Iraqitect: Zaha Hadid commands the Guggenheim, but remembers her roots.
Whatever you think an architect looks like, whatever you think an architect does, wherever you think an architect comes from, disabuse yourselves of those notions. …
31 Mar 2016
Zaha Hadid 1950-2016
Iraqitect: Zaha Hadid commands the Guggenheim, but remembers her roots.
13 Aug 2015
Fictions and mythologies: how architecture writes itself
Fictions and mythologies: how architecture writes itself
This is a lecture I gave at the Royal College of Art in London, during my stint there in 2015 as Visiting Professor in Architecture. …
24 Nov 2013
Caruso St. John's Tate Britain
Tate Britain goes Deco
Tate Britain goes Deco
The Art Deco/Swedish Grace revival starts here, in the Tate Gallery on London’s Millbank, in the hands of architect Caruso St John. This would have …
22 Sep 2013
The other Hugh Pearman
Cabman psychogeographer: the other Hugh Pearman
Cabman psychogeographer: the other Hugh Pearman
We all have namesakes. Presumably, somewhere. People sometimes ask me if I am related to a former Middlesex cricketer who shares my name (I’m not, …
03 Sep 2013
The Walkie Scorchie
The Walkie Scorchie
The Walkie Scorchie
What an entertaining day it’s been. The new ‘Walkie Talkie” tower at 20 Fenchurch Street in the City of London by architect Rafael Vinoly for …
01 Sep 2013
Book bling in Birmingham
The Library of Birmingham
The Library of Birmingham
There is no civic building richer in symbolism than the public library. More than a town hall, more than a theatre or concert hall, more …
02 Apr 2013
Rijksmuseum returns
Digging deep: the reopened Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Digging deep: the reopened Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
They are very keen, the Dutch museum people, on telling you that their Rijksmuseum – their National Gallery – is about history as much as …
10 Mar 2013
South Bank Revamp
Festival Wing and a prayer: new plans for London’s Southbank cultural centre
Festival Wing and a prayer: new plans for London’s Southbank cultural centre
It has been more than half a century since radical architects at what was then the London County Council designed the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell …
17 Jul 2012
Raw space: Tate Modern's tanks
Tate Modern’s Underworld: The Tanks beneath the lawn
Tate Modern’s Underworld: The Tanks beneath the lawn
Found objects have long had their place in art, most notably since the provocations of Dadaists such as Duchamp with his ‘readymades’. It’s not the …