Book Bites: Philosophy of Architecture by Illies & Ray
A useful toolkit of architectural philosophy, focusing on ethics and aesthetics and taking a neutral stance… acting as a series of clarifications and questions rather than ready-made answers.
Risk and the construction industry
Understandably, Health and Safety has been a major concern for workers, unions and health and safety organisations for many years. However, in the age of coronavirus there is a growing perception that all jobs must be “safe”.
Working Practices: East v West
The efficiency drive in China means that architects and construction workers have to work very hard to meet deadlines and it is very difficult to keep a work-life balance. In the west, this is often all architects talk about.
The RIBA Plan of Work
… has been a useful guide in steering the profession to provide clear, accurate and timely advice. The new version is more driven by external political events, rather than the independent practical concerns of the profession.
Grenfell Tower: A Tragedy
“From blaming the deaths from the Grenfell Tower fire on the London Fire Brigade it’s only a small step to blaming the residents for not leaving the burning building quickly enough”, says Simon Elmer of Architects for Social Housing
Milton’s Paradise Regained
If we are to build a new city, then Milton Keynes represents the experiential cornerstone. It symbolises the kind of bold, creative masterplanning that we desperately need but haven’t seen the like of since those crazy days of the 1960s.
Book Bites: Peter Magyar’s Pen Zen Diaries
At its simplest, this book will teach you to draw and to learn from the process; with simple line studies and ink renderings. “Architects,” he says, “should aspire to reflect and invent the best of the present, and weigh its value in the future”.
The World Cities Culture Report
The report recognises that revitalising and capitalising on a city’s cultural life plays out differently in vastly contrasting contexts.
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...
Church on the Beach
Austin Williams | 7 April 2016 From Nantes to Naples, Bruge to Budapest, many key European cities have churches at their centre. Regardless of denomination, the centrality of these churches has tended to convey a certain historic gravitas, dignity and authority to the civic sphere. Originally built as bastions of power, tradition and religious dogma, churches have survived, in many instances, as the genius loci of urban space. Recall...
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