Vitra Campus, Germany by Alastair Wiper

Vitra is a family owned Swiss furniture company that was founded in 1957. The company made it's name by selling designs from some of the most famous furniture designers in the world such as Charles and Ray Eames, Verner Panton and George Nelson, and today it's campus is a place of pilgrimage for architecture and design lovers ...

Read More

Sausage Factory, Denmark by Alastair Wiper

Among all the magical things in life—your first love, snow on Christmas Eve — there are few wonders greater than the Danish hotdog. But who knows what actually goes into that sausage which sits there in the sliced bun, all golden and gilled, snuggling up to remoulade, crispy onions, and pickled cucumber ...

Read More

The Sunbeam Theatre, Hong Kong by Alastair Wiper

The Sunbeam Theatre is a landmark theatre in Hong Kong, showcasing Cantonese Opera. Established by immigrants from Shanghai in 1972, the theatre has changed hands numerous times and has been fighting closure for the last 15 years. The theatre sits on prime real estate, which is worth a lot of money in Hong Kong, and the landlord had been threatening to close ...

Read More

From Cow to Cheese, Denmark by Alastair Wiper

Arla Foods is the biggest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia. It is a cooperative owned by over 7,000 Danish and Swedish farmers, and it is the seventh largest dairy company in the world measure by turnover. I followed the process of some of their cheese being made, from the milking of the cows to the cheese production at one of their huge dairies in Taulov, Denmark ...

Read More

Hasselblad Factory, Sweden by Alastair Wiper

October the third 1962 was the day everything changed for Hasselblad.
NASA astronaut Walter Schirra blasted off into space on the Mercury-Atlas 8 mission, taking his personal 500C Hasselblad camera with him. That camera captured the first recognisable images of Earth from its orbit, and became a part of the history of the space race ...

Read More

Kvadrat Wooltex, UK by Alastair Wiper

Founded in Denmark in 1968, Kvadrat is one of the world's leading upholstery textile suppliers. In collaboration with high profile designers, architects and artists, they have supplied fabrics for some of the most notable buildings on the planet: from MoMA in New York ...

Read More

Where Spam is Born, Denmark by Alastair Wiper

In my day it was all about Spam. A cultural icon worthy of ridicule by Monty Python in the 60s, and the name given to one of the biggest pests of the information age, this humble meat in a tin was the renowned - if rarely proudly eaten - household name when I was growing up in England in the 80s. But throughout much of the rest of the world, meat in a tin is known equally by another name: Tulip Pork Luncheon Meat ...

Read More

Harry's Razor Blade Factory, Germany by Alastair Wiper

This is Feintechnik, a razor blade factory in the small village of Eisfeld in Germany. A three hour drive from frankfurt, the factory has been producing razor blades since 1920 and is one of the very few highly specialised factories to do so left in Europe. In 2014 the factory was bought by Andy Katz-Mayfield and Jeff Raider, founders of New York based shaving start-up Harry's, for $100 million ...

Read More

Koenigsegg Supercar Factory, Sweden by Alastair Wiper

On an decomissioned air-force base just outside the small town of Ängelholm on the west-coast of Sweden sits the factory of the most unlikely supercar manufacturer in the world. Forget Ferraris and Lamborghinis, Koenigsegg is in a class above, consistently setting Guinness World records for the fastest acceleration ...

Read More

The Brutalist Skiing Resort of Flaine, France by Alastair Wiper

A quick google of the purpose built skiing resort of "Flaine" reveals one thing above all else: most people think it is extremley ugly.

Built in the 60s by one of the most respected and renowned proponents of modernist Bauhaus architecture, Marcel Breuer, the resort (much of which is listed as protected by the French Ministry of Culture) had nothing but noble intentions ...

Read More

Inside Playmobil, Malta by Alastair Wiper

Since 1976, every Playmobil character has been made in a Maltese factory – where it’s not just the figures who are happy. Not far from Malta airport, 192 new figures are born every minute – and whether they’re pirates, policemen or princesses, they’re always smiling ...

Read More