Architecture

‘A model of social responsibility’ – almshouses in the modern age

Hostels or hospitals for the old and vulnerable were first established in the Middle Ages, but they still have an important role to play in society

1 Mar 2024

Dreaming spires – the restless imagination of Imre Makovecz

The Hungarian architect with a penchant for the fantastical left behind a series of provocative buildings

26 Feb 2024

Building back better in Britain and Ireland

The Reformation was a disaster for British architecture, argues an impressive new book – and the country’s approach to building design has never been the same

10 Feb 2024

The Victorian chapel designed by a high priest of colour

William Burges’s transformation of the chapel of Worcester College in Oxford doubles as an all-out assault on the senses and a scathing critique of the previous architect

8 Jan 2024

Building Indian modernism in Ahmedabad

The Sarabhai family were great patrons of modernist architecture in the city – and Gira Sarabhai’s contribution in particular deserves to be better known

1 Jan 2024

The magazine that wanted to remake architecture

An exhibition at RIBA reveals how, in the 1960s, Architectural Review took a radical stand for planning that focused on people

1 Dec 2023

When French theory shaped high-minded buildings

Deconstructivism wasn’t exactly a movement, but its practitioners – from Frank Gehry to Bernard Tschumi – certainly caused a great stir

2 Nov 2023

Man about town – around modern London with Ian Nairn

A reissue of the architectural critic’s guide to new buildings in the capital is just as fresh as it was 60 years ago

24 Oct 2023

The baroque Edwardian buildings of Edwin Rickards

The architect’s highly ornamented designs have more in common with the work of his European peers

Amos Rex museum Helsinki

Can Helsinki’s modern architecture grow old gracefully?

Finland’s questing version of modernism, as championed by Alvar Aalto, went hand in hand with the development of social democracy

25 Aug 2023

Genteel flats for genteel people

The mansion block has often reconciled Londoners who can’t afford actual mansions to the realities of apartment-living

11 Aug 2023

The historic naval church that is in shipshape condition again

The former Dockyard Church in Sheerness has been sensitively restored and converted into a community hub

4 Aug 2023

The true test of a building is the passing of time

At RIBA a film by Jim Stephenson shows that architecture can have a long and unpredictable afterlife

30 Jun 2023

The saving of St Mary-le-Strand

Pedestrianisation means that one of London’s finest churches is now the centre of attention again

27 Apr 2023

Is the grand museum entrance now on its way out?

In the pursuit of greater accessibility, institutions are making themselves oddly unapproachable

23 Feb 2023

First-class results in Cambridge

A new library at Magdalene College and a dining hall at Homerton make the most of modern craftsmanship

30 Jan 2023

The Edwardian architects who built the British Empire

When it came to projecting British power abroad, Christopher Wren proved a handy source of inspiration in the creation of an ‘English Renaissance’ style

In post-war Paris, housing could be really radical

The French architect Renée Gailhoustet designed some of the most ingenious post-war schemes built in Paris – and still lives in one of them today

24 Oct 2022
Goetheanum Rudolf Steiner

The other-worldly architecture of Rudolf Steiner

The mystically inspired polymath was never a professional architect, but his haunting buildings are among modernism’s most curious structures

26 Sep 2022
Inside Banqueting House, London, with a view of the series of canvases painted by Rubens in 1635.

‘Nothing like this had been seen in England’ – on Banqueting House at 400

Banqueting House is one of the most extraordinary buildings in London – and it’s a huge shame it’s so inaccessible

30 Aug 2022
Napoleon visiting the stairs of the Louvre, guided by the architects Percier and Fontaine

What did Napoleon really want from his architects?

The emperor of France longed to rival the emperors of ancient Rome, reorganising the great cities of Europe and creating a few of his own

26 Jun 2021
Requiem for a dream: a shuttered Debenhams on Oxford Street, March 2021.

Shutting up shop: an elegy for the department store dream

These vast, bustling buildings were once emblems of city life – but they’ve been in decline for years and the pandemic has only hastened their demise

29 Mar 2021
National Assembly Building of Bangladesh, Dhaka (1962–83), designed by Louis Kahn (1901–74).

Keep cool: the concrete castles of Louis Kahn

The architect wreathed his buildings in mystical language – but his modern citadels are clearly among the great achievements of 20th-century architecture

An architectural frieze is the icing on the cake, for a building

They’re the classic way to embellish a building – and for all their suspicion of ornament, even modern architects went in for them

22 Feb 2021