Birdwatching | The sound of organs | Rightwing democracy | Focused on deliveringThe Country Diary (27 May) captured perfectly the agonies and ecstasies of the thousands of people across the country following nesting ospreys, whether we watch on the ground or on webcams.
Pam Lunn
Kenilworth, Warwickshire• It is wonderful to watch ospreys at various locations online. I am following the Dyfi, Glaslyn and Brenig nests. Nature is amazing.
Helen Evans
Ruthin, Denbighshire Continue reading...
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Raptor-ous reception for nesting ospreys | Brief letters
via theguardian.com -
Three things with Tim Ross: ‘It was her final gift of love to me’
via theguardian.comIn our weekly interview about objects, the comedian and architecture enthusiast tells us about a memento of his late mother and a simple metal tin that sparks joyRead more Three things interviews hereGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailHe’s best known as a comedian, radio host and one half of Merrick and Rosso, but Tim Ross is also a self-confessed architecture and design nerd. For the last 11 years Ross has performed a live show about buildings around the world. He also serves as a -
Who should win the 2023 Stirling prize? One of these…
via theguardian.comOf the 131 RIBA regional award winners just announced, this year’s Stirling prize contenders ought to include a precision-tooled Isle of Wight house, the LSE’s latest addition and a farm in the middle of BelfastHow do you measure a classical church in the north-east of England, chastely converted into a community centre, against a louche re-creation in a London theatre of a Weimar republic nightclub? Or a shed for a city farm in Northern Ireland against a sumptuous bespoke guest hous -
The quilt environment: imaginary spaces rendered in fabric – in pictures
via theguardian.comBritish artist Kate Williams makes large-scale, wall-hung quilts depicting imaginary postmodern buildings in empty landscapes, which she describes as “De Chirico transplanted to 1980s Miami”. “I’m interested in artifice and illusion, and in the playfulness of both postmodern architecture and 18th-century trompe l’oeil,” she says. “I hope there’s something mildly unsettling about these designs.” Continue reading... -
Photorealist suburbia, Russian war protesters and the dark side of Constable – the week in art
via theguardian.comA major show for Boyd and Evans in Milton Keynes, women mourn victims of the war in Ukraine and looming storms spark savage poetry – all in your weekly dispatchBoyd & Evans
Fionnuala Boyd and Les Evans have been making photorealist art since the 1960s and they’ve found their perfect subject in the Ballardian townscape of Milton Keynes.
• MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, 27 May to 17 September Continue reading... -
Migrant street vendors of Barcelona tell story of survival at Venice Biennale
via theguardian.comTop Manta, a mostly migrant cooperative, is the inspiration for Catalonia and the Balearics’ entry to the architecture arm of the prestigious festival. We enjoyed a previewThey are a familiar sight on the streets and sandy beach of Barcelona: vendors, blankets spread out in front of them, selling trinkets or toys to frequently disinterested passers-by. Now Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have chosen Top Manta, a Barcelona-based cooperative representing the mostly migrant, undocumented s -
Alice Coleman obituary
via theguardian.comGeographer who championed the idea of ‘defensible space’ in order to improve on the problematic designs of some high-rise estatesThe geographer Alice Coleman, who has died aged 99, set out to prove that British modernist high-rise council estates were failing because their layout lacked “defensible space”, and that their problematic design reduced social interaction while encouraging crime and anti-social behaviour.In her book Utopia on Trial: Vision and Reality in Planne -
Letter: Elain Harwood obituary
via theguardian.comThrough her contribution to the Post-War Listing Steering Group, Elain Harwood ensured the preservation of 20th-century buildings that could well have been lost or compromised, including the Festival Hall in London and the Byker estate in Newcastle.At the same time, and behind the scenes, she worked tirelessly to secure the survival of much else besides, including the original campus at the University of York, designed by RMJM (Robert Matthew Johnson Marshall) in 1963-64. “Nowhere else,&rd -
Venice Biennale 2023 review – an important challenge to western architectural tradition
via theguardian.comUnder the title The Laboratory of the Future, Lesley Lokko, the Ghanaian-Scottish curator of this year’s biennale, succeeds in her aim to show off under-represented talent from Africa and elsewhere – even if it doesn’t all quite come offThe Venice Biennale, a grand exhibition that concentrates on art and architecture in alternate years, has been until now a Eurovision of the visual. It is held partly in a series of national pavilions in specially dedicated gardens, originally l -
‘All of a sudden there’s a house’: could prefab be the future of Australian homes?
via theguardian.comThey were once a byword for poor design but prefabricated houses can be green, fast, affordable – and pretty, architects sayGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailA wooden deck stretches out to a view over the horizon. It welcomes the mountain air but does not blow you away. Inside, morning light beckons through skylights before curtains play with the afternoon sun. Open plan but comforting, functional but fun. This house has has been put up in a matter of weeks, from pieces made in a -
The toxic landscape of colonialism: Venice’s architecture biennale spotlights Africa
via theguardian.comIs the era of the elderly white male finally over? This year’s global extravaganza, boasting a Ghanaian-Scottish curator, features a huge number of exhibitors from Africa – and shows its vicious exploitation continuesA faceted brick wall stands in the middle of Venice’s Arsenale, like a sharply creased origami screen, blocking the route of visitors to this year’s Architecture Biennale. As you get closer, it looks like a rubble tapestry, with pieces of crushed brick and co -
‘Design me a chair made from petals!’: The artists pushing the boundaries of AI
via theguardian.comFrom restoring artefacts destroyed by Isis to training robot vacuum cleaners, architects, artists and game developers are discovering the potential – and pitfalls – of the virtual worldA shower of pink petals rains down in slow motion against an ethereal backdrop of minimalist white arches, bathed in the soft focus of a cosmetics advert. The camera pulls back to reveal the petals have clustered together to form a delicate puffy armchair, standing in the centre of a temple-like space, -
A scrum in building form: Limerick hopes to cash in on rugby supremacy with new attraction
via theguardian.comHi-tech museum aims to inspire 100,000 visitors a year and revitalise the city’s centreIt rises over the centre of Limerick in a six-storey array of bricks and pillars and vaults that has been compared to a scrum in building form.The International Rugby Experience, Ireland’s newest tourist attraction looms over its surroundings with a swagger that channels Ireland’s performances on the field. The €30m (£26m) complex boasts a design, scale and ambition to match the co -
London’s Liverpool Street station redevelopment: on the wrong track?
via theguardian.comProposing artificial light, a concourse one floor away from the platforms and the partial demolition of a listed building, a £1.5bn plan to redevelop this historic London railway terminus seems ill-conceived, even with Herzog & de Meuron on boardLiverpool Street station in London, grand old Victorian terminus, one of the busiest in the country by footfall – honoured by a place on the Monopoly board – plus the adjoining former Great Eastern hotel, where the vampire-hunter Va -
‘It doesn’t need regeneration’: Peckham’s charm under threat from gentrification plans
via theguardian.comThe quirky appeal of Rye Lane is threatened by developer’s 14 high-rise flats, sayresidentsThere’s a scene in Rye Lane, a film said to be breathing new life into romcoms, where the two main characters stroll past a body-popping white-haired man in a spangly Yves Klein blue cowboy outfit, then continue their conversation sitting in giant high heels outside a shoe shop.The moonwalking cowboy is an actor, but the shoe shop is real – one of dozens of outlets inside Rye Lane market -
Tooth transplants and pickled penises: inside the revamped Hunterian
via theguardian.comThe new look museum still contains John Hunter’s curiosities – from giant skeletons to toad births – but now acknowledges the ethical issues they poseWhen he wasn’t wrestling his pet bull, slicing open the corpses of freshly hanged criminals, or studying the seasonal changes in sparrow testicles, John Hunter could be found probing the nether regions of female silk moths. The 18th-century surgeon, anatomist and all-round polymath was keen to find out if he could artificial -
Chinese glories, last rites revised and hypermodern tapestry – the week in art
via theguardian.comThe cultural treasures of Qing China, fresh takes on funeral urns and a creative response to being doxed – all in your weekly dispatchChina’s Hidden Century
Blockbuster survey of China in the 19th century, when the imperial era was coming to an end.
• British Museum, London, 18 May to 8 October Continue reading... -
From a 30sqm house to a slice of urban parkland: Australia’s most sustainable homes of 2023 – in pictures
via theguardian.comThe sustainability shortlist in Architecture Australia’s annual Houses Awards demonstrates new ways of thinking about the places we call home, whether it be replacing a large garage with a place to “stare up at the stars”, or the first true net-zero home in Western Australia. House Awards jury chair Alexa Kempton said: ‘The jury was pleased to see … examples of homeowners taking agency over their homes’ environmental impacts.’She hopes that this is &lsq -
Elain Harwood obituary
via theguardian.comArchitectural historian who championed the preservation of England’s postwar buildings and the brutalist styleThe architectural historian Elain Harwood, who has died unexpectedly aged 64, chronicled the postwar architecture of England and overcame opposition to achieve its acceptance as heritage. She wrote in the preface to her major book Space, Hope and Brutalism (2015): “The values of the welfare state formed me and I grew up believing they would last forever.”The book was th -
King Charles ignited a battle of styles in architecture - is it time for a truce?
via theguardian.comThe monarch loves traditional buildings and hates a lot of modern design. In this long-running battle, is there any middle ground?Once upon a time I found myself in a very small waiting room in St James’s Palace, furnished like a posh-but-thrifty dentist’s with old Sotheby’s catalogues and ancient copies of Country Life, the sound of clock bells and tramping guardsmen percolating from outside. I was ushered into a large room, to be grilled by associates of the then Prince of Wa -
Architect Yasmeen Lari: ‘The international colonial charity model will never work’
via theguardian.comThe winner of this year’s royal gold medal for architecture has gone from designing corporate buildings to self-build shelters. She talks about shedding her ego, and empowering people to rebuild in the climate emergency“We are on the verge of scaling up,” says the architect Yasmeen Lari. “I need to achieve my target of one million in two years, starting this month.” One million homes, that is, to replace those lost in last year’s floods in her home country of -
Lost treasures and ancient ruins: Anthony Kersting’s Middle East – in pictures
via theguardian.comThe British photographer documented stunning architectural gems in Iraq – many since destroyed by Islamic State Continue reading... -
School Green Centre, Shinfield review – where Lidl meets idyll, a civic space for all
via theguardian.comPart barn, part secular church, a new cultural and community centre designed for everything from weddings to tai chi offers an imaginative resource for a rapidly developing Berkshire town“A little world of our own,” wrote one Mary Russell Mitford around two centuries ago, about a hamlet called Three Mile Cross in the parish of Shinfield, near Reading in Berkshire. It was, she said in her once-famous book about rural life, Our Village, “close-packed and insulated” like &ld -
‘A Flintstone cave made by pranksters’: New York’s audacious new museum wing
via theguardian.comIt’s late and over budget but the Museum of Natural History’s $465m gallery gives a stunning home to its insectsSome museums have more personality than others and the American Museum of Natural History has never had trouble attracting attention. Packed with rare specimens, organic samples and glittering minerals, as well as some uncannily lifelike animal and human models, the New York institution has long featured in urban legend, as well as on the big screen.So this week – des -
Revealed: the ‘buried’ Powerhouse museum report that could have stopped $500m redevelopment
via theguardian.comA prominent heritage architect alleges the NSW government terminated his contract and hired another company after he advised that the Ultimo museum should be heritage listedGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailA heritage architect hired by the previous New South Wales government to consult on major redevelopments at Sydney’s Powerhouse museum is alleging that his research was buried. He alleges this was because it would have scuppered controversial plans to demolish much of the belov -
Tower Hamlets town hall review – an old hospital immaculately stitched up
via theguardian.comThe £125m transformation of the Royal London hospital into an elegant seat of local government is a sleek operation that has retained the 18th-century building’s original aura and poiseThere’s an old view of the London Hospital, around the time it was built in the 1750s, that shows it standing like a stately home, symmetrical, classical and serene, in fields on which an expanding city encroaches. Even the Whitechapel Mount, a gigantic pile of rubble and dung that loomed over on -
Pink door decision is as mad as George III | Brief letters
via theguardian.comCity of Edinburgh council | What a de-corker! | Inland fish restaurants | Mary' Quant’s makeup that lastsThe City of Edinburgh council’s decision objecting to Miranda Dickson’s pink front door is absurd (Woman forced to repaint pink front door of listed Edinburgh building, 18 April). Door colour has no effect on conservation. The council has obviously never seen the Georgian front doors in Dublin. If it wanted the houses to retain an 18th-century look, it would ban brilliant wh -
‘We made a nuisance of ourselves’: how Citizens House created real affordable housing – for ever!
via theguardian.comAfter years of campaigning, 11 homes have been built as London’s first community land trust – protected in value from the volatile property market. We meet the people who made it happenIn the back corner of a council estate in south London once occupied by dingy rows of lock-up garages next to a playground, there now stands a gleaming white brick block of flats. Big balconies jut out from its facade in a staggered grid, while a broad staircase loops up the back, where generous curved -
Want to buy a woollen home? Why Newcastle may have knitted the future of housing
via theguardian.comTerry Farrell, the distinguished creator of dazzling buildings worldwide, has set up a £4.6m centre in Newcastle aiming to demystify the overblown language of architecture. So why does it contain a compostable woolly bio-cave?Architects are notoriously bad communicators. They have a tendency, while attempting to stride the multiple disciplines of construction, philosophy, sociology and art, to speak an opaque private language that is legible to none. Countless are the exhibitions where vis -
Woman forced to repaint pink front door of listed Edinburgh building
via theguardian.comMiranda Dickson fails to overturn ruling that colour was not in keeping with historic character of propertyA woman has been forced to repaint the pink front door to her listed building in Edinburgh following a protracted battle with local authorities.Miranda Dickson was told to alter the colour last year after a complaint was made to City of Edinburgh council from an anonymous person. The local authority ruled that the pink door was not “in keeping with the historic character” of the -
Architect Terry Farrell: ‘Conservation is a mind thing’
via theguardian.comThe man behind MI6 headquarters in London and TV-am’s egg cups has long sought to repurpose buildings and connect with the public – goals now embodied in a new centre in his home town of NewcastleThere have always been two sides to Terry Farrell. On the one hand he likes to stand up for the ordinary citizen, to back community groups and conservationists against arrogant planners and architects, to protect old buildings from demolition, to take it to the man. On the other, he himself -
Thrills and spills: an architect’s absurdist homeware – in pictures
via theguardian.comArchitect Katerina Kamprani was inspired by frustration to create her project The Uncomfortable. Born and raised in Athens, Kamprani struggled to find a career in the creative industries during the dire Greek economic crisis of the 2010s. “The discouragement manifested in these absurd ideas about objects that are deliberately designed to be inconvenient,” she says. The project started for fun, but she’s pleased it’s served real purpose too. “The images have been use -
‘It’s like hiding an elephant’: €171m feat of engineering creates museum under Dutch palace
via theguardian.comPaleis Het Loo was built as a lodge for the man who became William III, Protestant king of England, Ireland and Scotland from 1689At first glance King William of Orange’s palace seems just as it was in the 17th century – a handsome Dutch baroque building set along three sides of a courtyard seemingly pockmarked with rain puddles.But underneath the courtyard, an injection of engineering expertise costing €171m has created an extraordinary modern museum, opening next week. Continu -
Utopia in corduroy concrete: the mesmerising architecture of a Mexican master
via theguardian.comGuadalajara is often seen as a place of tequila and mariachi music. Can Alejandro Zohn, whose buildings include a market roofed by giant shells, make it famous for architecture?A miniature billboard pokes up above the neatly trimmed hedge in the garden of the Schindler House in Los Angeles, as if a roadside ad had blown in from nearby Sunset Strip. Cantilevered from a chunky steel column, strapped to a base of pink concrete blocks, it is a startling arrival on the grounds of this hallowed modern -
Race to rescue Bude’s Pepperpot lookout tower from being swept into the sea
via theguardian.comThe 188-year-old coastguard’s tower in Cornwall is to be moved 100m inland to save it from coastal erosionPerched on an exposed clifftop above the Atlantic, which gnaws ominously at the sandstone and shale foundations below, Bude storm tower in Cornwall has helped to save many mariners from strife over the past two centuries. But now this cherished coastguard’s lookout is to be rescued itself.The 188-year-old Grade II-listed tower at Compass Point, affectionately known as the Pepperp -
The Gilbert & George Centre review – Ripper world meets the white cube
via theguardian.comHeneage Street, London E1
Converted from an old Spitalfields brewery, a new gallery to store and show the artists’ work marries polite modernism with their trademark trad-guignol – along with ghosts of the East End pastGilbert and George have always liked to dress their provocation in conservative clothes. Even as their works combined enchantment with filth, illuminating blossoms and turds and bodies with the aura of stained-glass windows, they themselves have maintained the mien of -
Coventry’s medieval Charterhouse opens to public after 11-year rescue effort
via theguardian.comCity residents raised £10m to prevent the Carthusian monastery being sold for commercial useIt was 11 years ago when Ian Harrabin, a property developer from Coventry, saw the city’s Charterhouse had been put up for sale. Dating from 1381, it is the only Carthusian monastery in the country with surviving interiors, and had been used as college classrooms for decades.“It was almost unknown in the city. It was gifted to the people of Coventry in 1940, but the general public didn&r -
Architect Lesley Lokko: ‘There is a sense in Africa that it is our time’
via theguardian.comThe Ghanaian-Scottish architect is curator of this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, and more than half of the participants will be African. The story of architecture we are used to, she says, is incomplete“Africa” says Lesley Lokko, stopping over in a London hotel on the way from Accra to Venice, “is the world’s youngest continent. It is the most rapidly urbanising and has the fewest architects.” It is therefore a place of instability and invention, minima -
A fresh era for India or a ‘ham-fisted’ ego trip? Welcome to Modi’s new seat of power | Rowan Moore
via theguardian.comThe prime minister says his £120m parliament building will set a new order – critics say the design doesn’t match that ambitionSome time soon the new parliament building of the world’s largest democracy, India, will open for business. No one quite knows when, except perhaps for the prime minister, Narendra Modi, and those close to him, but it has been imminent for months. There were suggestions that it would open in time for the 75th anniversary of Indian independence las -
A play set during the Troubles brings home the monstrosity of a few English politicians| Rowan Moore
via theguardian.comThe Windsor framework offers hope for Northern Ireland, yet some, such as Boris Johnson, played with peace and voted against itIt was possible to hope, last Wednesday afternoon, that the toxic idiocy of British politics might recede a little. Even as Boris Johnson spaffed truth and common sense up the wall, in his seemingly vain effort to redeem his reputation, a slow defeated sigh, as of air leaving a leaking balloon, came from the rightwingers’ rebellion against the Windsor framework, th -
From prison to refuge: fight to turn Oscar Wilde’s Reading gaol into arts hub
via theguardian.comCampaigners hope bid to develop site of prison where famous poem was composed may finally succeedThe site of Reading’s former prison has a highly desirable location in the town’s centre and a celebrated history, not least as the setting of Oscar Wilde’s most famous poem, the Ballad of Reading Gaol.But almost a decade after HMP Reading was closed, the historic building where Wilde was incarcerated for homosexual acts remains locked and inaccessible, while its owners, the Ministr -
Peter Tábori obituary
via theguardian.comArchitect whose low-rise, high-density social housing offered a popular alternative to tower blocksNot all social housing in the 1960s was about tower blocks. High-rise buildings were unpopular with tenants, lifts were costly and broke down, and the surrounding lawns were hard to maintain. Moreover, on the slopes around Hampstead Heath in London, towers would have blocked views towards St Paul’s Cathedral. This area became part of the newly created borough of Camden in 1965 and a visionary -
You could cook while on the toilet: a night in one of Tokyo’s micro-apartments
via theguardian.comThe tiny homes, which measure just nine square metres – or three tatami mats – are the architectural answer to rising rentsIt is one of the shortest viewings in estate agency history. As soon as the door opens, every inch of living space except the sleeping quarters is visible.A tiny genkan entryway, which could nearly accommodate three pairs of shoes, leads to a shower cubicle on the right with just enough room to swing a sponge, next to a toilet that – door left open – -
‘A truly special spot’: arts insiders’ top tips for free cultural places in Britain
via theguardian.comFrom Russell Tovey to Gemma Cairney, cultural figures pick their favourite hangouts – from Edinburgh to Aberystwyth – with no entry chargeThe best free spring culture in Britain, chosen by Observer criticsStoryhouse, Chester Continue reading... -
‘A gas-guzzling villain’s lair’: welcome to LA’s grotesque new high-rise
via theguardian.comInspired by Yeats, Wagner and French realist painting, the (W)rapper tower was meant to reawaken the city skyline. But is this monstrous erection just a monument to its designer’s ego?A chunky grey staircase thrusts out from the side of a new office tower in Los Angeles, lunging towards a rail line before jerking back on itself and lurching up the building in jagged twists and turns. It crashes into a warped lattice of bands that wrap around the glassy hulk, swooping past corner windows th -
Dormant volcanoes and working monorails: the grand designs of Ken Adam, master of the Bond-villain lair
via theguardian.comA new book celebrates the late production designer whose elaborate concepts for films from Bond to Dr Strangelove influenced the likes of Norman Foster – and it all started with a felt-tipVillains hiding out in underground lairs, councils of war meeting at spotlit circular tables, bank vaults full of gold bullion piled high. The popular imagination of what these secret, off-limits places might look like has been shaped, more than anything else, by the dramatic visions of the late productio -
Hey budtender, take me to the Ganja Giggle Garden! A pot-crawl round LA’s boutique cannabis stores
via theguardian.comThey look like cosmic chapels, luxury spas and uber-cool art galleries. One even boasts a 250-year-old ceiling from a Burmese monastery. Our writer joins the ‘cannaseurs’ in a bong-filled world that could be the future of Britain‘Do you know what terpenes are?” says our glamorous host, pointing to four glass domes spotlit on a table, each containing mysterious lumps of black rock. The surrounding walls of this small room in Los Angeles are lined with mirrors, topped with -
Limerick’s International Rugby Experience: a scrum in building form
via theguardian.comThe Irish city’s new interactive visitor attraction celebrating all things rugby cleverly embodies the sport in Níall McLaughlin’s imposing, community-centred designThere are architects who talk in metaphor and symbol, who will tell you with varying degrees of credibility what this or that aspect of a building means; that, for example, an airport’s sweeping roof signifies flight, or that the glass wall of a parliament speaks of democracy. There are other architects who f -
End credits: derelict British cinemas – in pictures
via theguardian.comManchester-based photographer Darren Holden has been documenting derelict buildings for 20 years. He’s collected some of them in a limited-edition photo zine in collaboration with the Modernist gallery, immortalising deserted cinemas that date back to the golden age of British film in the 1930s and 40s. “A lot of places have fallen foul to arson and vandalism, so by documenting them I’m trying in my own way to preserve them,” says Holden.Continue reading... -
Graham Winteringham obituary
via theguardian.comArchitect best known for the rhythmic concrete forms of the Birmingham RepIn the 1950s, traditional theatres seemed doomed in the face of television, as Royals, Empires and Alhambras across Britain closed and were demolished. Yet this was only half the story, for at the same time small repertory theatres, working in local communities with their own companies of young actors, were flourishing. Their model was the Birmingham Rep, founded in 1913 and where Laurence Olivier, Albert Finney, Julie Chr
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