the International Furniture Fair in Milan last month, a wingback chair sat in the exhibition space of the Italian furniture company De Padova, seemingly waiting for someone in a tea-length dress to sink into it with a cocktail. The chair, with its matching, swooping ottoman, was a revival of a 1956 piece by Paul…
By now, we all know that millennials are less inclined than previous generations to buy a house or car or stick with a single employer. Apparently they have commitment issues when it comes to home furnishings, too. At least that’s the thinking behind several web start-ups seeking to lease them everything from sofas to throw…
Will Miller remembers skateboarding along the perimeter of his family’s home, a marble-trimmed glass box in Columbus, Ind., designed in the 1950s by Eero Saarinen. His record time for circumnavigating the 6,800 square-foot building was about two minutes: “I was really booking,” he said recently. Mr. Miller, now 63 and a foundation president in New…
Image The Italian designers Cesare Leonardi and Franca Stagi, who partnered in a Modena practice from the 1960s until the ‘80s, spent their spare time obsessively sketching trees in all seasons for editions of “The Architecture of Trees” (Princeton Architectural Press, $125, 424 pp.). The book is newly available in English, and expanded into a…
A recent study concludes that medicinal herbs found in Mauritius contain chemical compounds that inhibit the propagation of cancer cells. Mauritius is a hotbed of unique flora and fauna. Although science has made a great deal of headway in the treatment of cancer, there is still a long way to go. Some researchers, investigating new…
Choosing a new armchair isn’t just about finding a place to sit — it can also change the entire aesthetic of a room. “It offers the opportunity to not only serve a function, but also convey personality,” said Will Meyer, a founding partner of the New York-based interior design firm Meyer Davis. “That’s where the…
A 5-year-old girl was brought to the emergency room at Evelina London Children’s Hospital with itchy, rather unsightly sores on both legs. She had recently returned from a weekslong trip to Sierra Leone, and the lesions, which first appeared three weeks into her stay there, had become larger and ulcerated. Diagnosis: cutaneous diphtheria, a disease…
Researchers may have found a way to prevent certain medical conditions from overwhelming the body’s natural antioxidant system. Could coal form the basis of hi-tech antioxidants? Traumatic events, such as brain injuries, strokes, and heart attacks affect millions of people each year and can be fatal. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists stroke as the…