Levelling up food retail

Forming a new landmark with a tiered, cantilevered roof garden, a fruit and veg market in Taiwan will revitalise the concept of selling local food in a natural environment. Winy Maas, founding partner at MVRDV, spoke to Jack Wooler about... View Article

The art & craft of conservation

LISTEN HERE 🔊 An Arts & Crafts Fire Station in North West London kept its original features in a sensitive residential conversion that saw architects Tate Harmer working adeptly within a strict conservation remit. James Parker reports Built in 1915,... View Article

Swiss movement

LISTEN HERE 🔊 A new addition to a prestigious lakeside wellness resort in the Swiss Alps produced a dynamic but discreet form, as part of a landscaped composition that gently enhances its setting. James Parker reports Sitting on the shores... View Article

Social housing with a human face

A new Build to Rent project for a housing association in central Manchester saw Mecanoo use a difficult site cleverly to provide a mix of human-scaled dwellings. James Parker reports on how it avoids the anonymity of the area’s previous... View Article

Fluid dynamics

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Aiming to set a new standard for air transport, the dramatic curves of ZHA’s first airport are as much the result of a need to provide maximum throughput, as aesthetic aspiration. The project’s lead architect tells Jack... View Article

Light reading

James Parker reports on how a Parisian firm of architects created a highly transparent, modern multimedia library flooded with light, that feels at home in historic Bayeux The new ‘media library’ or ‘mediatheque’ serving the 30,000 citizens of Bayeux. Normandy,... View Article

Seamless combination

LISTEN HERE 🔊 The Mill is a luxury housing development that saw a complex conversion combine new build with refurbishment of a historic hosiery factory. Richard Cooper of HSSP Architects spoke to Jack Wooler A former hosiery mill dating back... View Article

Light relief

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Heatherwick Studio’s first completed healthcare scheme is a new Maggie’s Centre that turns an unloved patch of city centre hospital estate into a landscape-festooned, lightweight timber refuge for cancer patients. James Parker reports. Heatherwick Studio’s first completed... View Article

City limits

Set in a triangular mews in north London, a quirky mixed-use project offers privacy and bright spaces despite a tight urban context. Jack Wooler spoke to architects Tom Byrne and Simon Lilley to get their take on the scheme The... View Article

A copper partner for corten

Phase 2 of a major residential development in Bristol is an industrially inspired block of apartments faced in copper, designed to complement a former tobacco company HQ. James Parker reports Ferguson Mann Architects (FMA) were appointed to design Urban Splash’s... View Article

A new tradition

A new home in a secluded corner of Hampshire combines a highly contemporary form with traditional vernacular touches. James Parker speaks to one of the two architectural practices involved who managed to provide a design that worked for client and... View Article

Passive learnings

Natural materials have been carefully transplanted by Architype into London’s leafy suburbia to create the UK’s largest school designed to Passivhaus specifications to date. Sébastien Reed reports With state secondary schools in the London Borough of Sutton (LBS) experiencing an... View Article

A timber oasis

Sheppard Robson’s timber pavilion created in Manchester’s Spinningfields commercial district offers a contrasting distraction, with an exposed frame and richly textured elevations harking back to colonial buildings. James Parker reports Spinningfields is Manchester’s biggest commercial district, home to a clutch... View Article

Escaping the pastiche

LISTEN HERE 🔊 Wimshurst Pelleriti, the architects behind a renovation and extension of a historic office building in London, explain how the practice pushed for a modern addition, rather than a proposed ‘pastiche’. Jack Wooler speaks to Leo Pelleriti In... View Article

Climate control

A new Canadian engineering faculty building will research and develop solutions for clean power innovation, as part of the Government’s response to climate change. ADF’s Sébastien Reed speaks to its architect Venelin Kokalov about a project that uses glazing to... View Article

Playful participation

LISTEN HERE In designing a riverside replacement for Chelmsford’s main swimming pool and gym, Pick Everard followed a brief to increase local community participation. James Parker reports In 2014, Chelmsford City Council undertook a condition survey on the only sports... View Article

A HAPPI medium

LISTEN HERE Linden Court is PRP’s response to the Greater London Authority’s call for exemplar housing designed for retirement living. Project architect Mark Walker spoke to Sébastien Reed about how the HAPPI standard was key to the project’s success The Office... View Article

The whole nine yards

A development of nine contemporary homes near Gosport, Hampshire, have been arranged around a historic military facility to offer expansive bay views. Jack Wooler visited this meticulously-designed scheme Approaching these striking new buildings from a distance, David Craddock, director at... View Article

A showcase of innovation

James Parker reports on the design development of a major new teaching and research facility for Manchester which puts cutting-edge engineering on show in new ways, and connects the city’s industrial past with its future The Manchester Engineering Campus (MECD),... View Article

Bold as brass

Listen here. The project architect in charge of a new architecturally adventurous flagship retail store in the German city of Wuppertal explains to Jack Wooler how the practice went about revitalising a large brownfield site, and created a unique retail... View Article