Glasgow has a brand new concert hall, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra has a brand new home. A move for the Orchestra from Henry Wood Hall, a converted church in the city’s West End it has occupied since 1979, has been on the cards for several years, but few could have predicted the scale and intricacy of the final project. The New RSNO Centre snuggles conveniently right next to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and brings new offices, an education suite, a digital centre and practice rooms right to the city centre.

Is it possible for a mobile phone app to combine functionality with the highest standards of design and craftsmanship? Chris Chapman, the creator of the Headcaster app, says it is. He brings a sculptor’s eye and puppeteer’s sense of movement to the creation of a fun platform for people to communicate with friends and the wider world through animated characters.

Aged 64, Roger Hooper is still braving the Antarctic and plunging into the Amazon rainforests in search of that perfect photograph. Based in London when he’s not traversing the globe, he regularly exhibits work, has produced three books, and contributes images to the WWF’s publications – his way of encouraging others to take an interest in and protect our natural world.

MARIANKA SWAIN: When did your passion for wildlife photography begin?

It may seem like a long way from Shakespeare to Siegfried and Roy, but John Napier has had a remarkable career in which high and low art come together and share the applause. So not only has the theatre designer staged a magic show in Vegas, he’s worked a more subtle magic in his time at the RSC. And in a world where musicals run for decades, Napier’s stage sets have been among the most consistent and celebrated factors in the success of many of our best-loved West End shows.

How much would a Stradivarius or a Guarneri violin set you back? Hundreds of thousands of pounds? These days it’s more like millions – many millions. With the value of the finite collection of 17^th- and 18^th-century instruments only rising every year, and their appeal as investments increasing proportionally, it’s a rare musician indeed who can afford to play a historical violin of this quality.

Janet Echelman’s aerial net sculptures are all about intersections and interdependencies: between ancient and modern technologies, between mankind and our environment, and between each painstakingly knotted thread. They also unite the worlds of art and craft. Echelman is a sculptor and artist whose work has incorporated everything from Balian Batik dyeing to Lithuanian lacemaking. Now she uses net, creating vast, floating installations inspired by natural phenomena.

Starting out as a publisher of laser discs in 1984, Manhattan's Criterion Collection has become America’s most famous independent publisher of DVDs and Blu-ray discs. A key factor in its success is the graphic range of the discs’ exquisitely designed covers.

James Montgomery is a difficult man to pin down. When I first call to arrange an interview he’s too busy to talk. I call back only to find he’s in the middle of fixing a broken bailing machine, and when the interview finally takes place it’s to a backdrop of exasperated lowing: “I’ve moved six calves in the time I’ve been talking to you,” he says.

If your most successful creative collaboration as a couple is that tilting IKEA bookcase, prepare to be shamed: Stephen Gillies and Kate Jones have spent the past 20 years crafting exceptional blown-glass pieces together. The pair studied at Stourbridge College of Art – Stephen glassmaking and Kate fine art – and their work is a result of those complementary skills. You can see some of it next week at the Royal Botanic Gardens’ celebration of craft, Handmade at Kew.

Can you explain the traditional methods you use?

Spurred on by Olympic glory and British wins in the Tour de France, the popularity of cycling has grown exponentially over the past few years. It’s boom time for retailers of factory-made bicycles, like Halfords, who sold 1.3 million bikes last year, but that’s only half the story. In the past decade, the UK has also become a world leader in hand-built bicycles, made to order for discerning clients around the globe.