Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
A Ride to Liverpool. I was watching the football on Sunday with my son. Everton were playing, and we got talking about their new stadium, which is in Liverpool’s docklands, just north of the city centre. An aside: Why I need to pay the government nearly fifteen quid a month to watch football via a […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
The Hippy and the Physicist. I was sitting in a 6500-year-old burial chamber, listening to a hippy chant. It was the first day of a new moon. Fifty-million-year-old sarsen stones stacked to form the Long Barrow around me. Heavy. It was a spontaneous day trip to visit megalithic architecture. There is something deeply satisfying about […]
Remodelling a 1930s Detached House for Modern Family Living
Remodelling a 1930s Detached House for Modern Family Living Many post-war detached houses across the UK share a similar story: practical layouts, generous gardens, but dated proportions and dark, disconnected interiors. In my latest video, I explore how a typical 1950s house in Southampton could be transformed into a bright, contemporary family home — […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
How to Design a Winery Before Bed. After finishing my day’s work yesterday, I set myself a challenge: design a winery before bed. I’d spent the morning in a medieval vault and a rooftop bar discussing the project with my group of students, whose final-year project it is – see the TFTW from a couple […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
It’s good to be free. It’s Friday. Raining outside, I’ve just finished work for the week and am heading to Rhondda’s to make a curry for when she gets home. Rucksack on my back, headphones in. Pull the door shut with a flick of the finger. Press play on my new old iPod. The little […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
The Enhancification Department. I had a wander around historic Southampton yesterday with a group of students. First day back and they are tasked with designing a winery on a car park right next to the medieval city walls. At first glance, it sounds mad. But Southampton has the longest surviving stretch of medieval walls in […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Walls & Ghosts. I’ve had a heavy couple of days, starting with contemplating walled cities and ending with wondering whether we live in a world of ghosts. 1. There is something about walled towns and citadels, such as St. Malo or Avignon, that intrigues me. The Pyrenean hilltop towns have the same fascination. I like […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Dreams at the Edge of the Earth . I found the most remarkable place in Scotland this summer. An all-year-round resort set in a thirty-acre former quarry, just a few hundred metres from miles of sandy beach and clear Atlantic sea. From here, the view west is all Hebridean mountains, shifting light and distant islands. […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
East vs West. To be clear, this is not an article on geopolitics. More heading to Devon over Kent! Some people head east, but I’ve never understood why. East feels wrong to me—flat, enclosed, uninspiring. If the west is a promise, the east is a warning. Even the light feels harsher, sharper, and less forgiving. […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Stargates & Steps. 1. Data Has Mass. It does. Apparently. Not in the lifting-a-dumbbell sense, but in the “a full hard drive weighs more than an empty one” kind of way. Barely anything, but it adds up. Same with thoughts. Fill your head with junk, it gets heavy. Which brings me to… 2. Sherlock Holmes. […]
