Architecture

The riverside façade of the Royal Festival Hall, London, designed by London County Council Architects’ Department in 1951 (photo: 1951)

‘The Southbank Centre suffers from architectural self-loathing’

Plans for a rooftop bar at the Royal Festival Hall have thankfully been scrapped, but questions remain over the stewardship of the Southbank centre

7 Nov 2018
in the 1980s after its partial collapse in 1970 (photo: 2017)

The novelty and nostalgia of the Victorian seaside pier

The great iron structures of 19th-century Britain are important parts of the island’s cultural memory

23 Oct 2018
Robert Venturi in Las Vegas in 1968.

Remembering Robert Venturi – reluctant pioneer of postmodernism

The American architect, whose career spanned seven decades, has died at the age of 93

9 Oct 2018
Betteshanger (now Northbourne Park School), Kent, remodelled by George Devey from 1856.

The eclectic country houses of George Devey

The Victorian architect fused styles past and present, inventing fictive histories for his buildings

6 Aug 2018
A Group of Churches, designed by Sir J. Soane to illustrate different Styles of Architecture Holy Trinity, Marylebone, St Peter’s, Walworth and the chapel at Tyringham, Buckinghamshire) (detail; c. 1825), Joseph Michael Gandy.

How the church-building boom of the 19th century began

Two hundred years ago, the English parliament passed the Act for Building New Churches, allocating £1m for the task

14 Jul 2018
Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1893), James Craig Annan.

The genius of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The architect and designer’s reputation stands higher than ever – but the source of his talent remains elusive

9 Jun 2018

The modern architect who gave Budapest a taste of the future

Béla Lajta was one of the most innovative architects of the early 20th century

21 May 2018
The north side of the Karunaratne House in Kandy, designed by Minnette de Silva and completed in 1950 (photo: early 1950s)

Minnette de Silva was a great architect – and her buildings should not be left to crumble

Kandy should be prouder of the pioneering architect, who instigated the idea of ‘regional modernism’

28 Mar 2018
The Temperate House at Kew Gardens, designed by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner and built between 1859 and 1898, © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The contradictory career of Decimus Burton

The architect was once best known for his neoclassical buildings, but his reputation now rests on the glasshouses at Kew Gardens

26 Mar 2018
Allbrook House and the library, with maisonette blocks over shops to the left. Every building in this photo is proposed for demolition, Photo: James O. Davis/Historic England

Britain’s most important 20th-century housing is under threat

The Alton Estate in London is at risk from proposals that will ruin the architecture and destroy social housing

21 Dec 2017
John Loughborough Pearson

The criminal genius of J.L. Pearson

How could such a gifted architect also be responsible for such appalling ‘restoration’ jobs?

16 Nov 2017

Is the system for protecting historic buildings working?

The procedures for protecting England’s historic buildings are now 70 years old. Is the system still fit for purpose?

25 Sep 2017
The monumental cemetery of Staglieno, Genoa, from a postcard produced in or around the 1920s

In praise of monumental cemeteries

The vast cemeteries built in 19th-century Italy can still tell us much about civic pride

22 Sep 2017
The salon of the apartment that Viktor Kovačić created for himself in Zagreb in 1906

The architects who designed their own homes

The houses that architects designed for themselves can tell us much about their attitudes to their work

13 Jul 2017
Sandycombe Lodge, Twickenham, Villa of J.M.W. Turner, Esq., R.A. (detail; 1829), engraving by W.B. Cooke for Thames Scenery after a drawing (c. 1814) by William Havell. Turner's House Trust

Restoring Turner’s vision for Sandycombe Lodge

Sandycombe Lodge, built by J.M.W. Turner in 1812, offers an intriguing glimpse of the painter’s potential as an architect

12 Jul 2017
Durham Cathedral. Photo: Fox Photos/Stringer/Getty Images

Don’t expect England’s great cathedrals to look after themselves

The ancient cathedrals of England need financial help to stave off ruin

21 Jun 2017
Kolumba, Cologne, designed by Peter Zumthor and opened in 2007

The museum building that expresses the tragedy of Cologne

Peter Zumthor’s Kolumba is a poignant monument for a city devastated by wartime bombing

13 Jun 2017
Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images

How the Versailles of Yorkshire has been saved

The future of Wentworth Woodhouse, a preposterous yet beautiful country house near Sheffield, has been secured after decades of uncertainty

31 Mar 2017
The Egpytian Halls, Glasgow, designed by Alexander Thomson and photographed by Thomas Annan in 1874, the year the building opened

Glasgow must not forget its greatest architect

In his bicentenary year, the Scottish architect Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson should be getting more attention

27 Mar 2017
Holy Trinity Church, Kingston upon Hull in 2015. Photo: Andrew Paterson/Alamy Stock Photo

‘Hull can boast buildings of national significance’

The UK’s City of Culture is home to a selection of great public buildings – from a late gothic masterpiece, to a state of the art ‘subquarium’

27 Feb 2017
Vaux-le-Vicomte, designed for Nicolas Fouquet by the architect Louis Le Vau and the garden designer André Le Nôtre in the mid 17th century.

‘A Baroque tamed to suit a northern taste’

The chateau of Vaux-le-Vicomte is rare among historic houses in France – for both the quality of its conservation and as a privately run property

30 Jan 2017
The Meštrovic family mausoleum in the Dalmatian village of Otavice, built by the architect in 1926–31. Photo: Roger Bowdle

‘It seems extraordinary that this great artist is so little known’

Gertrude Stein hailed him as the ‘new Michelangelo’ and he was consulted by statemen about Balkan politics, but Meštrović’s name has fallen into obscurity

16 Jan 2017

How life goes on in a ruined Roman palace

The ruins of Diocletian’s Palace in Split are still inhabited – and they don’t look that different from how they did to Robert Adam in the 1750s

22 Dec 2016
Ceiling of the Chapel of St George and the English Martyrs, Westminster Cathedral, designed by Tom Phillips and dedicated in 2016.

Westminster Cathedral’s ceilings like the sky

The influence of glittering Byzantine churches can be found in the impressive mosaics of Westminster Cathedral – including a new work by Tom Phillips

19 Dec 2016