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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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Bighams Production Campus - A Model for Rural Industry

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Bighams Production Campus - A Model for Rural Industry

If we want rural and urban areas to remain distinct and not just become merged in ubiquitous suburbia we need to think more imaginatively about where development occurs and how it can be made specific to its place.

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Le Corbusier's Cité Frugès vs Poundbury

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Le Corbusier's Cité Frugès vs Poundbury

The most endearing quality of the houses isn't to do with style.  It is the sheltered outdoor spaces, an integral part of the conception of the buildings that enable the residents to engage with the green spaces around them.

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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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Between The Earth And The Sky

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Between The Earth And The Sky

The Unknown Political Prisoner Monument defines space in the loosest sense, as an open structure of thin steel wires through which the landscape and sky are framed, delicately pinned to the ground. 

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The Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey

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The Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey

I finally got round to visiting Glastonbury Abbey this week, having lived near-by for 5 years and been deterred by the magic-crystal shops, and discovered this little gem of a building. The Abbot’s Kitchen is the only ...

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Precedents II – Dundon Passivhaus

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Precedents II – Dundon Passivhaus

Rather than thinking about what it would look like, a lot of our discussions revolved around the atmosphere of the house and the way different spaces would relate to one another. Emily is an interior designer, so we each had different, but fortunately ...

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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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Hooke Park

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Hooke Park

The UK is one of the least forested nations in Europe with only 12% of land area covered and 80% of the sawn softwood used in construction is imported (Forestry Commission figures, 2014). Hidden away in a 350 acre working forest in Dorset, students from the Architectural Association are experimenting with new ways of designing and making buildings using locally grown timber. Isolation and the woodland setting are...

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Barrington Court

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Barrington Court

On Sunday we headed over to Barrington Court, the first large house taken on by the National Trust (in 1907), and one that caused them such serious financial difficulties that it was held up for years after as an example of why they should be vary wary of taking on other stately homes. For over ...

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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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Hauser & Wirth Somerset

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Hauser & Wirth Somerset

Very excited this week about the opening of Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton. Its not often a leading international art gallery decides to set up shop on my patch so I was keen to go along and have a look. My review will be in the August issue of the journal Architecture Today . Fundamentally it is a ...