Gillian Darley is an architectural historian and President of the Twentieth Century Society

‘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

The Olympic Games, a city built on sand, and a painful divorce – the year ahead in architecture

With Paris preparing to play host, Neom remaining elusive and London landmarks undergoing major changes, 2024 will be nothing if not interesting

10 Jan 2024
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

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

Vast paintings of London prove that size isn’t everything

The Guildhall’s display of scenes set in the City is a minor curiosity rather than a major diversion

10 Mar 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
Render showing 55 Bishopsgate within the eastern cluster of the City of London.

Super-high skyscrapers and sensitive restorations – the year ahead in architecture

The prospect of more towering edifices on the horizon is hardly cheering, but there are more grounded projects to look forward to

28 Dec 2022

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

There’s no need for the future of Clandon Park to be a restoration drama

Critics of the National Trust’s plan to keep the fire-gutted house as a ruin are ignoring the organisation’s history and that of the building itself

1 Sep 2022

The restoration of the ruins of York Castle is a towering achievement

All that remains of the city’s two medieval castles is the empty shell of a single tower, now imaginatively restored by Hugh Broughton Architects

27 Jun 2022
The Laban Dance Centre in Deptford, London, designed by Herzog & de Meuron.

Hands off the best Herzog & de Meuron building in London

The Laban Dance Centre is being encroached upon by unsightly developments and it needs to be protected now

1 Apr 2022
Taipei Performing Arts Center by OMA.

From the Thames Tideway Tunnel to Taipei – the year ahead in architecture

In London, the River Thames is the centre of attention, while starchitects have big plans in Sydney and Taipei

20 Jan 2022
The new town centre in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, opened in 1959

Are New Towns a thing of the past?

The ambitious post-war planning programme was an extraordinary achievement – and one that is ripe for reassessment 

4 Jan 2022
The Museum of Making, formerly Derby Industrial Museum, located on the site of the city's 18th-century silk mill.

Industrial revolutions – at the Museum of Making in Derby

The spirit of innovation and manufacture lives on in the Midlands city – as a redeveloped museum on the site of the old silk mill makes clear

20 Oct 2021
A Bird’s-eye view of the Bank of England (1830), Joseph Gandy. Sir John Soane’s Museum, London

The visionary artist who saw into the mind of John Soane

Joseph Gandy’s dramatic paintings turned John Soane’s neoclassical designs into full-blown Romantic fantasies

1 Sep 2021
Children on the boating lake in Battersea Gardens at the Festival of Britain in 1951.

Will the ‘festival of Brexit’ prove a tonic for the nation, after all?

The government’s plan for a grand national jolly has been widely lampooned – but perhaps it’s just what we need

1 Apr 2021
Bronze guilt: the statue of Edward Colston being pushed into Bristol Harbour in June 2020.

Robert Jenrick wants to keep the mob at bay. So why is he leading it with a pitchfork?

The UK government’s proposal to protect every monument in sight is a kneejerk response that will have ridiculous consequences

22 Jan 2021
The refurbished exterior of Buxton Crescent, Derbyshire, designed by John Carr of York and built in the 1780s.

From Buxton to the Barbican – the enduring appeal of the crescent

Whether for grand prospects or compact residential buildings, it seems as though architects never tire of the crescent form

5 Nov 2020
Terence Conran at the opening of his exhibition ‘Terence Conran: The Way We Live Now’ at the former Design Museum, London, 2011.

Enterprising spirit – how Terence Conran built his design empire

From his first Habitat shop on the Fulham Road to the Design Museum in Kensington – a celebration of the late designer’s many achievements

15 Sep 2020
New Baris, a village in Egypt designed by Hassan Fathy (1900–89) and partly built in 1965–67.

Down to earth – the revival of building with mud

The Egyptian architect Hassan Fathy breathed new life into this ancient material in the 1940s – and it’s time it made another comeback

8 Jul 2020
Right: portrait of Samuel Pepys (detail) (1689), Godfrey Kneller, National Maritime Museum, London. Wikimedia Commons (public domain); right: portrait of John Evelyn (detail) (n.d.), studio of Godfrey Kneller. Private collection. Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

‘Whole streets in the City were shuttered’ – London during the devastating plague of 1665

That we know so much about the day-to-day reality of the Great Plague of London is down to the diaries of John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys

24 Mar 2020

Giddy heights in the Gulf and Shanghai and rescue missions in the UK – the year ahead in architecture

What to watch in the world of architecture in 2020, from the race to become the world’s tallest building to increasingly urgent conservation battles

26 Dec 2019
The Fiat Tagliero service station in Asmara, designed by Giuseppe Pettazzi and completed in 1938.

From cinemas to service stations – the modernist marvels of Eritrea

The buildings erected in Asmara during Italian rule are remarkably forward-looking – and should not be allowed to crumble

19 Nov 2019
The Skissernas Museum in Lund, Sweden.

Cornering the maquette – the Swedish museum dedicated to works in progress

Founded in 1934 in Lund, southern Sweden, the Skissernas Museum of sketches, models and preparatory work offers a valuable insight into artistic projects – including those never made

2 Oct 2019