Category Archives: Uncategorized

New Delhi is often referred to these days in architectural circles as “Lutyens Delhi” but this does a huge disservice to Sir Herbert Baker who was responsible for the design of at least as many of the new city’s buildings as Lutyens. Lutyens and Baker were actually appointed as equal partners to both advise theContinue reading “Blog 8”

Guiseppe Terragni”s Casa del Fascio in Como is quite rightly regarded as one of the seminal buildings of the “heroic period” of Modern Architecture. Designed in 1932, when Terragni was just 28, it has become world famous for its proportional system, its transparency, the layering of its different facades, as well as the clear expressionContinue reading “Blog 7”

My blog this week is in tribute to Robert Bruce, the City Engineer of Glasgow from 1941 to 1948, who, like his namesake, was a man of courage and vision. In response to the city’s chronic housing problems, he proposed the demolition and redevelopment of the entire centre of the city, with the displaced familiesContinue reading “Blog 6”

Blog 5 I was watching the re-run of ‘The Bridge’ recently which included intriguing glimpses of Hack Kampmann’s (1856-1920) stunning Copenhagen Police Headquarters. This proved to be his swansong and a fitting end to the career of the most prolific Danish architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Like the best Nordic Classical work, Kampmann’s PolitigårdenContinue reading

Blog 4 Isn’t it strange how followers of the cult of Modernism evaluate all late 19th and early 20th century architects almost entirely in terms of their contribution to the emergence of Modernism. Even more ridiculously, they project Modernist ideals onto architects who had no interest whatsoever in the principle tenets of the Modern Movement. I recentlyContinue reading

Tändstickspalatset Ivar Tengbom – now there’s a name that you rarely hear in architectural circles. Once Sweden’s most successful architect (1878-1968) at a time when the competition included both Gunnar Asplund and Sigurd Lewerentz. Tengbom’s breakthrough project was the palatial Enskilda Bank (1912-15) which survives on Kungsträdgården in the centre of Stockholm, but his mostContinue reading “Blog 3”