The 25–hectare park, which is free and open 24 hours a day, is the brainchild of Norwegian art collector and philanthropist Christian Ringnes. He has spent nearly £31m of his own money creating an open-air museum he hopes will be "for everyone, not just for art lovers". Some of the park's 31 artworks were commissioned, while others were purchased including a collection of bronzes by early 20th-century masters Rodin, Renoir and Maillol. There are plenty of works by British artists too, such as Tony Cragg, Richard Hudson, Lynn Chadwick and Diane Maclean, whose oxidized stainless steel Open Book greets visitors as they arrive.

In 1955, Edward Steichen changed the world of photography forever. When the visionary curator and photographer decided to mount an exhibition to promote world peace and equality after two world wars, he was breaking the mould. He gathered 503 photographs of people from around the world, taken by 273 different (often unknown) photographers, and grouped them by theme. That exhibition, The Family of Man, opened in January 1955 at New York's Museum of Modern Art, where the Luxembourg-born Steichen was director of photography from 1947 to 1961. It went on to tour the world and become the most successful photography exhibition of all time.

The sloping site of Hotel Dieu became a refuge for pilgrims in the 12th century and later a hospital and hospice for the poor and elderly. The current building has undergone a major revamp involving hotel designer of the moment Jean-Philippe Nuel. The property's sweeping staircases, arched windows and classical galleries bring to mind a palace rather than a hospital - which is a good thing, of course.

THE term “outsider art” is an imperfect translation of the phrase art brut—meaning raw or uncontaminated art—coined by Jean Dubuffet, a French artist, in the 1940s. It refers to art created by people who are untrained, unaware of any potential audience for their work, and on the margins of society, often due to mental health problems.  A new exhibition at the Wellcome Collection is dedicated to outsider art from Japan. It is an unusual experience. Artistically inconsistent and loosely organised, the common thread is the mental illness suffered by the 46 artists featured.

The architecture and design is monochrome, sleek and sophisticated. The centrepiece is a nine-storey pyramid-shaped white marble atrium, with the reception at the bottom. The dramatic, slanting geometry found here is repeated throughout the hotel. Black angular marble-lined corridors give way to all-white rooms with projecting bay windows that you can walk into for dizzying views of the city.

Arriving in Marseille, southern France, from the air is an awe-inspiring experience. As you sweep over scenic mountains on one side and crystal blue sea on the other, you can understand why the Phoenicians chose to stay in 600BC. Once I land, the exhilaration continues: I take a motorbike taxi into town. “It’s much quicker and convenient,” says my chauffeur-to- be, Didier. I am not convinced but am won over by his warm smile and massive Honda Goldwing 1800, which looks unbreakable.

You may not have heard of Troika, but if you've travelled through Heathrow's sleek new Terminal 5 since its opening in 2008, chances are you've seen the art and design studio's work. Two of its installations adorn the entrance atrium of British Airways' luxury lounges and the entrance itself. The first is a 5-m-long digital sculpture in the shape of a cloud whose signature feature – 4638 flip-dots that audibly alternate between black and silver, creating mesmerizing patterns across its skin – was inspired by the once commonplace departure-board signage found in railway stations and airports. ‘It's a beautiful technology from the 1970s,' says Troika's Sebastien Noel. ‘You have motion, you have noise, and it is very elegant.'

Talking to Ron Arad is not a straightforward affair. While he may not actually be arching his eyebrows, most of his responses come with an implied arch. It doesn't help that the interview takes place in one of his latest architectural projects – the Médiacité shopping mall in Liège, Belgium – and has been organized as a group exercise. This means that I am sitting around a table in a vast open conference area with a rather incongruous collection of (mainly local) journalists, architects and PR people, variously fawning over Arad or attempting to throw questions his way.