Driven to distraction: the Norway road trip where cool design meets dramatic scenery

Norway’s roadside architecture project, part of its National Tourist Routes, has led to the creation of bridges and viewing platforms that make every journey a tour de force – and more new designs are on the horizon

The alt city guide to Manchester

Beyond the shiny, high-profile regeneration projects, independent, left-field Manchester is still thriving, as our guide to its vibrant bars, restaurants, music venues and creative arts scene proves

SNCF gives a green light to Paris’s art and music-based renewal projects

The French rail giant, once at loggerheads with art collectives, is now a partner in a wider bid to make the capital a greener, more vibrant city

New London hotel offers artistic sensibilities at affordable prices

The Green Rooms hotel and creative space in north London will act as a low-cost base for visiting artists and encourage collaboration on projects

Ann Prior obituary

Other lives: Cook, author, artist and adventurer who contrived to live in perpetual summer

Shia LaBeouf embarks on a digital road trip: #TAKEMEANYWHERE

The actor and performance artist is hitchhiking for a month and inviting the public to track him down and take him … anywhere

How Carleton Watkins’ photographs shaped Yosemite Valley’s future

Abraham Lincoln’s 1864 law to preserve California’s Yosemite Valley may have helped create the National Park Service but it was Carleton Watkins’ striking images that inspired the president

Havana rising: the millennials pushing Cuba forward

Forget trying to see Cuba before it changes: the change is going on right now

Modernist living: let your mind wander at Alain de Botton’s Life House

The latest house in the philosopher’s Living Architecture project is a minimalist space in Wales that offers an expansive – if expensive – escape from everyday life

Top 10 industrial-chic hotels and hostels

If you’re a fan of the raw concrete and exposed brick aesthetic, book into one of these converted factories or offices where the design is bare, bold and beautiful

Sarajevo city guide: 10 of the best art and design-inspired destinations

A vibrant, walkable city, Sarajevo is thriving thanks, in part, to its contemporary culture and art, which is on display at galleries … and also its restaurants, bars and hotels

A serene escape for Scream painter Edvard Munch

The artist known for angst-ridden paintings used to find peace in Åsgårdstrand, an old-fashioned fishing town in southern Norway

10 of the best places to photograph wildlife in the UK

You don’t need to go on an African safari to take great wildlife photographs. Photographer Andrew Marshall, whose new photo-location guidebook gives advice on how to capture UK wildlife, selects 10 picture perfect spots

10 of the best European cities for art nouveau

Art nouveau swept across Europe around the turn of the 20th century and was embraced by architects, graphic and interior designers and artists. Here are the best cities in Europe to get a flavour of its most impressive buildings

10 of the best industrial-chic spaces worldwide

At these cool conceptual spaces, the design is just as compelling as what’s on offer at the shopping, exhibition, dining and drinking venues