Archinect - News

UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove throws his hat behind the country's traditionalism movement

2023-01-05T15:50:00-05:00

The UK’s housing chief is throwing his name into the contentious ongoing debate surrounding the role and perception of traditionalism and classical architecture in the country’s design culture and academia.

The Architects’ Journal has details on Secretary Michael Gove’s foreword to a report authored by critic Ike Ijeh for a right-wing think tank that calls for the establishment of a “School of Place” and other educational changes that would “revive” traditionalism “from the annals of obscurity to which contemporary architecture education has unfairly consigned it.”

Gove tied the cause to the country’s housing crisis while also welcoming calls for the elevation of classicism in university curricula without expressly stating that it should be mandated in either educational Part of the RIBA-administered licensure process, stating: “There is no silver bullet to solve the housing crisis, nor to transform British towns and cities overnight or instantaneously deliver a workforce imbued wit...

RIBA responds positively to Corbyn's new manifesto for Labour

2017-05-16T15:43:00-04:00

In mid-April, the Prime Minister Theresa May reversed her earlier stated decision and called for a snap election—a move that surprised many. While some called the move opportunistic, others supported the early election, including Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Labour, the opposition party. The Labour Party currently trails behind the Conservative Party, led by May, in national polls. Today, Corbyn released a manifesto, intended to make clear his party’s positions and to drum up support for the embattled party.

The manifesto, dubbed “For the Many, Not the Few”, takes strong positions. Around £50B sourced primarily from taxes on corporations and the country’s wealthiest citizens would be used to fund major new public programs, from housing to education to healthcare to transit. The manifesto rules out rises in VAT, national insurance, and income tax for all but the top 5% of earners.

For some, the manifesto is seen as stridently leftist. By all accounts, it represents a stark difference to th...

May government abolishes climate change department

2016-07-14T19:49:00-04:00

The decision to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change has been variously condemned as “plain stupid”, “deeply worrying” and “terrible” by politicians, campaigners and experts. One of Theresa May’s first acts as Prime Minister was to move responsibility for climate change to a new Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

"Only on Monday, Government advisers had warned of the need to take urgent action to prepare the UK for floods, droughts, heatwaves and food shortages caused by climate change."

In related news:

As "gayborhoods" gentrify, LGBTQ people move into conservative America

2016-03-10T20:03:00-05:00

Despite skewing Democrat, LGBT people are flocking to red states. It’s a sign that cities in the center of the country are becoming more accepting, but it’s also an indication that traditional LGBT safe havens are prohibitively expensive. ConsumerAffairs.com analyzed U.S. Census data and Gallup polling information to model the movement of the LGBT community from 1990 to 2014. The overall trend is striking.

"In 1990, the LGBT population was concentrated in coastal metropolitan areas and other safe havens—cities like San Francisco, New York, Seattle, and Atlanta. By 2014, LGBT hot spots cropped up in some seemingly unlikely places: Salt Lake City, Louisville, Norfolk, Indianapolis, and other red state cities."

ConsumerAffairs collected an impressive body of research on the demographic patterns of the LGBTQ community, which you can check out here. For more LGBTQ-related coverage, take a look at these links:

"Pay to stay" may boot 60,000 UK families from their homes

2016-02-09T21:03:00-05:00

Tens of thousands of hard-working families will be forced to leave their council homes and find themselves unable to afford a local alternative as a result of government plans to restrict social housing to the poorest, according to research obtained by the Observer. The devastating figures...show that almost 60,000 households in England will be unable to afford to remain in their council properties from April next year, as a result of George Osborne’s reform, called “pay to stay”.

The economy, coupled with concerted political efforts to dismantle what's left of the welfare state, has birthed a veritable housing crisis in London and the rest of the UK. According to new figures, "pay to stay", a plan crafted by George Osborne, the Conservative MP for Tatton, will leave an estimated 60,000 English households unable to continue to afford their current council housing, worsening an already dire climate.

For more Archinect coverage of housing in the UK, check out these articles:

And, if you're not already familiar with this visage, here's a portrait of Osborne (without his monocle, top hat, or handlebar moustache):