Category Archives: Architecture

Tadao Ando and his Secretive Champion.

Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s second permanent project in the UK may not be much – a water feature in Mayfair – but it reveals his special relationship with a hitherto little known patron of the arts.

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A Ballardian Shard?

This is a great documentary by the film-maker Simona Piantieri, which I contributed to. I think she gets a great range of voices who actually provide an insight into the building. I think I’ve modified my views on it as … Continue reading

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Portal placements

As the Be Open Sound Portal passes into the hands of two of London’s most dynamic creative schools, the very limitations of the experience it offers – an unparalleled, immersive sound experience normally only experienced by a privileged few for … Continue reading

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A Cathedral Dedicated to Excrement

As London’s sewer system accepts into its gaping maw a huge autumnal deluge, it is worth sparing a thought for those who created it. The Metropolitan Board of Works was created in 1855 to improve the cities infrastructure ‘under the … Continue reading

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Northern Seascapes

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Ruskin in Venice

The years that John Ruskin spent in Venice are no longer just an important biographical fact about an eminent art Victorian critic. They have become a narrative prism through which to assess architecture’s role in contemporary society. This month the … Continue reading

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Empire State of Mind

I re-read JG Ballard’s Empire of the Sun recently. This was at the same time that I was getting sent beautiful shots of pavilions from the Shanghai Expo, and then writing about it in some kind of historical context. At … Continue reading

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Not Learning From Learning From Las Vegas

The exhibition What We Learned at Yale and the 3-day symposium Architecture After Las Vegas prompted a predictable degree of puffery from those media-friendly, Po-Mo apologists over at FAT.  Sean Griffiths review in Building Design was generally a list of … Continue reading

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A drop in the ocean

In July 2007, Hilary Clinton, then a candidate for US President proposed a no-flight zone over Darfur, to prevent the Sudanese government from bombing their own citizens. It was an attempt to call to a halt what has been described … Continue reading

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The Tallest Building In The World

This is the text of a phone interview with Bill Baker, structural engineer on the Burj Khalifa and partner of S.O.M, on the day after the Burj Khalifa was inaugurated. What was the launch like? It was a pretty amazing … Continue reading

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