Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
The Underpants. Two conversations recently, both drifting from floor plans and kitchen layouts into the state of things. “We need Rupert Lowe. He’s the only one who can save this country,” she said. “The trouble is, this isn’t a superhero movie,” I said. And then, a few days later: “I think we’re heading into a […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Dear Prudence. The sun is up, the sky is blue. Spring, I think. Feels like it anyway. Nearly a quarter of the year is gone. GCSE season will be upon us soon. Last time it came round I could recite various English Literature quotes and poems from memory — hours spent rehearsing with my daughter. […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
What have I done? I’m building a dataset. Late into the night. Night after night. Bleary-eyed, moving from one Rightmove listing to the next. Import the floor plan. Scale it. Draw spaces over the top that link to a database. A pre-formatted A3 sheet populates itself. Export. Done. Next. Over and over again. It started […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Two Tribes. I was sitting in the architecture studio yesterday listening to students explain their design ideas when we heard that whirring air-raid siren. I’m too young to remember the Vietnam War, although I do remember the ‘boat people’ at RAF Sopley in the New Forest. My first news memories, alongside the background threat of […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Thinking on your feet. This week, my brain hurts. Not unpleasantly — but it hurts. On top of everything else, I ran a second edition of my Design Marathon late into the evening. Eight back-to-back video calls, each one a different house, a different city, a different problem. Whether to extend or not. What it […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
The Buffet Car. I’ve been redesigning a small terrace house recently. Trying to make it more usable. It’s typical for this type of house. Narrow. The front door, the lounge, the long corridor front to back. The stairs. All of it narrow. They’re like trains, but you have to live in them. And the bathroom’s […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Without Prejudice. I think I’m coming to the end. It’s starting to feel like time to change direction. I’ve designed enough buildings. Just over one a week for the past twenty years. Alongside that, I’ve been teaching continuously. Some are small, some big. Mostly houses, but also adventure playgrounds, coffee shops, offices and industrial buildings. […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
The Dolphin Centre. I had a depressing visit to a town centre last weekend. One I grew up visiting. Where I bought a Pop Swatch in 1990. And where Our Price Records was the place for adding to the CD collection. Wherever you are, you’ll know the kind of place. You’ll have similar memories. Urban […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Getting It Back. It’s dark. Wet. Rain blowing against the window. I’m waiting for the sun to come up so I can see the trees. In the meantime, I’m wondering: why are we obsessed with getting back what we spend on house renovations? We’ve all been trained to think like developers — to see our […]
Thoughts for the Weekend & this Week’s Links
Life is a Lasagna. I’m on the motorway. Cruise control on. 62mph. Sitting steady in the inside lane. It’s busy. All lanes. Both directions. 9am. I spot a tractor driving slowly over one of those bridges, built where a small lane once crossed this land. I’m listening to Senator Rand Paul talk about automation. How, […]
