A long piece on Trump-Brexit-Architecture. I was nervous doing it because I thought everything had been said, but thought there was an urgency, so any contribution felt worthwhile.
Early piece, written when I had just got Lefebvre. Introduces themes that I play on for years to come.
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.
In order to get a balanced view, all reviews from the very nice to the very nasty are included here.
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.
A short think piece on the 2011 Occupation movement and its relevance to architecture.
Originally commissioned by the RIBA, a piece on what might or might not constitute architectural research. Big in Spain.
Co-authored with Jon Goodbun, Michael Klein and Andreas Rumpfhuber. The main outcome of the Scarcity and Creativity in the Built Environment project. At the beginning of this project it became clear that there was no contemporary theory of scarcity that addressed the current conditions, so this book sets out to fill that gap, and then relate that theory to design. It is a short (15,000 words) book, and good value.
My response as to why giving the official government website 2013 Design of the Year was not so cool.
My last (ever?) building as an architect, designed with Sarah Wigglesworth. Made of straw and stuff. Best known for being on Grand Designs, the video of which is online. Sarah’s wonderful book on the project views it from all sides. Winner of the RIBA Sustainability Award, a Civic Trust Award and some others. Lots and lots of reviews of the project, including the Observer, and, and, ... We live in it and are happy.
On the dangers and vanities of form. Written when I was wading through my philosophy degree and it shows.
Posted in honour of their 2014 RIBA Gold Medal Award. First published in Architectural Review in 2005 (and needs the drawings/pictures) A bit of a rave.
My first foray into the intersection of politics and architecture. Spiky.
Reflections on 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale
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 lecture on architectural education that I presented at The Agency Conference in Sydney in 2017, Yale Symposium on Rebuilding Architecture in 2018, and as part of the Bartlett International Lecture Series in 2018. It starts with the premise that architectural education is inherently conservative, and then spins out the argument from that uncomfortable start. The video link is from the Bartlett version. It did not go down universally well...