The stucco fa???ade of a 12 million GBP house in Kensington, London is to be rebuilt – with the cracks and chips of the original. The redevelopment by Swedish property magnate Gerard Versteegh planned to preserve the fa???ade in the classic gut-and-fill manner. He was then granted permission to knock it down on condition that […]

The fresh-off-the-press issue of Icon magazine is dedicated to manifestos. Of course, a manifesto is a ridiculous historical form. Nowadays, manifestos have merged with mission statements. Their revolutionary heart has furred up like a 40-a-day, heavy-lunching PR executives. The great and the good brought together in Icons pages have mostly understood this – instead they […]

Death to Manifestos. Viva How-Tos! Becoming a famous architect shouldn’t take too long, but don’t expect too much. It’s not a passport to riches, nor an introduction to high society. But if it’s what you want, here’s how to do it. First, pay a visit to any well stocked newsagent. Buy one copy of each […]

More New Town nostalgia: The Northampton Development Authorities had a novel approach to boosting investment – releasing a single. The a-side of the single was called 60 Miles by Road or Rail (the distance to London). The b-side, featured in this old news clip was Energy in Northampton, about extraterrestrials choosing Northampton as a landing […]

A heartbreakingly nostalgic advert from an era in the no mans land between the almost-utopian dream of postwar newtown planning and the total privatisation of public space. ]]>

London’s old Baltic Exchange building is probably best known for being blown up by the IRA in 1992 by a fertilser bomb in a large white truck. This bad piece of luck has precipitated a strange story whose resolution sees the old building heading for an unusual retirement. The Baltic Exchange is being rebuilt on […]