Visionary and highly experimental, her legacy despite her young age, is formidable. She leaves behind a body of work from buildings to furniture, footwear and cars, that delight and astound people all around the world. — architecture.com

She died of a heart attack on Thursday in a Miami hospital, where she was being treated for bronchitis. — BBC News

Which London mayor candidate will fix the capital's housing crisis?

There’s a short answer to [that] question. It is that none of them will. There are two big reasons for that: one, there’s only so much any mayor has the power to do about the city’s various housing problems; two, none of the front line candidates are willing to do everything they actually could do. Housing policy is difficult stuff... — the Guardian

‘If we accidentally complete our isolation from Europe, please don’t let us imagine that this creates a new openness to the rest of the world – isolation is isolation. We would not only give up the distinct practical advantages of collaboration but the social, political and intellectual advantages too’, he said.

Chipperfield, who has offices in London, Berlin, Milan and Shanghai, has hit out at politicians for failing to articulate the cultural significance of the European Union. — The Architects' Journal

"Students are the advanced guard of creating that activity, that buzz. They help make it easier to persuade other businesses and investors there is something going on here.”

Not everyone is convinced. [...]

“Universities are now aping the private sector by building this top-end stuff, so a lot of students feel priced out. You can’t blame private companies, but universities have a got a different role. They should try to provide affordable options and not act like property developers.” — theguardian.com

Buy-to-let landlords should face new limits on the amount they can borrow, the Bank of England has proposed.

It suggested that lenders should be much stricter when deciding whether or not to grant landlords a mortgage.

Instead of just taking their rental income into account, the Bank wants lenders to look at their wider financial situation as well.

If adopted, the new rules could reduce lending to landlords by up to 20% over the next three years. — BBC

London’s inaugural Design Biennale is set to open at Somerset House this September, based around the idea of Utopia to coincide with the venue’s year-long events programme.

The biennale is headed up by London Design Festival director Ben Evans, biennale director Christopher Turner, former editor of Icon, and London Design Festival co-founder Sir John Sorrell. More than 30 countries are taking part in the event. — itsnicethat.com

The cartoon drawings and graffiti scrawled all over the 1970s hangout of the Sex Pistols - a former silversmith’s workshop attached to a townhouse in London’s Denmark Street – have helped the building be awarded Grade 2* Listed Status.

The decision by the Department of Culture, Media & Sport, on advice from Historic England, is a major victory in the campaign to maintain Denmark Street, known as “Tin Pan Alley”, which is widely seen as a spiritual home for British popular music. — independent.co.uk

Rapidly rising property prices and rents, combined with the loss of social housing through right to buy, have put councils under growing pressure to find new ways to help people off their housing lists.

In Lewisham one solution is a £4.3m scheme to provide 24 homes and 880 sq m of business space that can be picked up and moved at a later date, allowing the council to make use of vacant brownfield land while longer-term projects are finalised. — theguardian.com

As the number of people moving to cities continues to rise, with 66% of the global population expected to live in urban areas by 2050, it is critical to understand how urban living is affecting us — Urban Mind

English cities and towns left without planned flood defences by government cuts will now get the projects after a surprise £540m boost in funding in Wednesday’s budget.

The north of England, devastated by winter floods, will get at least £150m of the new money, giving better protection for thousands of homes.

The Guardian had revealed that 294 projects in line for funding were left stranded after heavy cuts by David Cameron’s coalition government... — the Guardian

Google has been granted planning permission for an office in the King’s Cross area of central London.

The 180,000-square-foot building, which is to be known as “S2”, will be designed by UK firm Mossessian Architecture. [...]

It will be based near the site of the firm’s defunct Google Glass store and DeepMind, its artificial intelligence start-up. [...]

The property is expected to be completed by 2017 “at the earliest”. — globalconstructionreview.com