Book Review: The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart
By Justine Brian | 03 June 2017 ‘The Road to Somewhere’ is a sometimes brilliant, but ultimately frustrating and flawed, attempt to understand contemporary Western politics, as seen through the apparent realignment in British society in the wake of the shock Brexit vote in 2016. Relying on a wealth of surveys and polls, Goodhart argues we are seeing the creation, or perhaps clarification, of “two great subterranean value blocs of...
Book Review: The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
by Martin Earnshaw | 02 April 2017 After the election of Donald Trump last year protesters chanted that he was “not my president”. Hyperbolic rhetoric is the prerogative of the protester but for years now it has seemed that the USA is not one but two countries. Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind has been hugely influential in understanding this problem. Haidt sees the political differences between red states and blue states as...
Design Museum Design
This might become an entirely new type of institution unrivalled in its capacity to educate the wider public on the importance of thoughtful and innovative design.
A Chinese Utopia?
Review by Pierre Shaw [ Oct 2016] Shenzhen is the city of miraculous conception, born from nothing and yet emerging now as one of the planet’s most ferociously rapid urban developing city. From humble border town beginnings just 35 years ago, Shenzhen has thrown itself onto the world stage projecting its population from 300,000 to 12 – 15 million (no-one seems to know the exact figures). It is yet another step in China’s march...
Mad, bad and dangerous
The media reports that more than a quarter of architecture students in the UK have reported mental health issues. This reply points the finger at where the real lunacy lies. In May 2016, the National Union of Students (NUS) issued a report that concerns about debt are affecting the mental health of 36 per cent of students. A 2015 report by Universities UK titled “Student mental well-being in Higher Education” says that “every year one...
Pledges for a new narrative
We are a group of architects, designers, planners, artists & creatives brought together in the aftermath of the EU referendum. PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.newnarratives.org.uk BREXIT has created profound uncertainty. But do we see it as a moment of crisis or of opportunity? We choose the latter. As a result, we are positive about democracy and the freedom that it reflects, and see a world of possibilities if the UK takes steps...
Brexit
Brexit is is not a triumphalist moment but one for constructing a better future, one in which we have the autonomy to make decisions outside the technocratic framework of the EU. For those who are fearful, it is understandable – and there is inevitably going to be business difficulties in the months ahead. But let’s not forget that things were far from rosy before the referendum. For those who have experienced home-grown recessions or...
Church on the Beach
This is church as beach hut: a Crusoe-esque retreat for Beijing’s bourgeoisie to sample safely the long-forbidden religious experience.
Home is where the Art is
‘Re:Home’ is Cressida Brown’s revisit and revision to her 2006 play, ‘Home’. This new version is set and performed in-situ at Waltham Forest’s infamous, and now demolished, Beaumont Estate high rise tower blocks.
Libraries are for reading not knitting
The trust claims that libraries could make a ‘major’ contribution to public wellbeing.
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