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Over two years after the groundbreaking, the new Maggie's Centre Barts in Central London finally opened earlier this week. Located throughout the UK, Maggie's Centres offer free practical and emotional support for people who live with cancer and their loved ones. Steven Holl Architects, along... View full entry
At $1 billion, it is the most expensive embassy ever constructed. But its designers say the new American chancery on the Thames River marks a paradigm shift: The U.S. Embassy here will exude openness while hiding all the clever ways it defends itself from attack.
After decades of building American embassies that look brutalist or bland, like obvious fortresses, the soon-to-be-opened chancery in London is a crystalline cube, plopped down in the middle of a public park, without visible walls.
— washingtonpost.com
Image via the U.S. Embassy in London's TwitterThe KieranTimberlake-designed U.S. Embassy in London is preparing for its grand opening on January 16, and the building pleasantly departs from the increasingly common drab 'fortress' chic that American chanceries in cities with heightened risk of... View full entry
Celebrating its upcoming 250th anniversary year, the Royal Academy of Arts will open a new campus to the public in May 2018. The design for the redevelopment is by Sir David Chipperfield CBE RA, and will bring new (and free) collections to the public with 70% more space than the current footprint... View full entry
Out of the 208 households that needed rehousing after the fire, 118 will still be in emergency accommodation or with friends over the holiday period, including 29 families with children. A further 48 households have accepted permanent housing offers, but have not yet moved in and are currently still in temporary homes, [support group] Grenfell United said. Days after the fire the prime minister, Theresa May, promised that families would be rehoused within three weeks. — The Guardian
In the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire, progress has been painfully slow to permanently rehouse all the families who lived in the west London tower block. “Only 42 families have moved into new permanent homes, leaving 166 households still in temporary housing,” The Guardian reports... View full entry
Hackney's Museum of the Home, Geffrye, has teamed up with Go Compare to offer an interactive tour through over 400 years of English urban homes. The museum, which will close in January 2018 for a two-year refurbishment, is set in an 18th century Grade I listed almshouse and explores home and home... View full entry
This year, the group has expanded aggressively into the City of London, snapping up floor space usually reserved for large corporates over the year to date, including large offices in Moorgate — its largest site globally — and at One Poultry, a Grade II listed building directly opposite the Bank of England. — Financial Times
The start up WeWork has acquired One Poultry, the Grade II post-modern icon designed by James Stirling and completed in 1998. After a heavily contested designation, the building is currently in the process of undergoing an extensive refurbishment headed by Architects BuckleyGreyYeomen and expected... View full entry
A three-storey chunk of an east London council estate that is venerated and despised in almost equal measures has been acquired by the V&A.
The museum announced it had made one of the most unusual property deals in its history: rescuing an enormous chunk of the Robin Hood Gardens estate, complete with walkway and maisonette interiors.
— The Guardian
Completed in 1972 and considered an icon of brutalist architecture — representing the good and the bad traits of the movement, depending on the perspective — the Tower Hamlets "Robin Hood Gardens" council estate is being demolished. By salvaging an intact piece of the building designed by... View full entry
Named after the 18th century Italian painter whose most famous works depict lavish celebrations on the canals of his native Venice, Canaletto—the 31-story tower designed by Amsterdam's UNStudio—offers luxury, waterside living next to City Road canal basin in central London. ©... View full entry
The Royal College of Art (RCA) has submitted proposals to Wandsworth Council for a £108 million state-of-the art building for postgraduate students and entrepreneurs, which will secure the RCA’s future in Battersea and deliver new studios, workshops and incubator units required to support its future growth. — Royal College of Art
Exactly one year ago, Herzog & de Meuron was announced as the competition-winning architects for the Royal College of Art's new £108 million Battersea South campus. The project, sitting adjacent to RCA's existing Dyson, Woo and Sackler Buildings, reached another milestone this week with the... View full entry
Opening November 2018 will be London’s largest permanent home for photography, Fotografiska London. The 89,000 sq ft gallery will have ticketed entry, but since it can show up to seven separate exhibitions, this ticket will get you far. This new home for photography follows Fotografiska’s... View full entry
Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the British government put out a call for evidence for the independent review of building regulations and fire safety. Led by Dame Judith Hackitt, the review will make recommendations to ensure there is a sufficiently robust regulatory system for the future... View full entry
David Marks, who suffered a long battle with cancer, passed away Friday morning at the age of 64. The Jewish architect was the innovative visionary behind fanciful projects such as the London Eye, the British Airways i360 observation tower, the Treetop Walkway at Kew Gardens, and the University of... View full entry
Designed by Foster + Partners, Bloomberg L.P.'s new European headquarters in London has been dubbed as the “world's most sustainable office building”, the architecture firm announced. Housing Bloomberg's 4,000 London employees, the office building was rated as “Outstanding” in the BREEAM... View full entry
Today, London’s civic spaces are the byproduct of commercial development, the results of promises made by developers to create public amenity as a condition of planning consent. Ironically, Paris, which once imported its radical architecture from London in the form of the Pompidou Centre, now has a much more visionary approach to building, (...) it is much more of a nexus for interesting architecture. — Financial Times
London's contemporary architecture seems to have lost the radical qualities of British Architecture of the 1960s and 1970s. View full entry
The move would raise fascinating questions about the need to replicate habits that are tied to the layout of the current chamber – voting by trooping through “aye” and “no” lobbies, for example. Archaic linguistic protocols might seem doubly peculiar when expressed in a more modern setting. People’s behaviour is shaped by their environment and it is unlikely that parliamentary culture could be unaffected by transplant to a space unlike the unique one in which it has been nurtured. — The Guardian
The Palace of Westminster has been in a state of advanced disrepair for many years now. Though a plan for the building's massive £3.5bn refurbishment headed by BDP was announced last year, the government has avoided taking the decision to proceed. The main reason for the delay in action on... View full entry
