Archive

• Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons
  The Asset Strippers, 2019 Mike Nelson’s assemblage of telephone poles, hay rakes and heavy machinery in the Duveen galleries of Tate Britain made monuments of the industrial relics of his childhood – and part of my own. The internationally renowned artist, twice nominated for the Turner Prize, grew up inContinue reading “Mike Nelson: Extinction Beckons”
• Breakfast in Vals
  From Escape, Spring 2022 It’s useful to be reminded what great architecture can achieve, to be moved by it, because as an industry, architecture isn’t always that moving. Like every business, it has its awkward corporate events, its veneers and personalities. In 2008, like many others seeking the architecturally divineContinue reading “Breakfast in Vals”
• “Wherever you go, there you are”
  To my clients, on their summer holidays… It’s the first time you’ve studied the place in daylight. You found the apartment online. There’s the archway from the photos, but it has a boxy shelving unit stuffed into one side, sticking out by ‘about’ eight millimetres. It’s a fine line betweenContinue reading ““Wherever you go, there you are””
• Spreadsheets and tables: book project
  à table by Martino Gamper I thought I should add this to the site as a project, even though I had less to do with it than some of the others – it’s a nice book. 102 pages on tables by the Italian designer, Martino Gamper. The graphic design isContinue reading “Spreadsheets and tables: book project”
• Plum’s Paradise: the joys of a shared garden
  We have a book called Mr Plum’s Paradise by Elisa Trimby. It was published in 1977 and tells the story of a man who turns the yard at the back of his small, terraced house in London into a garden. Mr Plum starts off by growing a few bits ofContinue reading “Plum’s Paradise: the joys of a shared garden”
• Exercises in Seating by Max Lamb
  “Max’s processes can be distilled into either addition or reduction: building, moulding or growing; carving, cutting or removing… by exposing these methods, he invites a connection with the finished object, he gives a sense of its material and emotional value.” Sarah Simpkin, Exercises in Seating Sometimes, I work with architectsContinue reading “Exercises in Seating by Max Lamb”
• Stone Walk, London
  “Stone Walk starts in the gardens of one of the oldest sites of worship in Britain. It traces a path of stones through the city, from the religious to the secular, ancient to present day, finding stones of war and peace, symbols of hope, commerce, fertility, place and communion withContinue reading “Stone Walk, London”
• You look creative, but you sound like a bank
  How understanding tone of voice can help architects, designers and creative businesses win work and get noticed. When I go into an architecture practice as a freelance writer, one of the first things I do, after a good nose around the projects, is get a sense of their tone ofContinue reading “You look creative, but you sound like a bank”
• A House in a Garden by Foster + Partners: Singapore, 2003-2008
  “The water seems to originate in the pond and flow beneath the house. It was important that we gave the impression of a source. This is an illusion – part created, part imagined – and forms a visual link between the different parts of the building.” David Nelson, Foster +Continue reading “A House in a Garden by Foster + Partners: Singapore, 2003-2008”
• Pilgrimage: Leça tidal pools, Álvaro Siza
  Simple pleasures – sun, sand and concrete We didn’t set out to do a series of ‘design pilgrimages’, we were just trying to find somewhere to go on holiday. If we started with a building we both wanted to visit, there would be fewer decisions to make. Looking back inContinue reading “Pilgrimage: Leça tidal pools, Álvaro Siza”
• Pilgrimage: Naoshima, Japan’s art island
  “Naoshima is a small, beautiful, somehow sad little island. A tiny town in squares and patches. On one side, beginning several feet back from the sea, a ruined shrine, a general store, a shaved-ice shop. The sadness comes perhaps from the loneliness – in the early afternoons, there never seemsContinue reading “Pilgrimage: Naoshima, Japan’s art island”
• URUSHI IS NOT ALONE, Max Lamb
  “Urushi doesn’t usually work with deadlines. It takes the time it takes, and the customer or commissioner is called when it is finished. This is an unknown date, by which time it is quite possible one has forgotten that one ordered the object…” Charlotte York, Max Lamb in Wajima That’sContinue reading “URUSHI IS NOT ALONE, Max Lamb”
• Promenade
  Sometimes Nicola Dale and I make work together — we are friends and we shared a studio as students. These days, she’s a full-time artist and I’m a writer that can’t quite let go of the idea of making things for their own sake. During 2020, we each developed ourContinue reading “Promenade”
• Barbican Conservatory, Luke Hayes
  Built between 1965 and 1976, the Barbican Estate was designed to repopulate the post-war City of London. Nowhere has its Brutalist vision of utopia taken root more than in the conservatory, which was added later, in 1980, to disguise the theatre’s 100-foot fly tower and improve views for residents. TheContinue reading “Barbican Conservatory, Luke Hayes”
• Two Cities: Tokyo & Chicago, Luke Hayes
  “Tokyo and Chicago, vast cities on opposite sides of the globe. These photographs are my first impressions of each, taken on assignments in 2009 and 2010. Despite being 10,000 kilometres apart, there were similarities. The images attempt to capture some of these parallels, the views that the people living thereContinue reading “Two Cities: Tokyo & Chicago, Luke Hayes”

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