Category Archives: Uncategorized

Occupation should be a right rather than a form of protest.

During the recent protests in Greece there was a moment in which the struggle against impending privatisation became concrete. In Thessaloniki, protesters hung a large banner from the city’s main landmark, the White Tower, which said “for sale” as a … Continue reading

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BE OPEN Goes Big

This September I’ve been working with BE OPEN, the foundation who most notably brought the BE OPEN Sound Portal in London’s Trafalgar Square. Designed by Arup and featuring the work of a number of pioneering recording artists including drum and bass … Continue reading

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Designing Trees: A Short Article Which Isn’t About The London Riots

I’m not one of those people who sees in every news event an architectural solution. Much of the rioting that is taking place in London, and particularly in my home borough Hackney can be put down to a combination of … Continue reading

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Taking Sinclair Personally

It is hard not to respond to Ghost Milk on a personal level. It is a book about the Olympic Games – an issue I am fascinated by – and its setting is Hackney – the place where I live. … Continue reading

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Thomas Pynchon’s Guide To The Baedeker

Perhaps it is because I am a stranger relying on the guidance of others that I find the CCA’s collection of Baedeker guides so fascinating. Although I am accutely aware of the need for generous, thoughtful guidance to a new … Continue reading

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Beyond Nations

Designed by a British architect and built by a British construction company, The British Antarctic Survey’s new research base, known as Halley VI, on the Brunt Ice Shelf is on one level an expression of the best in contemporary design … Continue reading

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The Posh Loo Olympics

There is a peculiarly English quality to temporary seating. The Badminton Annual horse trials require around 14,000 tiered seats including half of which is covered. The Queen allows around 5,000 temporary seats on to her land for the Royal Windsor … Continue reading

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“If you don’t eat yer meat, you can’t have any pudding.”

Jonathan Glancey repeated a few familiar myths about the Berlin Wall when he wrote about it recently. He wrote that  ‘what remains of it are a few graffiti-spattered stretches of concrete for tourists to snap one another by’. Certainly much … Continue reading

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And what rough beast…

it’s hour come round at last, slouches towards Stratford to be born?

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Making Maps

As its name suggests, the Ordnance Survey grew out of a military operation: specifically the attempt to control the Highlands of Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rebellion of 1746. A military engineer called Lieutenant Colonel David Watson was … Continue reading

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