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Review of the Year in Architecture: 2020

At the end of the year it is tempting to look at the lockdowns of 2020 as unprecedented conditions: unique responses to a totally unforeseen crisis. And whilst the experience of it has been completely novel, the sneaking suspicion grows that it is an exaggerated expression of tendencies already latent in social relations. I wrote a big piece on architecture’s role in the post-Covid settlement for…

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Defending Holyland

This is the text of a defense i gave at a Balloon Debate organised by the Future Cities Project in which I defended my favourite depiction of the city in a work of art.

Sitting within this beautiful beguiling and ever-so slightly self-important city, it’s very easy to be lulled into the assumption that London is the be all and end all. That it’s a work of art in itself, created for us and us…

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Review of the Year in Architecture: 2018

My Review of the Year in Architecture. A tough year but one which promises much for the future.

Interior of the British Pavilion, Venice.

This year has been one of relentless, discussions and argument; one in which very few quarters have been given by either side in the Brexit debate so it would be nice to spend a few moments off the subject and think about beautiful things. Wouldn’t it? Yes, but actually no. Even when it comes to building, which tends to have much longer lead times, the…

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#Architecture #brexit #Urbanism

REVIEW OF THE YEAR: 2017

Some thoughts on the year that has been architecture-wise.

Zaryadye Park, Moscow. Last year, in a world capital, a fire in a tower block caused the death of many of its poor inhabitants. This event prompted the national government of that country to immediately bring forward a radical policy to improve the urban conditions of that city. Of course, this swift response should immediately alert the reader that this was not the Grenfell tower disaster.…

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First as Farce, then as Farce Again: Boris, the tower and the bridge.

This is a version of a Comment piece I wrote in Blueprint that must’ve been published in early 2010 about the design competition which led to the Arcelor Mittal Orbit and in which Boris Johnson, then mayor had a major hand. It has eerie parallels for the London Bridge process; a total lack of transparency and fairness. At the time, the tower on the Olympic site was treated as something of a laugh…

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#boris johnson #garden bridge #kapoor #orbit #thomas heatherwick

REVIEW OF THE YEAR: 2016

Gold leaf and a new aluminium foam clad structure above an old gin distillery. The Prada Foundation in Milan is greater than the sum of its parts. Reviews of the year may seem arbitrary, particularly when it comes to architecture, which by its nature takes years to gestate before it is completed. Yet they have their uses. And not simply because they give harassed editors a no-brainer at a time…

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#Architecture #lisbon architecture trienal #OMA #prada foundation #rem koolhaas #shatwell farm #zaha hadid

Anarchy on Wall Street

Can't wait to see the Paul Strand at the V&A. Some thoughts on his work:

Paul Strand, Wall Street, New York, 1915. Mercury toned platinum print mounted on Japanese paper, 25.6 x 32.3 cm. PH1985:0224. Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montréal. ©Aperture Foundation, Inc., Paul Strand Archive. On 16 September 1920, a wagonload containing 45 kilos of explosives and 230 kilos of lead weights placed outside the JP Morgan bank at 23 Wall Street in New York was detonated,…

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Picking Holes In The Pritzker. Or You're Aravena Laugh.

Picking Holes In The Pritzker. Or You’re Aravena Laugh.

ARQ.ac-9 In his article announcing Alejandrao Aravena as the Pritzker winner Ed Heathcote suggests that handing the prize to the young Chilean architect offers hope to the architecture profession racked with self-doubt over its lack of purpose. “The award is a vaccination against accusations of irrelevance. How could anyone argue with that?” he concludes. It is an interesting question and one I…

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