What if the Egyptian pharaohs lived today? What might archaeologists find in their tombs several thousand years from now? Would the sphynx be enigmatically holding an ipad? Would the Pharaoh be buried with his most valuable property – his mobile phones and computers that have all his life’s history on them? This is one of […]
As much a symbol of Venice’s power and wealth as a trading nation as the Doge’s Palace, the Arsenale was the engine house, the shipbuilding centre, a massive series of buildings and docks hidden behind fortified walls that at one time was the largest industrial complex in Europe, supplied with wood from a dedicated forest […]
Palazzo Grassi, the historic home of the Grassi family in Venice, is what you would expect of a grand palazzo with its central courtyard and baroque staircase. Now a centre for contemporary art, two years ago it was taken over by Damien Hirst; this year the courtyard and rooms are filled with work by the […]
I guess that visitors to most Venice palazzi came along the canals in their own barges or by gondola, so visitors today who come from the street side find discrete narrow entrances, sometimes, as with the Palazzo Mora, through a garden, which gives visiting a different dynamic to that of centuries ago. One of the […]
Fortunately, the European Cultural Centre’s fourth exhibition ‘Venice Design’, which runs alongside the Biennale is located in the fine first floor rooms of the Palazzo Michael overlooking the Grand Canal, though this is the beating heart of a network of design exhibitions in many locations across Venice, many of whom would have been affected by […]
How would you describe the interiors of palazzi from the time that Venice’s power and wealth was at its height? Decadent, luxurious and glittering, but would you describe them as disfunctional? To Carpenters Workshop Gallery, the term ‘dysfunction’ is not, as we might think, negative, but related to art it is positively positive: ‘DYSFUNCTIONAL rethinks […]
One of the great triumphs of post First-World War was the founding of the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, in 1919 which aimed to transform and integrate post-war design and arts for the 20th century and a modern society. Sadly, this modernist, innovative, forward-thinking initiative was closed by the National Socialist regime in Germany only 14 […]
I’m off! I’ve had enough of Brexit, elections, climate change. I’ve got my ticket booked and I’m moving ……. to Mar I’m not quite sure how I get there or what to expect, but Elon Musk has plans and architects including Foster + Partners, Hassell, SEArch+ and others have been designing community building and homes […]
Art of a different sort has arrived in New Bond Street in London. After 14 months with the building covered in a pink leather-effect hoarding, Louis Vuitton has opened its totally-refurbished New Bond Street store, redesigned by rebellious New York architect Peter Marino around a new sensuous spiral staircase that enables the floors to flow […]
At a time when the physical presence of galleries and art foundations seems very fluid, (in part due to the extortionate business rates these organisations have to pay – the Parasol Foundation being the latest organisation to indicate that it will give up its excellent gallery space near Old Street next year), the Goodman Gallery […]
"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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