Packed shoulder to shoulder with your neighbour, elbows jostling for position on the armrest, knees pressed up against the seat in front, your view blocked by a column – the West End theatre experience can be claustrophobic at the best of times. Now that theatres have been given the green light to reopen, with their share of a £1.5bn support fund in the offing, how on earth can these historic ... Read More

If no one ever built a skyscraper ever again, anywhere, who would truly miss them? I ask, because the engineer Tim Snelson, of the design consultancy Arup, has just blown a hole in any claim they might have had to be environmentally sustainable. Writing in this month’s issue of the architecture magazine Domus, he points out that a typical skyscraper will have at least double the carbon ... Read More

One of Britain’s most famous architects is under fire for agreeing to design an airport and terminal in Saudi Arabia despite signing a climate emergency manifesto that called for an “urgent need for action” on climate change. Norman Foster’s design firm, Foster and Partners, was one of the founding signatories of the profession’s Architects Declare manifesto last year. However, The Architects’ ... Read More

Much of this week has been spent discussing Rishi Sunak’s summer statement and attempts to revive the economy amid the pandemic. But in a month of big government plans, the pronouncement that may well leave a more permanent mark on the post-Covid-19-landscape was Boris Johnson’s promise to “build build build”. The prime minister’s supposed “ new deal ” to build our way out of a dire economic ... Read More

Since the mid-19th century, the city of Leeds has proudly greeted visitors from the south with some of the most elegant towers in the land. As the train snakes its way into the city centre, a trio of fine brick chimneys is revealed at a bend in the river, each styled after a different Italian renaissance tower. One mimics Giotto’s Campanile in Florence, another echoes the Torre dei Lamberti in ... Read More