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Shepherd’s Bush Pavilion, London, by Flanagan Lawrence
17 February 2015What was once Europe’s largest cinema has had a chequered history, including a flying bomb strike, bingo and illegal raves. But style and grandeur have returned in the Shepherd’s Bush Pavilion’s newest guise, a hotel designed by Flanagan Lawrence, and visited by Herbert Wright.
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Stephen Hodder on new housing space standards
10 February 2015Following ongoing lobbying by the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Government has agreed to introduce new housing space standards. Currently the UK builds the smallest new homes in Western Europe and in Yorkshire, which has one of the lowest population densities in the country, they are half the size of new-builds in London. Here RIBA president, Stephen Hodder, tells us why fighting to eradicate shoe-box homes with new minimum space standards has been such an RIBA crusade.
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Surreal estate – the art of Alex Chinneck
10 February 2015From a house which melts before the eyes of thousands of commuters, to a neoclassical portico which hovers precariously over London’s Covent Garden, the magical, ambitious work of Alex Chinneck suspends belief, forcing viewers to question the urban environment. Shumi Bose catches up with the young artist in a rare moment of repose, before he pulls his next reality-bending trick...
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Moscow Urban Forum – Review
10 February 2015Herbert Wright braves the Russian winter to report on this year's event
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Uneven Growth – Tactical Urbanisms for Expanding Megacities at MoMA
2 February 2015Thomas Wensing on MoMA's latest exhibition exploring the expanding megacities Hong Kong, Istanbul, Lagos, New York, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro.
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Norman Foster on the unique architecture of Cuba
2 February 2015Norman Foster has made many trips to Cuba in the past decade, and has come to realise that the uniqueness of Havana’s architecture and cars may soon be gone forever. He set about recording for posterity the city’s sights and sounds in a book. Here is his essay that features in the newly published book, Havana Autos and Architecture.
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What exactly is a design trend?
2 February 2015Trends are critical to design and industry, but what is a trend? Zuzanna Skalska, previously with Philips Design in Eindhoven and VanBerlo, the largest Dutch design consultancy, is now head of trends at Netherlandsbased transdisciplinary consultancy 360 Inspiration, and author of 360° Trend Report books (a 2009 Red Dot award winner). She explains what trends really are and where they lead.
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Architecture and design events to look out for in 2015
27 January 2015Architecture and design events to look out for in 2015.
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Miffy creator Dick Bruna - the art of reduction
27 January 2015The little cartoon Miffy is famous the world over, from her native Holland to Japan, where they build football pitch-sized illustrations of her in tulips. Her creator, the recently retired graphic illustrator Dick Bruna, has made a career of stripping characters down to their very essence.
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Erik Spierkerman on artificial intelligence
27 January 2015AI is short for Artificial Intelligence, but don’t we need to define what is human intelligence first? Maybe AI should stand for Alien Intelligence; for a different way of looking at things rather than a computerised method of working things out, says Erik Spiekermann. Founder of MetaDesign and FontShop, Erik Spiekermann is a teacher, author, designer and partner at Edenspiekermann.
