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Borneo Sporenburg Revisited

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Borneo Sporenburg Revisited

One of the most successful urban regeneration projects of recent years, Borneo Sporenburg shows how strategically planned high-density low-rise housing can make an atmospheric and desirable piece of city.

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Pavement Art Gallery

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Pavement Art Gallery

Congratulations to Patrick McEvoy of our London office whose Pavement Art Gallery proposal is one of 3 winners in a competition organised by the London Festival of Architecture to design a temporary public space for a site within the square mile of the City of London.

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Patrick McEvoy Bench - Here Lies Geofrey Barkington

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Patrick McEvoy Bench - Here Lies Geofrey Barkington

Patrick McEvoy from Prewett Bizley’s London office is one of ten winners in a competition organised by the London Festival of Architecture to design a bench for the City of London.

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Hans Döllgast - Post-war Reconstruction in Munich

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Hans Döllgast - Post-war Reconstruction in Munich

In Döllgast's work the historic fabric, wartime scars and frugal 1950s work are bound together into a new construction that feels whole, inclusive of all the elements of its history.

 

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Emil Steffann - St Laurentius, Munich

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Emil Steffann - St Laurentius, Munich

It is a heavy building, made with thick brick walls, buttresses and round arches that feel quite rustic and rural, like a stripped down Italian village church. 

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Precedents I – Newington Green House

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Precedents I – Newington Green House

Observing the built environment and studying the work of others are a crucial part of the design process, yet these are things most architects seldom discuss. We might talk about our favorite ...

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Nantes Architecture School – Lacaton Vassal

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Nantes Architecture School – Lacaton Vassal

Last week I went to see a building I’d been longing to visit since it opened in 2009. The School of Architecture in Nantes (ENSA) by Architects Anne Lacaton & Jean-Philippe Vassal takes a provocative and inspiring attitude to educational space that is sadly lacking in most British universities. It looks like a carpark, which is pretty much what it is in its construction. From their first...

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Porto architecture

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Porto architecture

There’s a backlog of half-written posts building up here due to the distractions of a 4 month old baby who doesn’t recognise blog writing as a valid activity. This one shouldn’t be too hard to wrap up though, so I’ll give it a go. In early November...

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Avonmouth Grain & Coal Silos

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Avonmouth Grain & Coal Silos

From the M5 motorway bridge near Bristol you get a magnificent view over the docks at Avonmouth. In the low landscape of carparks and sheds I had spotted several concrete grain silos poking up but had never been able to stop and investigate. This weekend ...

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Michelucci – Church of the Autostrada and Bank in Colle val d’Elsa

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Michelucci – Church of the Autostrada and Bank in Colle val d’Elsa

I have long been intrigued by the work of Giovanni Michelucci, an architect from Pistoia who’s early work such as Santa Maria Novella railway station in Florence was rational and functional but who later developed a much more expressive approach rooted in ...

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Teignmouth colours

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Teignmouth colours

Gorgeous colours in the spring sunshine in Teignmouth this weekend. The sand on the beaches is redish-brown from the underlying sandstone and the sea was a slick of greens, blues and greys with reflections of moody clouds. I kept finding this palette recurring around the town in painted walls, doors and shopfronts.

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The Stones of Tuscany

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The Stones of Tuscany

Most of the cities are built from brick with stone reserved for the grander public buildings. The use of a dark and light marble in horizontal bands gives the churches such a bold presence, the clean-cut white stone making crisp shadows in the strong sunlight. The pattern is forgiving of crude repairs and the patched surfaces record the passing of the centuries.