Imagine you were a pencil – what would you look like? Would you be a well-machined propelling pencil or a large stubby wooden one. Would you be sharply pointed, angular, well sculpted or well worn, or have notches cut deeply into the wood? It doesn’t take much imagination to shut your eyes and imagine the […]
Entering through the arched doorway, a tall black pylon stretches up into the sky; black, shining and glittering with immense diamonds. Then, collecting the treasure map, it is time to check the compass, the rucksack for supplies of food and water and the walking boots to ensure that they are stout and ready for the […]
Among the highlights of the design exhibitions across London during the London Design Festival are the international celebrations of contemporary design from countries such as China and Argentine at 100% Design, Denmark at Design Junction and Norway, Korea, Sweden, Southern Italy, Ireland, Czechoslovakia and Poland at Tent/Superbrands. The concentration of a large number of exhibitors […]
No longer does the standard uninspiring exhibition hall coffee and sandwich bar suffice, especially for an international design event. To be successful, design exhibitions need good pop-up cafes, bars and restaurants which show leading trends and use the best of contemporary furniture, lighting and innovative design in addition to providing superb food, coffee and cocktails […]
Thirtieth birthdays are an indicator of the move from youth to maturity. How do to celebrate? Do you have a massive party with all your friends or do you hide and pretend that you are still twenty-nine? Project Managers Buro Four decided to celebrate their thirtieth birthday with the creative flourish of an art competition, […]
If the grey hulking mass of the former Central St Martin’s Building in Southampton Row, London has ghosts of its former students and staff walking through the empty rooms, left almost as they were when the doors were closed and the School moved to its magnificent new building at King’s Cross, then they would be […]
We are used to using social media to exchange information, but how can the power of Twitter be used creatively and imaginatively for wider social benefit? Powered By Tweets at Somerset House is showing six finalists in a competition by Twitter, in partnership with the London Design Festival, to design a product or service that […]
On the east side of London’s historic Hanover Square, the modern classical elevations of Nos 4 and 5 completed by the architects Squire and Partners in 2012, hide the credentials as one of London’s most environmentally-sustainable office buildings. The six-storey mixed-use scheme, with its rectilinear black brick façade and tall deep windows, provides a high-quality […]
In his series of photographic images, “The World After the Humans” Luis Enguita imagines modernist buildings which have been abandoned by humans in perfect state, and now enjoyed by butterflies and penguins. Enguita is one of the artists on display at “Shaped in Mexico” which has been showing new art from Mexico. While START displayed new […]
Opposite Farrow and Ball, the paint manufacturers loved by historic building owners and interior designers, the West Bank Gallery in an old and prominent bank building, provides an unexpected venue for exhibitions of contemporary and fresh street art and for courses in graffiti lessons. The main banking halls has been subdivided with an additional floor […]
"The many great gardens of the world, of literature and poetry, of painting and music, of religion and architecture, all make the point as clear as possible: The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden. If you don't want paradise, you are not human; and if you are not human, you don't have a soul."
(Thomas Moore)
To be an architect means having a wide range of interests - architecture, art and creativity in all its variety of forms, sustainability, science and innovation. The greatest interest is often where these different worlds overlap and collide - that is when something imaginative often occurs that pushes us all forward to another place
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