Architecture news

• Simon Verity obituary

  06-09-2024 13:23
  
  Master sculptor and stone carver who created grottoes, public memorials and ecclesiastial work in the UK and the USA 1983 poster for the Victoria and Albert Museum shows a letter cutter with corduroy trousers, braces and a shapeless hat standing at the base of an inscription cut into the terracotta wall announcing in flaming gilded capitals its opening as the Henry Cole Wing, now sadly obscured by the new entrance paving. The artist appearing in the photograph was Simon Verity, who has died aged
  
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• Jane Austen’s plates or the woods near her home? I know which I’d rather save | Martha Gill

  11-01-2025 20:30
  
  Why this hierarchy of heritage? Our obsession with buildings and artefacts is blinding us to the value of natureI was struck last week by a story about Alton, a town in Hampshire, where residents have hit on a new basis for object to development in the area: Jane Austen sometimes used to walk there from nearby Chawton. The surrounding landscape, a petition reads, is therefore an important part of our literary heritage and must not be built on.On the one hand, this is a story about nimbyism and t
  
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• Glasgow needs an economy strong enough to sustain its heritage | Letters

  10-01-2025 18:53
  
  It needs to realise its Victorian buildings are an asset rather than a liability, writes Richard Owen; plus a letter from Douglas AndersonI read Libby Brooks’s article (‘Left to rot’: Glasgow’s crumbling heritage comes into focus for 850th anniversary, 2 January) on the bus home from Glasgow city centre, and there was depressingly little in its summary of Glasgow’s architectural woes that I could disagree with.However, Glasgow’s problem with its
  
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• Islamesque by Diana Darke review – the diverse roots of medieval architecture

  08-01-2025 08:30
  
  A beautifully-illustrated account of the Middle Eastern influence on Europe’s great buildingsFrom Cairo to Istanbul, the ancient cities of the eastern Mediterranean tell a story of conquest, trade and coexistence written in stone. Jerusalem’s seventh-century Dome of the Rock and its surroundings are dotted with recycled Persian, Greek, Hasmonean and Roman stonework, along with choice fragments from churches. In Damascus, the eighth-century Umayyad Mosque features intricately carved c
  
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• Escape from the terrordome: how Netherlands panopticon prisons are being reborn as stunning arts hubs

  07-01-2025 16:10
  
  They were built to instil fear. Now these giant domed jails, which date back to the 1700s, are being turned into creative centres – complete with cells for rent and escape roomsOne of the architectural features that marks out the skyline of Haarlem, a small Dutch city, is a 37.6m-high dome, crowning a rotunda. You might assume it was built for religious purposes – until you notice the bars covering its 230 windows.​​Operating as a prison from 1899 until 2016, the Koepelge
  
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• Architecton review – immersive and imposing meditation on concrete and stone

  06-01-2025 14:00
  
  Victor Kossakovsky’s documentary offers awesome drone-shot sequences of wrecked and ruined buildings, but could have been constructed more solidlyVictor Kossakovsky is the author of some ambitious and immersively sensory documentaries, including Aquarela from 2018, about the climate crisis, and Gunda from 2020, about the consciousness of animals. Now he has created this monolithic, almost wordless and vehement meditation on concrete and stone; the building materials which are so substantia
  
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• Tudor psychedelia for £35 a night! Is this rescued Yorkshire pile Britain’s most thrilling holiday let?

  06-01-2025 06:00
  
  It’s got triple-height splendour and 1550s wall paintings likely inspired by Emperor Nero’s villa in Rome. Our writer plays lord of the manor at Calverley Hall – once home to knights, weavers, stonemasons and murderersA ghostly bearded face peers out from the wall of a bedroom, flanked by a pair of winged, snake-like beasts baring their teeth, their necks chained to an ermine roundel. The pattern repeats around the room like psychedelic wallpaper, featuring slithery creatures w
  
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• Office-to-homes conversions: London blocks hold fresh allure since shift to home-working

  05-01-2025 16:37
  
  Interest has surged since relaxation of planning rules last March, but technical difficulties often loom largeOn a busy high street in Balham, south London, stands a boxy, beige-fronted building. Built in the 1940s, for decades the four-storey office block was home to hundreds of civil servants until Department for Work and Pensions officials moved out in 2020.Now, Irene House boasts 77 one- and two-bedroom upmarket apartments with seven more homes inside a roof extension. It still has its art d
  
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• ‘It’s Dungeness first’: panel to decide fate of new Mr Doodle house

  03-01-2025 17:31
  Award-winning architect says planned renovation on behalf of millionaire artist is ‘respectful’ of area’s heritageDungeness, on the Kent coast, has long championed pioneering architecture, welcoming the distinctive black and yellow home of the artist and film-maker Derek Jarman. But a proposal for a house clad in the rusty scrawls of the millionaire artist Mr Doodle has tested the open-mindedness of those who live there – and failed to win over the parish council.Mr Doodl
  
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• Labour must get asbestos out of schools urgently | Letters

  02-01-2025 18:43
  
  Dr Gill Reed says the UK has the highest incidence of mesothelioma in the world due to asbestos exposure, while Ed Campbell says underfunding made buildings’ deterioration inevitable. Plus a letter from Colin PorteousThe Guardian’s investigation of underinvestment in public buildings vividly shows its detrimental impact (Revealed: 1.5m children in England studying in unfit school buildings, 27 December). It is therefore heartening that a government spokesperson has stated that &
  
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• Pharaohs, masks and bronze age boats: six standout new museums around the world in 2025

  30-12-2024 12:00
  
  Openings across Africa and Asia offer new cultural experiences in stunning architectural surroundingsFrom a noisy, performative and unapologetically non-European Yorùbá cultural centre in Lagos, Nigeria, to the much-delayed Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, 2024 was a big year for museums opening in the developing world. A number of projects will also be inaugurated in 2025, offering an abundance of new museums to visit in 2025. Here are some of the best of them: Continue reading...
  
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• Testament to Spain’s golden age to open up its secret spaces after €6m revamp

  30-12-2024 06:00
  
  Unesco-listed San Lorenzo de El Escorial was fulfilment of Philip II’s dream of raising monastery in a ‘desert’Despite perching imperiously on a mountainside near Madrid for the better part of five centuries, the royal monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial has yet to give up all its treasures – or all its secrets.Forty years after it was included on Unesco’s World Heritage list, Philip II’s austere monument to power, piety and patronage is undergoing a major
  
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• Some people’s ancestors are kings or poets. I’m proud my family invented … the corridor

  29-12-2024 12:00
  
  I always thought genealogy was as dull as looking at other people’s holiday snaps – until I found out about a 16th-century architect who transformed the stately homes of his eraFriends and family, back in the 1970s, would often aggravate each other with a lengthy holiday slideshow, presenting a string of identical beach views and nameless hillside vistas over the course of a dull evening. Today, there is a new phrase that can freeze the heart just as easily as the sight of a slide pr
  
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• ‘Ludicrous’: bitter row erupts over plan to replace windows at Notre Dame

  28-12-2024 16:36
  
  Fury as President Macron reveals the new ‘contemporary gesture’ for cathedral devastated by 2019 fireIn the wake of the April 2019 fire that devastated Notre Dame, the French president Emmanuel Macron promised that the monument would be rebuilt with a “contemporary gesture”.There followed all manner of madcap ideas: a glass spire; a 300ft ­carbon-fibre flame; a swimming pool on the roof; a covered garden. In the end, Notre Dame was restored to its original former glor
  
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• ‘Ludicrous’: bitter row erupts over plan to replace original Notre Dame windows

  28-12-2024 16:36
  
  Fury as President Macron reveals the new ‘contemporary gesture’ for cathedral devastated by 2019 fireIn the wake of the April 2019 fire that devastated Notre Dame, the French president Emmanuel Macron promised that the monument would be rebuilt with a “contemporary gesture”.There followed all manner of madcap ideas: a glass spire; a 300ft ­carbon-fibre flame; a swimming pool on the roof; a covered garden. In the end, Notre Dame was restored to its original former glor
  
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• ‘When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor’: the landscape architect viewing the West Midlands as a national park

  28-12-2024 13:00
  Birmingham City University thinktank imagines new approach to urban areas and land use across the region “When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor,” says landscape architecture professor Kathryn Moore with a smile.She is pointing at a map of the West Midlands. But instead of buildings, roads and a sprawling canal network, this map shows the natural hills and undulations that lie below the human-made architecture. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor’: the architect viewing the West Midlands as a national park

  28-12-2024 13:00
  
  Birmingham City University thinktank imagines new approach to urban areas and land use across the region “When I show people this, they think it’s Mordor,” says landscape architecture professor Kathryn Moore with a smile.She is pointing at a map of the West Midlands. But instead of buildings, roads and a sprawling canal network, this map shows the natural hills and undulations that lie below the human-made architecture. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘If we don’t look after this treasure, we’re going to lose it’: the fight to restore one of the UK’s most historic streets

  28-12-2024 12:27
  
  Home to choir singers for 650 years, Grade-1 listed Vicar’s Close by Wells Cathedral is in need of funding to keep its medieval houses liveable – and its unique history aliveChoir singers have lived in two handsome terraces of silvery-pink-stoned medieval houses beside Wells Cathedral for more than 650 years. But the gated close – which is thought to be the most complete and continuously occupied medieval street in Europe – is now in desperate need of restoration.“I
  
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• Sensual surrealism, Kiefer’s delights and Gehry’s Guggenheim: the best art and architecture shows to visit in 2025

  26-12-2024 12:00
  
  Anselm Kiefer’s homage to Van Gogh, Ithell Colquhoun’s seaside of surrealism and Gilbert & George fill the galleries, while the V&A opens its archives at the illustrious new East Storehouse
  • More from the 2025 culture preview Continue reading...
  
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• Blueprint for success: how Australian architects made the world take notice in 2024

  24-12-2024 15:00
  
  Incorporating First Nations cultures and history, and embracing sustainable design have earned local builds global acclaimWhen an unassuming public primary school tucked away in an inner-city Sydney suburb took out the grand prize at the world’s largest architecture festival last month, it made international headlines. Crowned world building of the year, Darlington public school was the second major triumph for FJC Studio in 2024. Two months earlier, the Australian architecture firm had pu
  
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• King’s Christmas message to focus on healthcare workers

  23-12-2024 17:37
  Monarch, who is undergoing cancer treatment, sought venue with strong health connections and community presenceThe king’s Christmas message will focus on the efforts of healthcare workers after a year in which Charles and the Princess of Wales were treated for cancer.Charles will also use his annual address to the nation to hail communities who came together in solidarity in the aftermath of rioting, following the fatal Southport stabbings of three young girls. Continue reading...
  
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• Locals win fight to save mysterious, medieval Spanish chapel from oblivion

  23-12-2024 09:32
  
  Home to vivid 16th-century frescoes, the Ermita de San Jorge is on the brink of being saved from centuries of decayA mysterious, dilapidated and exquisitely painted Spanish chapel into which knights on horseback may have ridden centuries ago to receive a wet and most unusual blessing could be on the verge of salvation after a decades-long campaign by local heritage groups.No one knows much about the crumbling and semi-subterranean Ermita de San Jorge, which sits in a hollow 7 miles (12km) from t
  
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• Architecture: Rowan Moore’s five best projects of 2024

  22-12-2024 16:00
  
  A front garden makeover with dinosaurs, a playful addition to a Scottish castle and the latest from Shard architect Renzo Piano all caught the eye1. Urban Nature Project, Natural History Museum, London SW7
  J&L Gibbons and Feilden Fowles
  A magical embodiment of evolution and geological time, given spatial and physical form by rocks, plants and buildings. The remaking of the front garden of the country’s second most popular visitor attraction also provides such useful things as a cafe, a
  
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• Court clears way for ‘the Slab’ office block to be built on London’s South Bank

  21-12-2024 16:55
  
  Judge dismisses challenge that argued development failed to provide housing and could damage London landmarksThe building of a controversial 25-storey office block nicknamed the Slab on London’s South Bank is to go ahead after the high court upheld a decision by the former communities secretary Michael Gove to approve the development.Mr Justice Mould dismissed a legal challenge by the Save Our South Bank group, which has been fighting the development since planning permission was first sub
  
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• Don’t be fooled. Copenhagen is not that green | Letters

  18-12-2024 18:51
  Tobias Jespersen says be careful before describing the city as sustainable and a role model. Morten Iversen laments its soulless expansionWhile the urge to write positive stories about solutions to the climate crisis must be strong, and they are needed, Copenhagen should not be one (The five-minute city: inside Denmark’s revolutionary neighbourhood, 10 December). Nordhavn may be a revolutionary neighbourhood, but to say that Copenhagen is a green city is based on false premises.Near Nordha
  
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• The best art and architecture of 2024

  18-12-2024 07:00
  
  Our critics’ highlights include magnificently rough portraits by the late Frank Auerbach, Caravaggio’s final painting and a 1930s silo reborn as a museum of modern artMore on the best culture of 2024 Continue reading...
  
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• Tintin and the terrific tomb: Essex heritage listing is thrill for Hergé fans

  18-12-2024 06:01
  
  Rare stone chest linked to comic-book hero joins church above supermarket under Historic England’s protectionBlistering barnacles! Thundering typhoons! Blue blistering barnacles in a thundering typhoon! Who knew there was a 300-year-old tomb in Essex that can be linked to Tintin’s boozy best friend Captain Haddock?The little-known tomb of Mary Haddock, in a churchyard in Leigh-on-Sea, has been named as one of the quirkier places given listed status in 2024 by Historic England. Contin
  
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• ‘People should feel there’s more than doom and gloom’: Monument Valley 3’s environmentalist hope-punk

  16-12-2024 12:54
  
  How the pandemic and climate migration have influenced this third outing of a formerly sterile architectural puzzle gameArchitectural surrealism is Monument Valley’s signature. Austere, beautiful structures transform and rotate at the player’s touch, creating new paths and staircases for its minimalist characters to traverse. Doorways can lead anywhere. Switches cause columns to rise out of the ground, a perspective shift can reveal a cache of hidden pathways. Since 2014 these games
  
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• Design highlights 2024: ‘This is sorcery level craft!’

  16-12-2024 11:00
  
  From nan ornaments to an African pounding table, our panel of creative experts pick their favourite designs from the last 12 monthsChosen by Charlene Prempeh, founder of creative agency A Vibe Called Tech Continue reading...
  
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• ‘It was so fragile, we weren’t certain it wouldn’t collapse’: the architect who sketched Notre Dame’s ancient insides

  16-12-2024 07:00
  
  After disaster struck Notre Dame in 2019, Axelle Ponsonnet began to draw parts of the cathedral exposed by the fire, some not seen for centuries. A new book documents what she discoveredWhen Notre Dame de Paris went up in flames in April 2019, architecture student Axelle Ponsonnet was just one of the French capital’s 2.1 million residents to witness a disaster unfolding in her own city. Ponsonnet had no inkling that a year later, she would be joining the workforce tasked with rebuildi
  
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