Architecture
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This is the Sound of the Suburbs
Home improvements / In our dream home / Home improvements / We’re never moving. – Straight Life, Black Box Recorder There is something about suburbia I’ve always been running from. It has therefore been instructive to spend Christmas in a semi-detached house on the edge of Luton. [1] I took a Boxing Day walk, on Read more
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The Portsmouth to Gosport Ferry
My mum moves out of Southsea tomorrow. She has been busy with the emotional task of chucking out what needs to be chucked out, and putting into storage what needs to be put into storage, as she continues to look for somewhere new to live in the old, familial lands of Nottingham. Last week I Read more
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Scarbados: a day trip to Scarborough
The initial plan was to walk to Whitby, until I remembered it’s 20-odd miles and the cats would kill me. So I settled for a day of bimbling around town, looking at buildings and gazing at the sea. Scarborough was the original seaside town, after a 17th century resident discovered the scam of claiming the Read more
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Railway Architecture in the video game Fortnite
After many years of cars, motorbikes, biplanes, speedboats, helicopters, and hoverboards, Fortnite has finally incorporated a railway line. As a “Battle Royal” online fighting game, with an ever-shrinking playing arena and 99 other players trying to kill you, Fortnite doesn’t really lend itself to public transport. [1] The automobile and the gun reign supreme here. Read more
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Walking in the Only Unknown Direction
A map offers possibilities but also limitations. When I’ve lived in a town, city or suburb for a certain amount of time, each direction lies heavy with familiarity. Here in Brighton, South is to the sea; North, to the Downs. West to Hove and, eventually, America. On down, tired days, I everything in my mind Read more
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Ai Wei Wei: “Making Sense” at The Design Museum, London
“Those who are alive, live on fully –don’t hope earth keeps a trace behind”– Ai Qing, 1980 Last night I caught the first half of “The French Dispatch”, one of Wes Anderson’s typically stylised, revealing guides to how wealthy east coast Americans perceive the rest of the world. We meet some amusing dealers, who attempt Read more
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Park Hill: Urban Splashback
In Sheffield for Offbeat, and with an hour to kill at the station, I climbed up through the snow to see how the redevelopment of Park Hill is going, eight and a half years since my last visit. Back in 2014, the privatised, brightly cladded section [1] was at the bottom of the hill, but Read more
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Modernism from Archway to Belsize Park
Oh, Archway. So much to answer for. We emerged, blinking, into the unexpected sunshine from the tube, and were greeted by the greasy stench of a nearby McDonald’s and the sight of a cyclist bravely heading up the hill to Highgate. There are, broadly, three types of modernist architecture walk in London. One: Marvel at Read more
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Open House: South Norwood Library and St Bernards, Croydon.
My understanding of London’s Open House began with a vision of queues: hoardes at the gates of the Foreign Office or some other shining city on the hill grudgingly opening up for the hoi polloi for one weekend a year; to reveal where all those tax dollars go. The social media moans about the wait Read more
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