The discrete door opens onto a derelict staircase with creaking timber treads, missing balusters and unfinished plaster walls, leading upwards to the first floor which is a space in transition; a mix of old and new with a plain concrete floor, strings of lights and timber joists overhead awaiting new plasterboard ceilings. But where are […]
London Fashion Week came and went in September, but Louis Vuitton and Chanel are battling it out across London with exhibitions at 180 Strand, the 1980’s building which was formerly Arundel Great Court, and the Saatchi Gallery in Kings Road, Chelsea. At 180 Strand, Louis Vuitton has recreated the atmosphere of the shows at the […]
A large late 20th century concrete brutalist building opposite Baker Street Station in London announces the University of Westminster Marylebone Campus. Here, at the start of term, the campus is heaving with new students looking to transform their lives through the next few years of study. As with many universities, they are a complex contradiction […]
Not quite as much of an expedition as finding the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague, but it is still an adventure to reach Damien Hirst’s new Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall, London, though a relatively short walk from several underground stations through the railway arches which split the area in two and which […]
It’s an expedition; it would be easy to catch a taxi, but that doesn’t feel like the right thing to do; it is more adventurous to travel on the metro from the city centre and then, with the necessary technological assistance of google maps, walk as the only pedestrians along a busy major road and […]
In 1968, as the Russian tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia and his home city of Prague, Jan Koblasova was away in Italy and subsequently gained asylum in Germany, while his work left at home was confiscated by the authorities. One of Czechoslovakia’s leading artists, and recognised across Europe (but little-known in the UK), the diverse range […]
The front façade looks much the same, guarded by the artist William Etty. There is a hint of something new at the side with new ceramic rooftop cladding along the façade, but what a welcome surprise to find a stunning collection of modern and contemporary British ceramics as the centrepiece of this refurbished and extended […]
Imagine you have climbed up a damp hillside and entered a dark underground chamber in a temple high in the Andes with black birds swirling overhead. Ahead of you, with dazzling brilliance, hanging on the walls and in the centre of the room are textiles which appear to be woven with gold, the most precious […]
As you leave the lift lobby on the top floor of the huge brutal concrete building, its atrium more reminiscent of a modern department store than an art gallery, four red carpets run ahead of you. Side by side, these carpets have irregular steps and waves and are not completely rolled out. This is not […]
What is the future of retail design? Department stores and fashion shops have become ever more sophisticated with stylish over-designed interiors that emphasise luxury and quality. Would the future perhaps be the opposite – edgy derelict interiors that act as a rough counterbalance to the sophistication, innovation and quality of the designs on show. At […]
"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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