Two energetically-different installations at the Whitechapel Gallery in London: The Whitechapel Gallery has been configured for flexibility – running a major exhibition on one artist such as Eduardo Paolozzi earlier in the year, or up to 8 separate exhibitions in parallel; generally a mixture somewhere in between. While the current focus of the first […]
What a contradictory climate Texas must have. At the moment, it is currently coping with the flooding disaster from the rainfall of almost biblical proportions caused by Hurricane Harvey; at other times it has to cope with immense desert dust-storms, as do other American states such as Kansas, shown in John Gerrard’s simulation of a […]
What do you want from a hotel? For the rich and famous, it may be an extensive and expensive suite in which to entertain friends. For the backpacker, it is somewhere cheap and cheerful in a central location. For the young (or not so young) entrepreneur, it is a temporary business headquarters. Citizen M, along […]
I wonder what the little terracotta monkeys think of their new neighbour, “Hope” the Blue Whale, now centrepiece of the Natural History Museum’s great hall , with its immense jaws and its powerful arched body flowing down to the visitors below. Once there were over 300,000 of these whales, but by the late 20th century […]
You’re looking for a book on architecture. Where do you go? Perhaps the Bookshop at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). You’re looking for a book on art. Where do you go? Perhaps to the bookshops at the Tate Gallery, the National Gallery or the Victoria and Albert Museum. You’re looking for something unusual […]
It’s not often that a humble material such as plywood creates controversy, but that’s what happened in September 2015 when, for Pope Francis’ visit to New York, Jim Lenahan Production Design designed a papal throne constructed from plywood, to reflect the Pope’s “emphasis on simplicity and humility” (Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York). In contrast, […]
In a location which is surprisingly near to Tate Modern, but across Southwark Street and slightly hidden away, Jerwood Space is a hidden treasure in Southwark. Occupying the site of the Orange Street School built in 1872–92, which had several transformations for educational uses until it was refurbished in 1998 by architects Paxton Locher for […]
On the outside, opposite the Chinese Embassy, the RIBA has an austere façade. Inside something odd has been going on. On a terrace on the 4th floor is a colourful mobile kitchen and canteen designed by Merrett Houmoller Architects for The Refugees and Befriending Project run by the British Red Cross, to which refugees have […]
The John Madejski Garden, designed by Kim Wilkie and opened in 2005 at the heart of the Victoria & Museum has, with Amanda Levete Architects (AL_A)’s new entrance on Exhibition Road suddenly changed from being slightly hidden through the galleries of the Museum, to being transparent and open, and in the great summer weather which […]
The cathedral of Rochester in Kent has had a chequered history. Construction of the first Saxon cathedral started in the 7th century, only for it to be to be substantially damaged when King Aethelred of Mercia ravaged Kent in 676, after which it fell into further decay and impoverishment, in part due to misappropraition of […]
"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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