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    ‘Thomas Mawson’s designs are never nostalgic’

    Kearsney Court is a late Victorian house just outside Dover in east Kent. Designed in 1899 by Worsfold and Hayward for brewer Alfred Leney, it is a perfectly respectable essay in the Arts and Crafts manner – rough-cast walls, picturesque massing, and large bay windows. Its garden, though, is something else altogether. It cascades down […] More

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    The variety, delicacy and wit of Lina Bo Bardi

    A generation ago Lina Bo Bardi was not much known outside Brazil, and not much talked about. Today, notably in academia and architecture schools, she is arguably the most referenced and most widely influential architect of her era. Sure, Mies van der Rohe’s buildings were more minimal – but were they so cool as to […] More

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    Spain’s annual photography festival, in focus

    The scene seems innocuous enough – an old brick wall crumbles with age. Weeds spring from its dusty base, and a couple of cedar trees peek over from the other side. But the photo, from Miquel Gonzalez’s Memoria Perdida project, holds a secret. Between 1936 and 1956, nearly 4,000 people were executed at this site […] More

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    Travelling in style on the Naples metro

    Mastering public transport is one of the most reassuring steps for a visitor in a major city, that familiarity that makes you feel almost at home. Naples Metro – the Metropolitana di Napoli (MDN) – has over the years absorbed older railway lines and, where the terrain is steep and difficult, has turned for help […] More

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    At home with Victor Horta, the master of art nouveau

    There is a category of houses so famous that they can no longer be used as houses. Such buildings exist outside the practical needs they were built to address and are preserved much as works of art are. Victor Horta’s house in Brussels is one. The Maison & Atelier Horta were designed by Victor Horta […] More

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    Charles Eamer Kempe – the stained-glass designer who kitted out England’s churches

    Anyone who enjoys visiting British churches and cathedrals will soon learn to identify stained glass by Charles Eamer Kempe (1837–1907). Helpfully, he often placed a wheatsheaf in one corner of his windows, a device taken from his family’s coat of arms, but in any case his fastidiously luxurious style is unmistakable. Swathed in robes of […] More

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    Schip shape – the infectiously bizarre style of the Amsterdam School

    Most architectural styles are pioneered by the wealthy. The villa, the mansion, the upmarket apartment block, the blockbuster cultural centre: these have been the vehicles for new architectures. The Amsterdam School was different, driven by the imperatives of social housing, municipal building and civic infrastructure. Its moment, though very specific to the Netherlands, was remarkably […] More