Keynote: Architecture and Neoliberalism Conference: Graz
Ten Theses on Scarcity
Great set of events in June by @sw_architects on what might happen to Pentonville Prison. @LFArchitecture https://t.co/fKFo20g9Br
Ten Theses on Scarcity
Unpicking the differences between scarcity and austerity, the implications for the built environment. Good twitter feedback. Translated into French courtesy of the great journal Criticat. Pdf of translation here.
A critique of masterplanning. On to something here, but yet to be developed.
The Expanding Field: Architecture Beyond the Object.
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
On the basis of a pitch written on an iPhone on the top of a mountain in Ethiopia, I was invited to curate the UK Pavilion at the 2013 Shenzhen Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism. The eventual pavilion was curated, designed and produced by students and staff from Central Saint Martins, and took the theme of Liquid Boundaries - arguing the need to find ways through the hardening of space as it is being increasingly controlled, regulated and divided. The pavilion presented four films, each 129 seconds long (the average time someone spends in a national pavilion at the Venice Biennale), which interpreted briefs provided by four UK architects and spatial agents. All in their own way open up ways in which boundaries might be negotiated with, and in so doing a more democratic form of space emerges. More information, including a downloadable pamphlet and 'user manual', can be found on the Liquid Boundaries website.
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
On Park Hill as an example of welfare architecture and its current demise. My first foray into the work of Zygmunt Bauman.
The catalogue of the British Pavilion at the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale, with essays by me (the ones on scale are here), and an introduction - a love letter to Sheffield - by Go! Sheffield. Designed by the very brilliant Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic, so worth your £5 for that alone. The British Council website has a scammy scan of the catalogue.
The article when I found my voice. Stories, the everyday and a sprinkling of theory.
Scarcity Scares. Video here.
Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.
Working with colleagues at the University of Sheffield School of Architecture, most notably Prue Chiles and Carolyn Butterworth, we established the most developed live projects programme in the country, probably the world, with some truly wondrous results. For example, look at the final report (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) from a group of students that I supervised looking at the use of urine to make mud bricks in Darfur. It is remarkable what they achieved in six weeks - should be awarded a PhD for this alone IMHO.
My contribution to the collection of fantastic photographs by Lisa Barnard of the former Tory Party Headquarters. The book, Chateau Despair, is an extraordinary document of the tawdry environment that Margaret Thatcher and her cohorts conducted their business in. Though I say it myself, I like my writing here, spurred by Lisa's great work. Buy the book!
Second of two, with some hints as to how to achieve flexible housing, much more developed in the book.
In order to get a balanced view, all reviews from the very nice to the very nasty are included here.
Early piece, written when I had just got Lefebvre. Introduces themes that I play on for years to come.