The pandemic of the last six months, which looks likely to continue, has challenged many modern ways of doing things. Retailers, and restaurant-owners are having to think through their business models as never before, as competitors fall like skittles, while office occupiers are reappraising what the office of the future will be – probably not […]
One of the joys of visiting the Venice Biennale is the number of exhibitions of contemporary art on show in historic buildings that you might not otherwise see, often located down canals you would not normally visit. It is as much an architectural discovery as an exploration of new art. The Gallery Edel Assanti has given […]
Outside in the green landscape of the August sunshine, the atmosphere in Holland Park in Kensington is peaceful and relaxing, with families walking through the gardens and runners jogging along the paths. Inside the Design Museum, you enter another world, a world that is current closed due to coronavirus, the world of pulsing throbbing nightclubs […]
It’s a long time since sculptors (usually wearing white smocks and black floppy caps in those old black and white photographs) took up their hammer and chisels to cut out their shapes from a block of white cararra marble. Stone sculptures can now be prepared by computerised cutting while artists adopt a wide variety of […]
Cemeteries have recently suffered in terms of their meaning in the modern world. Once the height of social status, many have fallen into decline and have been seen as a financial burden whereas the most forward looking see them for what they are – a unique library of social history and a much-loved green space […]
For those of you who know the history of Hampton Court Palace, you will know of its reputation for ghosts who wander the dark corridors at night. While we have all been focused on our personal experiences during the recent coronavirus lockdown, have we neglected the spiritual world? Perhaps they have been enjoying their new […]
Home of the great early 20th-century socialite Margaret Grenville, the old Regency house was extensively remodelled in 1906 as a base for her country house parties and filled with her collection of fine paintings, furniture, porcelain and silver. The future George VI and Queen Elizabeth spent part of their honeymoon here in 1923. While the […]
We have seen a collective madness this week with one of the results of the tragic events in the US being a spate of vandalism to statues of historic figures such as Winston Churchill who, whether individuals like it or not, are part of our heritage and, worse of all, to memorials to those who […]
Looking back a few months in time, it seems strange that the gardens at RHS Wisley were one of the last places I visited before the coronavirus lockdown. While sensible social distancing and other precautions were then in place, no-one really realised then what was about to hit us all as we effectively lost three […]
Arts organisations are leading the way in adapting to the current lockdown, with museum and theatre doors firmly locked, fine exhibitions of art in darkness and theatre stages empty. While not quite the same as seeing the real thing, we can watch ballets from the Royal Opera House, learn art from Grayson Perry in his […]
"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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