The Punta della Dogana which sits discretely alongside Baldassare Longhena’s great Baroque masterpiece, the Santa Maria della Salute, in Venice was built as a Customs House in the late 17th century when Venetian trade and prosperity was at its height. Times have changed and, having been empty for years, the art collector Francois Pinault […]
One of Venice’s most prominent families, the Grimani family’s palazzi is one of Venice’s hidden gems, not least because it is difficult to find unless you go by river taxi, but also because it is Venice’s only Roman style palazzi, with an astonishing Googlemaps was totally defeated by the unique street and canal layout 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 […]
Perhaps the Biennale anticipated something when it picked the theme for 2019 ‘May You Live in Interesting Times’. We certainly do in Britain with politics that seem to change by the hour and, today, sadly the Biennale is closed and Venice is flooded following the highest water levels in 50 years while, in Yorkshire and […]
The Brenta Canal connecting Venice and Padua was built along the line of the River Brenta. Here the rich Venetians built their country villas, the grandest being the Villa Pisani, an immense baroque palace built in the 18th century for Alvise Pisani, who was appointed Doge in 1735. Designed mainly by Francesco Maria Preti, the […]
The park is only a couple of stops on the Valporetto from St Mark’s or a pleasant stroll along the waterfront. It is a park of two halves; the gardens facing onto the water with their lawns, trees and sitting areas which are a pleasant contrast to the rush and bustle of the centre of […]
Floating schools in Nigeria, homes for homeless children in India, houses for immigrants in Portugal, entire new towns in Germany, water tanks as public parks in Colombia and rebuilding schools after the 2014 earthquake in Thailand. Just a few of the many ideas on display at this year’s Biennale. There is almost too much to […]
"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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