A personal review of design creations
Tashkent Just Got Its Concrete Crown
Uzbekistan has just become the first country in Central Asia to see its twentieth-century architecture recognised by UNESCO, and Tashkent's modernist landmarks are now, officially, the youngest buildings on the World Heritage List.
The Volcan: Oscar Niemeyer's Artistic Emergence in Le Havre
How a Brazilian modernist dropped two white volcanoes into the middle of France's most rigorously rebuilt city… and won!
Concrete Independence
Concrete convictions: how seven newly independent nations built their identity in glass and reinforced concrete — and why MoMA's latest show could not have landed at a more Instagram-ready moment.
Verner Panton: Form, Colour, Space
Verner Panton at 100: The man who declared war on beige. From the Panton Chair to the Spiegel Canteen, the Vitra Design Museum’s new retrospective argues for design’s most provocative voice.
The Egg That Eats Itself
How OMA's new mushroom pavilion at Casa Wabi is turning fungi into architecture, community, and lunch.
In a Park: How a Forgotten Brick Reframes Domestic Life
In Singapore, a modest apartment renovation by L Architects reimagines domestic life through red brick, greenery and the spatial logic of a park. In a Park shows how a forgotten material can bring warmth, intimacy and a quietly generous way of living back into the home.
Advent 2025: St Peter Church by Le Corbusier
To close this little Advent pilgrimage I wanted a Le Corbusier landmark— but not the familiar hilltop chapel at Ronchamp. Instead one in a former mining town whose industrial grit somehow suits his concrete poetry.
Stop Four: Firminy, France.
Advent 2025: The Holy Redeemer
Over fifteen years in the making, this church is completely integrated in the transformation process of a neighbourhood of 670 homes.
Third stop: San Cristobal de la Laguna, Spain.
Advent 2025: San Giacomo Apostolo
#Advent2025: With its light and organic structure, this church contrasts with other religious buildings in the same city.
Second stop: Ferrara, Italy.
Advent 2025: St Xavier’s Oratory
This Advent I am starting a tiny ritual of my own: four Sundays, four churches with architecture that caught my eye. Think of it as a short pilgrimage from the sofa — no architectural degree required, only a soft spot for good timber or a striking silhouette.
First stop: Umphang, Thailand.