Phillips in London has its impressive modern glass eight-story building in Grosvenor Square. In New York, it’s competitor Christie’s is the one with the large building. Phillips does not have that opportunity, but it makes up for it with its location, in prime downtown space in Park Avenue, which last week had Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Work: Zodiac Heads” […]
Sotheby’s in London has quite traditional exhibition and auction spaces in New Bond Street. New York is quite a contrast with its modern ten-storey glass building providing a substantial area of flexible exhibition spaces on several floors around a central atrium with escalators, designed by architect Richard Gluckman, who also designed the permanent collection spaces […]
Behind the windows of Phillips in Berkeley Square, the partnership with Matchesfashion.com downstairs displays photographs for auction including Walter & Zoniel’s ICONOSTATUS wall of hand-coloured and gilded tintypes; upstairs is Walter & Zoniel’s full-sized camera obscure, for which you can book a portrait sitting (at a cost) and a selection of current fashions from Matchesfashion.com from designers […]
What happened to those relaxing times, before the fast pace of modern life with constant emails and power showers, when we had time for long luxurious lingering baths overflowing with bubbles, with a good book to read, the radio playing soothing music and a favourite cocktail to hand. Irving Penn captured this lost world in his […]
On the outside it flutters like the wings of a bird; on the inside it soars like a cathedral. New York is New York, where commerce and public services come together, sometimes with stellar results. This is no more evident than at the World Trade Centre where the cathedral-like “Oculus” designed by Santiago Calatrava is […]
You arrive to be greeted by name by Pepper, the friendly robot who recognises you and shows you where to hang your bike and guides you over to the juice bar which is old-fashioned with a smells of freshly-cut wood in contrast to the high tech space you can see beyond it. The barman has your favourite […]
This is a week for Far Eastern collectors in London, Christies’ are holding an auction of Chinese art from the 17th century onwards on display in their two locations at South Kensington and King Street, with a parallel “on-line” auction running through the month, which seems to be a trend for the future to reach collectors […]
The new headquarters for the Lambeth Fire Brigade on Albert Embankment was opened on 21st July 1937 by King George V, in time for the much-needed services of the Fire Brigade during the Second World War. Today the site including the workshops at the rear is being redeveloped and the main building, which is now […]
Finding London’s newest museum is an adventure down the back streets of Lambeth, in an area that is in a change and transition. The historic Royal Doulton office building is shrouded in scaffolding for refurbishment, underneath the railway bridge in Newport Street is Damien Hirst’s new gallery while along the riverfront are new housing developments running to Nine […]
If an original painting by Sam Francis was beyond your budget, then you should have gone to the London Original Print Fair, where Bernard Jacobson has prints for sale, including Sam Francis’ “Senza Titolo II (Untled II)” from 1987 (and already sold when I visited). Prints, in all their forms, produced by artists have always been […]
"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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