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    Robin Hood Gardens and the politics of regeneration

    Much has been said and written about Robin Hood Gardens, and the latest news – that a review of the decision not to list the buildings was declined – will ignite more discussion yet. However, debates around the estate’s perceived architectural successes and social failures have often focused only on the buildings – on the […] More

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    London can’t make up its mind about its Brutalist past

    Robin Hood Gardens, a post-war housing estate in east London, looks set for demolition despite a vocal public campaign to save it. Heritage minister Tracey Crouch confirmed on Tuesday – in line with Historic England’s recommendations – that the building would not be listed. She also granted a certificate of immunity that prevents it being considered for government […] More

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    The lamentable loss of Britain’s pubs

    Pubs are necessary as well as enjoyable. Many are landmarks, often standing prominently at street corners and sometimes proudly surviving when all else around was swept away. Railway and underground stations – and thus whole districts of London – sometimes take their names: the Angel, Royal Oak, the Elephant and Castle, while Norwood Junction began […] More

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    Letter from Calcutta

    From the July/August issue of Apollo: preview and subscribe here  Industry never came, but houses and neighbourhoods were destroyed I was born in Calcutta, but we moved from that city to Bombay in early 1964. The company my father worked for had relocated its head office in the face of growing labour unrest; the move […] More

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    Winning Guggenheim Helsinki design revealed

    The French architecture firm Moreau Kusunoki Architects has won the competition to design the Guggenheim Helsinki, seeing off five other finalists from a total of 1715 original submissions. The firm’s design, which sets out a series of nine low pavilions around a squat lighthouse-like tower of charred timber, was praised by the jury as a place […] More

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    Charles Correa: 1930–2015

    Charles Correa, who was widely acknowledged as India’s pre-eminent architect, has died at the age of 84. In recent years, his commissions have included such grand projects as the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon (2010) and the Ismaili Centre in Toronto (2014), and he is perhaps best known for the British Council building in […] More

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    The long wait for Britain’s Waterloo memorial

    From the June issue of Apollo: preview and subscribe here  One of the bloodiest battles in European history was fought 200 years ago, on 18 June. If you visit the site today, near the village of Waterloo to the south of Brussels, there is little tangible evidence that Great Britain was on the winning side, or […] More

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    John Aubrey on architecture: centuries old and more relevant than ever

    Ruth Scurr’s entrancing new book, John Aubrey, My Own Life, stitches together fragments of the 17th-century antiquary’s own writing, to create a patchwork diary or autobiography that reads as if it had been composed by the man himself. Aubrey emerges from the book in a moving and vivid portrait. He was learned, compulsively curious, gregarious, […] More