Architecture news

• Trump sued by preservation group over $300m White House ballroom project

  12-12-2025 21:22
  National Trust looks to halt construction, claiming Trump tore down historic East Wing without needed permissionDonald Trump is facing a federal lawsuit seeking to halt construction on his $300m White House ballroom, with historic preservationists accusing the president of violating multiple federal laws by tearing down part of the iconic building without required reviews or congressional approval.The legal challenge, filed on Friday by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the US dist
  
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• The Barbican refurbishment should take heed of Leeds | Letter

  12-12-2025 18:58
  The University of Leeds complex was a prototype for the Barbican – and the work done to it over time demonstrates how brutalist buildings can be humanised, writes Alan RadfordI read with interest about the refurbishment plans for the Barbican (Barbican revamp to give ‘bewildering’ arts centre a new lease of life, 5 December). I spent more than 30 years working on the prototype – the large complex of buildings that the architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon designed for the
  
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• ‘Like lipstick on a fabulous gorilla’: the Barbican’s many gaudy glow-ups and the one to top them all

  12-12-2025 15:49
  The brutalist arts-and-towers complex, where even great explorers get lost, is showing its age. Let’s hope the 50th anniversary upgrade is better than the ‘pointillist stippling’ tried in the 1990sThe Barbican is aptly named. From the Old French barbacane, it historically means a fortified gateway forming the outer line of defence to a city or castle. London’s Barbican marks the site of a medieval structure that would have defended an important access point. Its architect
  
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• ‘Getting lost is good’: skybridge and floating stairs bring fun and thrills to mighty new Taiwan museum

  12-12-2025 14:16
  With its soaring ceilings, meandering pathways and mesh-like walls, Taichung Art Museum, designed by Sanaa, sweeps visitors from library to gallery to rooftop garden for rousing viewsWalking through the brand new Taichung Art Museum in central Taiwan, directions are kind of an abstract concept. Designed by powerhouse Japanese architecture firm Sanaa, the complex is a collection of eight askew buildings, melding an art museum and municipal library, encased in silver mesh-like walls, with soaring
  
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• David Rock obituary

  12-12-2025 12:44
  Architect who pioneered the idea of the collective workspace as a socially and economically supportive environment in London in the 1970sNow a familiar part of modern working life, the collective workspace, whereby small firms share office space and communal facilities, was the brainchild of the architect David Rock, who has died aged 96. He established a pioneering working community at 5 Dryden Street in Covent Garden in 1972, at a time when London’s famous fruit and vegetable market was
  
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