‘Cars: Accelerating the Modern World’ explores the history of the car but, being the Victoria & Albert Museum, does so from a variety of different perspectives – our search for speed and the transport of the future, and related other areas of fashion, design, architecture, power, politics and culture.

Here are many of the cars which in different ways have changed the world including the Benz Patent-Motorwagon (1886), the Ford Model T, the Ford Mustang, the Tatra 77, the LaSalle Roadster, the Delahaye Type 145, the Messerschmitt KR2000 Cabin Scooter (Bubble Car) and the Volkswagen Beetle.  Alongside were new forms of architecture – the mass-production factory, the service station with restaurants oversailing the road, the gas station and the multi-storey carpark and, of course, every house had to have its own garage.

There have been opportunities to move away from petrol combustion – in the 1890′s electric cars were anticipated to take over the market for what was then a use focussed on short journeys, but things changed and we discovered a love of adventure and races across long distances and across continents, which the electric-powered engine could not support. so petrol won this race.  Nothing much has changed in a century!   Again, opportunities could have been grasped during the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the Oil Crisis of 1973, but although the environmental movement was born in the latter, the petrol-driven car proved to be resistant to change, as indeed has been our love of tall buildings, as seen not only in New York and London, but in developing cities such as Dubai, where there is not exactly a shortage of land.  Yes, indeed cars and the economics of the oil industry have shaped our world.

Nearby, Antony Gormley’s ‘Quantum Cloud’ sits like a huge swarm of bees on a pier out in the river – a sculpture created using computer algorithms and, if you look hard, you can see Antony Gormley’s silhouette at the centre of the 30-metre high structure

Installed in 1999, it was an important first artistic marker in the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula, along with what was then the Millennium Dome (now O2), with the most recent addition being Allen Jones’ colourful ‘Head in the Wind’, adding to works by artists including Morag Myerscough, Tatty Devine, Damien Hirst and Gary Hume, now linked by the new elevated urban park ‘The Tide’.

Allen has a paternal link to his artworks – perhaps understandable – c0mparing them to children which eventually you have to ‘let go’ – ‘they’re yours, but they grown up and become their own entities’.

It is good to see public art as part of regeneration and creation of public spaces, with a few Christmassy additions…and the changing programme of exhibitions of the excellent NOW Gallery which links art and fashion – reinforcing the identity of the area with organisations such as Ravensbourne and the new kid on the block – the Unit Outlet Mall in the O2.

Richard Forster’s ‘Notes on Architecture’ brings modernist and other architecture into the fine 18th century townhouse in Mayfair that is home to the Timothy Taylor Gallery, both during the day and at night.  Outside, through the windows, you can see the city changing with redevelopment; inside what looks like photographs are paintings with repeated images that ask questions about the architecture and the society of its time, whether mass-housing, historic buildings or symbols of popular culture like nightclubs, with an occasional invasion of nature.  The focus on pattern, shape, form, light and shadow is reminiscent of the tonal qualities which can be achieved with manipulating a black and white photograph. In this, Forster bridges across the two artistic forms, in the same way as he bridges architecture with the people who interact with it.

In 2020, Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz will be the focus of a major exhibition at Tate Modern. Her work is currently on show at the new Museum of Modern Art galleries in New York and, as a taster for the Tate’s exhibition next year, a selection of her constructions and drawings in ‘Corporeal Materiality’ is here on show at the Marlborough Gallery in London, with exemplary lighting casting shadows on the walls and floor.

Then the visitor ascends the contemporary staircase to the upper floor gallery from which you can see the Christmas lights outside, an unusual contrast with the ‘Blind Drawings’ of the American artist William Anastasi but a perfect location for his work in the urban environment of London as Anastasi used the New York environment in which he lived and worked to influence and steer his drawings, for example when he used to travel on the New York Subway with parchment paper on his lap allowing the movement of the subway train to direct his pencil.   From my experience of the Subway, I am surprised that the drawings are not more jagged, but it does depend which line you ride on….

Polish artist Marcin MacieJowski’s exhibition ‘Private View’ in this fine room explores the mysteries of the art world, urban and popular culture and daily life, while in the corridor outside, alongside the fine winding staircase, are his series of drawings derived from Gustav Klimt’s drawings of Frederike Maria Beer, across which occasional shafts of reflected winter sunshine cascading through the gallery door create interesting highlights.

Almost continuing the theme from there, and perhaps a celebration of the astonishing variety of exhibitions which have been shown here over the past two year, in other historic rooms of Ely House, works by modern artists including Antony Gormley, Anselm Kiefer and Joseph Beuys fill the spaces, the first two coincidentally linking to exhibitions elsewhere in London at the Royal Academy, the White Cube in Mason’s Yard and the White Cube in Bermondsey.

The key to making the success of this event is to attend one of the many seminars and discussions in the 9 conference theatres themed on Future London, London Design, Interiors & Fit-out, BIM & Digital Construction, Smart London, Sustainability, Interior & Fit-out, Innovation, Skills Hub, Fire Safety & Innovation and Infrastructure or one of the other networking events and knowledge exchange including, to its credit, one for Women in Construction.

While the events may have focussed on current issues including innovation, climate change and the challenges of delivering the hundreds of thousands of new houses promised by the politicians, this was not strongly evident in the 350 trade stands.  Covering a multitude of different aspects of the construction industry from handmade bricks to scaffolding, from wireless emergency lighting to health and safety and from planning consultancy to project databases including, it was good to see, a focus on diversity and on mental health awareness in the workforce, there was not much that seemed to take us into the bold new world we need to go.  Also, there was little about the show itself being sustainable – I could not find any mention in the Show Guide (which puts it on a back foot behind other shows) and there were far too many single-use plastic bottles of water evident across the various stands.

Next year the show moves into the Central Hall at Olympia, a measure of its success and increasing interest.  Let’s hope it doesn’t miss this opportunity to set a benchmark that other shows at Olympia should follow!  At the very least, lets have some drinking water refilling stations….

Post show note:  I’ve just been across to the other side of London and discovered where the sustainability and innovation in delivery focus are:  they are at EMEX, the Energy Management Exhibition, and HOMES UK being held at EXCEL.  Is there any way that at least London Build and EMEX could coordinate together in the one location, and ideally also HOMES UK, but as an exhibition it does stand alone.   I wonder how many people have to trudge from Olympia in West London through the rain to EXCEL in East London?

HeHe’s introduction to ‘Eco-Visionaries’ at the Royal Academy -  a globe of the Earth revolving in increasingly-dense clouds of human-made pollution with a haunting background soundtrack – reminds us how appalling slow we are to change, even when the future of our world is at stake, while Nerea Calvillo continues the theme with his research project ‘In the Air’ recording and making visible the unseen pollution that permeates three cities – Madrid, Santiago and Budapest.

In ‘Eco-Visionaries’, artists, architects, designers and scientists explore the environmental crisis that we have caused, and also suggest some solutions.  It is not just pollution that threatens the planet.  Humans are very careless with natural resources, introducing alien species with disastrous results such as the near extinction of the native tilapia fish in Lake Victoria in Tanzania, recorded as if they are fossils in a natural history museum by Tue Greenfort and allowing the destruction of species such as the white rhino, with the last male dying last year, here recreated digitally by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg.  Somehow it is not the same.

Highly relevant given the floods in Venice this week is Virgil Abloh’s bronze ‘Alaska Chair’ taken from the designed of a wooden chair for IKEA and reminding us of the impact of our consumer-driven society while it is represented here as if sitting in the flood waters of Venice, to which it would have been brought from the nearest IKEA which I believe is in Padua, 30 miles away.   And, as a shadow that hangs over us all, the threat of nuclear attack or a nuclear catastrophe is lurking there in the background, as Basim Magby reminds us.

But all is not lost!  What of the future?   Can we achieve change?  Pinar Yoldas, Ant Farm, SKREI, Phillipe Rahm architectes, Andres Jaque & Patrick Craine and Studio Malka Architects show alternatives for a different and more sustainable future.

Looking for new solutions, designer Samuel Iliffe has set up his studio ‘Algae Platform’ in the nearby Architecture Studio exploring the potential of algae as a bio-sourced raw material for use in architectural and other products.

Among the highlights were the guest rooms by designers Miaja Design Group, twenty2degrees, HAT Design and Maria Tibblin & Co which were cracking with artistic and technical creativity, and the student showcase with the hospitality industry network NEWH showing the work of its four 2019 scholarship winners selected from second year students studying interior design and architecture at UK universities and placement students working within design firms, this year’s designers of the future being Aruzhan Makanova  and James Ingram from Ravensbourne University and Marissa Miltiadous and Shafaq Sultan from Middlesex University.  Four imaginative new ideas with James Ingram breaking out of the hotel room with his bold integrated hotel and artist’s studio ‘Stay-Arty’ proposed for a site in Shoreditch.  All he needs is an imaginative backer!

While the main focus is on sleep, the eating side looks are how to make dining more sociable with NAME Architecture creating a social dining experience which could be considered a modern take on the traditional College dining hall and SpaceInvader has created a social space in which mobile phones will be forbidden and people will talk to each other.  It even has that an old-fashioned thing – a telephone!

Given the current focus on environment and climate change, it was also good to see a focus on sustainability subtly embedded in the show’s operations including 100% use of renewable energy, use of recycled paper, measures to reduce single use plastics, recycling of signage and carpets after the event and support for the NEWH initiative.  Good for the organisers, but a few of the exhibitors had plastic bottles of water on their stands.  Something to avoid next year?

Compared to the Damien Hirst exhibition, the current display is more restrained.  You enter through Felix Gonzalez-Torres blood curtain reminiscent of red and blood cells, engaging with an artist whose life was cut short with a AIDS-related illness, into a room curated by his friend Roni Horn who has contributed work of her own and work of other artists from her collection.  Dialogue is a theme that runs through the exhibitions with the juxtaposition of the works of different artists alongside each other in different rooms, and the juxtaposition of the art against the original brick walls and the concrete additions of Tadao Ando, with a few fireworks including Wu Tsang up in the Belvedere and STURTEVANT’s light installation beneath it, while there are a few works which make you stop and stare, such as the inflated white balloon by Charebel-Joseph H. Boutros and Stephanie Saade, a homage to the Italian conceptual artist Piero Manzoni and his 1960 works ‘Fiato d’artista’ (Artist’s Breath), comprising balloons filled with his own breath.  Here however the balloon is filled with the breath of the two artists as a symbol of love.

Built in the 16th century as the family home of the Querini Stampalia Family and a place in which to display their extensive art collection which includes work by Bellini and Tiepoloo, the Foundation which is housed here is a cultural institution founded in 1869 by Conte Giovanni (Count John), the last descendant of the family. Italian architect Carlo Scarpa, famous for his bold but sensitive modern additions to many historic buildings across Italy, designed additions, mainly at the lower floors, to create a cultural complex which connects into the historic home of the Querini Stampalia family, displaying historic collections and supporting a variety of different activities and exhibitions. It also houses a loan collection from the Intesa Sanpaolo banking group.

For the Biennale, modern and contemporary art includes interventions and photographs by Roman Opatka in the historic rooms including the Boudoir and a major exhibition of the work of the German artist and stage designer Jorg Immendorff (1945-2007) who ws a member of the Neue Wilde group, while there is also an explanatory display on the Count and his library and modern art on display in Scarpa’s ground floor spaces at the level of the rio – perhaps just a little to close to the water level for comfort, given the floods in Venice this week.