Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.
An essay based on a presentation to the Society of Architectural Historians, tracing various historical episodes of austerity.
Will the real user please stand up?
With Tatjana Schneider. A comprehensive survey of Flexible Housing design. Winner 2007 RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University based research, with judges saying: ?An exemplary body of architecturally-relevant research?offering comparative design plans, well-researched historical referencing, a new classification system and a practical manual/tool kit. An innovative and brave approach?? There is a long and useful, if quite critical, review by John Habraken (who is one of the book’s heroes). The book is beautifully designed by Ben Weaver, who also did Spatial Agency and Architecture & Participation.
The article when I found my voice. Stories, the everyday and a sprinkling of theory.
My contribution to Sarah Wigglesworth’s great book on our house, Stock Orchard Street. Outlines the tensions of being an architect-client.
My closing speech at the main conference for What's the Point of Art School, a series of events organised by Central Saint Martins. The video of the speech, which was well-recieved, is here. Other talks, including brilliance from Johnny Vegas, are here. There was a good write up of the day in the Guardian.
Reforming.
As part of the series ?The Social Production of Architecture?. Didn't go too well because I asked the question: Is Design Activism bad design and bad activism? This started a debate.
Chosen in open competition to curate the British Pavilion, I put together the best creative minds in Sheffield to present an echo of this wonderful city (the link takes you to my initial application, and I have to say the room data sheets are not bad). The team included: Ian Anderson, Tim Etchells, Hugo Glendinning, Encounters, Martyn Ware, and Jim Prevett. The show attempted to explain how a city is great beyond its buildings: it did not have much architecture in, which did not go down well with architects, especially those in London, who were doubly annoyed that a provincial academic was doing the show. But beyond the Clerkenwell goldfish bowl (with Ellis Woodman in particularly splenetic form, fortunately now behind a paywall), the exhibition was better received (i.e in Die Presse, Der Standard, Financial Times, The Architects Newspaper, The Times, The Yorkshire Post, and of course the Sheffield Telegraph )
In order to get a balanced view, all reviews from the very nice to the very nasty are included here.
Rather a miserabilist piece, but gets in that fantastic Seneca quote: ?Those were happy times before the days of architects.?
Another piece on architectural education. Rather showy-offy, but was an finalist in the EAAE competition for writings in architectural education that year.
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
The foreword to Arna Mathiesen's great book Scarcity In Excess, which investigates the effects of scarcity on the built environment in Iceland following the economic crisis of 2008. Other excerpts of the book are on Issuu
A bit of a cheat, because it is really the second chapter of Architecture Depends
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
A large European funded research project for which I am the project leader. Looking at the way the production of the built environment is affected under conditions of scarcity. In partnership with TU Vienna and Oslo School of Architecture, and working with Deljana Iossifova and Jon Goodbun at the University of Westminster and the SEED Foundation. A range of books, exhibitions and events will come out of it; visit the website for early outcomes.