Libraries are for reading not knitting
Feb23

Libraries are for reading not knitting

By Elisabetta Gasparoni | 23 February 2016 The Carnegie Trust has created four databases to showcase library-run projects that contribute to public wellbeing. The databases accompany the trust’s leaflet, ‘Speaking Volumes’, which outlines how public libraries impact on four policy areas – the economy, education, culture and society – and how libraries contribute to the wellbeing of individuals and communities. The trust has given...

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Free Will: An Illusion?
Oct13

Free Will: An Illusion?

By Joel Mills | 12 October 2015 Free will is an illusion. Quite a claim, and one that dominates much contemporary scientific thinking, and the pivotal driver for Julian Baggini to write his latest book Freedom Regained: The Possibility of Free Will.  Baggini is a much-respected ‘popular’ philosopher, marked out by an ability to offer a nuanced, insightful take on complex subjects. Here, through some compelling narratives, he grapples...

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Late-Nite Review – COMING SOON
Aug19

Late-Nite Review – COMING SOON

Set up by the Future Cities Project, Late-Nite Review: The Future City is a new forum for critical exchange within the profession, an autonomous environment in which to develop open inquiry.   The forum provides a space where architects present their work to a panel of architects, critics, commentators and pundits as a means to open up discussion, explore new ideas and debate the future direction of  the city. For further details,...

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Playing Rough
Aug01

Playing Rough

Review by Matt Bloomfield | 01 August 2015 This summer in London has seen the opening of two exhibitions, both set against a backdrop of brutalism and with a pronounced vein of playfulness. The RIBA Gallery is currently occupied by The Brutalist Playground, an interactive installation created by architecture and design collective du jour- Assemble, in collaboration with artist Simon Terrill. Meanwhile, the Hayward Gallery on the...

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‘What is public space’ Future Cities Salon, Porto
Jun22

‘What is public space’ Future Cities Salon, Porto

Alastair Donald | 22 June 2015 In Porto this week the Future Cities Salon continues its series of discussions on the future of public space.  Early 20th century Modernism sought to provide public open space within cities as a release from the confines of overcrowded, unsanitary slums. Nowadays, public space is everywhere but there is less recognition and more proscription about what and who it is for. Many 20th-century residential...

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The dangers of ‘resilience’
Jun22

The dangers of ‘resilience’

Maja Schwoerer | 22 June 2015 Maja Schwoerer reports on the Future Cities Salon debate at the Building Centre in London. The recent debate, Crisis is the New Normal: what is a Resilient City?, brought together an interesting panel of architects, journalists and sustainability experts. ‘Resilience’ is a buzzword sweeping the entire industry and seemingly provides solutions for everything – be it civil war in Damascus, floods in the...

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The Right Time for the Night Time
May26

The Right Time for the Night Time

Alan D Miller | 26 May 2016 The Night Time industries are vital to Britain’s future both culturally and economically. Now that the dust has settled after the General Elections, it is worth reminding everyone that said they are “pro business” and particularly intere ted in the employment of young people as well as small businesses  that there is an enormous success story in our capitaland across Britain that is...

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ISIS: The mad residue of the war on terror
May03

ISIS: The mad residue of the war on terror

Tim Black | 04 May 2015 Patrick Cockburn’s study of ISIS indicts both Saudi Arabia and the West says Tim Black in a review we republish courtesy of the spiked Review of Books.   It is April 2010 and Al-Qaeda in Iraq, an extremist Sunni rebel group-cum-terror-franchise responsible for assorted bombings and assaults over the previous half-decade, is at a low ebb. Its two top leaders, Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, have...

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The Evolution of a Modern Man
Mar16

The Evolution of a Modern Man

Matt Bloomfield | 17 March 2015 Review of Mackintosh Architecture, The Architecture Gallery, RIBA Conveniently coinciding with Prince Charles’ latest foray into Architecture, the RIBA’s Mackintosh Architecture exhibition expertly illustrates the third way between historic pastiche and bland commercialisation. The exhibition brings together Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s work from his early days as an apprentice at...

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House: The Dematerialized Home
Feb17

House: The Dematerialized Home

Nicolò Lewanski | 17 February 2015 It is not so often we have the chance to attend a debate where every speaker is precise. When we do it is a pleasure, and such was the case last month when some of the contributors featured in the book SQM: The Quantified Home spoke at the Architectural Association (AA) in London. Produced for the 2014 Biennale Interieur, this project aims to launch a new discussion on the present and the future of...

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