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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
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
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
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
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
Cairo is blessed with many beautiful mosques. Close to the Coptic area is the mosque of Amr ibn al-As, where Muslims still pay homage to the Arab general who conquered Egypt in 640. Further north in Islamic Cairo the Fatimids built the popular Al-Hussein mosque over the remains of the martyred Shia imam. Tourists are […] More
In Roubaix, a city near Lille once known as the ‘Manchester of France’, there is an art deco swimming pool that opened to the public in 1932. Commissioned by the socialist mayor, Jean-Baptiste Lebas, who described it as ‘the most beautiful swimming pool in France’, it was intended as a social melting pot, where all […] More
The Espaces d’Abraxas is a set of social-housing blocks in Marne-la-Vallée, a new town in the Paris suburbs. It is one of several grands ensembles planned in the 1970s by the Communist-led council of Seine-Saint-Denis. Like many of these projects, the Espaces d’Abraxas is built close to an RER station and a shopping mall, but […] More
