Architecture news

• Landmark department stores at risk of being permanently lost, report warns

  04-04-2022 19:19
  
  ‘Cathedrals of commerce’ should be granted new life as galleries, homes and community hubs, says Save Britain’s HeritageAt least 18 “high street titans” – architecturally significant department stores that have fallen victim to profound changes in shopping patterns – are at risk of being permanently lost, according to a new report.But these “cathedrals of commerce”, as Émile Zola described them in his 1883 novel The Ladies’ Parad
  
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• Eyesores or treasures? Modernist buildings still divide communities | Letters

  04-04-2022 18:34
  
  The best 20th-century architecture deserves gentle conservation, writes Catherine Croft, while Garth Groombridge says modernism failed to understand how people want to live. Plus a letter from Bob CaldwellOwen Hatherley (We trash our modernist heritage on a whim: why is Britain so in thrall to the wrecking ball?, 31 March) is right that our cities will only flourish if we get the balance right between conserving everything and giving developers a free-for-all. In theory, the listing system ensur
  
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• Body set up to police UK housebuilding not representative, say critics

  04-04-2022 07:00
  
  New Home Quality Board lacks representation from architects, ordinary homeowners and BAME communities, experts warn
  A new government-backed body set up to police the building industry faces claims that it lacks representation from architects, ordinary homeowners and BAME communities whose Covid-19 death rates have been linked to poor housing standards.Labour had claimed the New Home Quality Board [NHQB] lacked independence as it was chaired by a Tory MP and Conservative-linked developers sit on
  
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