News and Recent Articles by Herbert Wright

February 2022__________

New projects in vibrant old neighbourhoods - gentrification?

I've written about two new creative hubs- here they are:

>> Brixton House in Brixton, London

A new theatre by Foster Wilson Size invites community into the foyer and commercial tenants into its crown

ICON 25 Feb 2022 

>> Idea Factory in a Shenzhen urban village

Once it made clothes, now it's reborn for creatives. And it's embedded in an urban village. Winy Maas of MVRDV explains.

South China Morning Post 22 Feb 2022

December 2021_________

published online: 

OPEN Architecture's Chapel of Sound

Near the Great Wall of China, an auditorium like a cave lies inside what looks like a giant sliced boulder

South China Morning Post, 22 Dec 2021

Big Digital Boxes Come Out of Hiding

Data Centres were architecture's biggest secret typology. But as Internet expansion continues to supernova, architects are coming upwith new ideas

Now blogged in English, first published in FRENCH published as De l'évolution des monstreux centres de données in Chroniques d'Architecture 

November 2021________

It's been a super-busy writing month! Much was for the first 2022 edition of Korea's C3 magazine,  including LA's new Academy Museum about which I interviewed Luigi Priano, RPBW partner, and Ricardo Bak Gordon about his latest Portuguese house design.

I interviewed two Chinese architects for the South China Morning Post (see below) and wrote about NZ's great rebel architect Ian Athfield for l'Architecture d'aujourd'hui  (in print soon). I surveyed London's new Design District in CoBo, which also ran reviews of two fine London art shows (links below). 

My monthly column in Chroniques d'architecture was written as COP26 got underway. Our new digital worlds are no escape from the only real planet we have. Links to 'Heaven or Hell' in English and French are below.

Hope something here stimulates you! HW  

Two Beijing-based architects bringing ‘human survival wisdom’ messages

As the 'Business of Design Week 2021' gets underway in Hong Kong, focussing on a 'design reset’, I interview Zhu Pei and Luo Yujie

South China Morning Post, 29 Nov 2021

Heaven or Hell?... regarding the Metaverse, crypto-transactions, fantasy architecture and our planet.

Now blogged in original English, after first publication in my monthly Chroniques d'architecture column in French as Enfer ou Paradis 

A Night-themed Exhibition positions Norwegian art amongst the world's best - the first in a series of Whitechapel shows from the Christen Sveaas Art Foundation

CoBo Social November 2021 

Hell in its Heydey - Pablo Bronstein at the Soane Museum offers a glorious dystopia.

CoBo Social Nov 2021

Design District - in London's creative village of completely new buildings, meet Variety, Colour, Human Scale and Surprise!

CoBo Social, November 2021

September 2021________

In print:

The new C3 magazine, no 415, is published! I look at several buildings and also offer the lead editorial 'Earth, Water, Air, Fire and COP26' (available online $$)

Now online: 

Comment IN FRENCH!: Brexit, architecture's UK-EU connection and Jay-Z  - my monthly column in Chroniques d'Architecture

I'm published for the first time in CHINESE! It is 艺术市场是非常反生态的.

My original 2020 article  IN ENGLISH was Stepping Into the Synthetic Forest with Andreas Greiner. It's about the Berlin artist and his AI-generated forests.

Summer_______ 

Waiting for a Slice - a short story

blog August 2021

Manchester International Festival 2021

- tackling big issues, but offering charm, drama and fun too

CoBo Social July 2021

How Modernist Charlotte Perriand Trailblazed 20th Century Living.

A giant of design, re-assessed

CoBo Social July 2021

Manchester, a Theatre of Dreams for the Architect. IN FRENCH!

chroniques d'architecture July 2021

Venice Architecture Biennale 2021 it's still overwhelming, even when surveyed online

CoBo Social June 2021

Biennale de Venise, comme si vous n’y étiez pas ... NOT being at the Venice Architecture Biennale IN FRENCH 

Chroniques d'architecture June 2021

... and NOW blogged in ENGLISH as

Not Being There... Venice and the Architecture Biennale

London Design Biennale 2021 proposes A Better World from an urban forest to a field of spoons

CoBo Social June 2021

Illuminated River... American artist Leo Villareal reveals his path from early 'Frankenstein' works to this gentle transformion of the Thames, and a look at its new activated stretch

CoBo Social June 2021

May 2021

My Zoom talk 'A Long Perspective on Building the Human Habitat'  to the Romanian Chamber of Architects (OAR) on 19 May, moderated by Ștefan Ghenciulescu, had great audience feedback! OAR reports 'more than 85% of respondents assigning the highest overall score... Appreciated most was the topic ...it was interesting, informative, and addressed burgeoning issues in an understandable way.' 

A video is destined for OAR's online learning resource - for the rest of us, I'm hoping to release a clip soon...

The Venice Architecture Biennale has opened, and the Hong Kong Pavilion includes Tszwai So's fim E-Motion-AI City on which I collaborated with concept, words and v/o. We are working to make it open-access - so stay tuned!

In print in Abitare magazine (no604) - my article about Richard Rogers' last project, the Drawing Gallery at Chateau la Coste, France. 

 in print April 2021

In French magazine l'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui no.442, themed Places of Worship, I supply text (English/French) for the cover-featured Punchbowl Mosque, Sydney by Candalepas Associates!  

My recent online columns in Chroniques d'Architecture  (French language)

Idée Lumineuse? Bright Idea?

I look at light pollution, a brief history of light and architecture, and London's Illuminated River           published May 

Togetherness is Here To Stay

A call to architects for post-Covid 'Emotionalist' architecture - the urgent emotion is joy!              published April 

Cladding

After the tragic horror of the Grenfell Tower fire, the UK's cladding cris rolls on. Why are we cladding anyway?  published March 

March 2021 in print:

C3 magazine no.412 carries my essay 'The Corporate Drive to be in Good Shape'. Looking at four big contemporary corporate buildings, it's Helen & Hard's new Stavanger bank HQ that shows the way forward with its timber structural frame.

I also interview Helen & Hard, and Christian de Portzamparc about his new 'grand projet', the Suzhou Cultural Center. 

February 2021 online:

Elephant World: Designing spaces good for companions bigger than us.

A wonderful project designed for coexistence, and an inspiring interview with its architect Boonserm Premthada.

(Scroll the German text to find the English!)

journal A, Feb 2021

Qu’est-ce que d’être un critique d’architecture? What is to be an architecture critic? IN FRENCH 

Chroniques d'architecture Feb 2021

.... and NOW blogged as

Confessions of an Architecture Critic

in ENGLISH

December 2020

Frances's top architectural magazine l'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui has a theme of Bigness. My contributions include interviewing planetary scientist Ravit Helled, who is working on the Juno mission to Jupiter. We talk of very big things!

My pre-covid talk Post-Digital Psychogeography has just reached 1000 views on YouTube! Not bad for a 50 minute lecture video. It's as super-relevant as ever - jplease WATCH! From Guy Debord's psychogeography, the keynote ranges across urbanism, learning from China and the existential threat of The Singularity.

LISTEN to my Floornature podcast! I'm interviewed by Christiane Bürklein and Virginia Cucchi and we talk about architectural writing, Emotionalism, the Singularity, China and more... It's a good listen!

November 2020

The new c3 magazine no 410 arrived from Korea with my essay 'Market Halls- Links in Civilisation' and interview with Ma Yansong of MAD architects about the cover story, his Beijing nursery project.  

My very interesting month included interviewing planetary astrophysicist Ravit Helled and Italian architect Francesca Torzo. I'm not going anywhere in lockdown, but I'm covering territory!

October 2020

 Tszwai So of Spheron Architects was live in a Hong Kong Venice Architecture Biennale curatorial preview/ presentation, with a glimpse of our film 'E-motion-AI-city'. 

Stepping into the Synthetic Forest with Andreas Greiner. A Berlin artist working in the zone where biology and technology meet has used AI to generate a forest.

Published in CoBo Social

September 2020

Toyin Ojih Odutola's 'A Counterveiling Theory'- a review of a new African myth presented in an epic show at the Barbican

Published in CoBo Social

July 2020

Very honoured to be named Contributing editor for Korea's stunning architecture magazine C3 (published in Korean and English)!

I'm quoted in the Daily Telegraph article ''The future of skyscrapers' by Tom Ough

I talked on InstaLive with Christiane Bürklein, following the fabulous new MVDVR-curated Baumeister (architecture magazine in German and English) in which I question how Germany is going green. Unfortunately tech problems mean no recording of my live interview, but there's related instagrams here. 

9 July 2020 announcement!

My team is shortlisted to curate the 

Tallinn Architecture Biennale 2020

The Emotionalist Team, jointly led with me by Tszwai So, principal of Spheron Architects, made it through to the final 5 shortlisted to curate the next TAB Tallinn Architecture Biennale

We propose that TAB 2022 is the launch pad of an architectural movement called Emotionalism. We see humanity devalued by ever-deepening digitalisation, and our response is to re-assert what makes us human in the design of the built environment.

Let emotions, not algorithms, drive design!

Our team includes Christiane Bürklein, Elo Masing and Veronica Simpson.

More info and press-ready images here

(Photo above is emblematic of our curatorial bid)

June 2020

The new special MVDVR-curated issue (no.117) of German architecture magazine Baumeister carries my epic article I Can See for Miles and Miles which challenges Germany's regulation-driven green dream of sustainability. Not just Germany - emerging from Covid-19, we all need to rethink what sort of future we need - like, yesterday! 

Save the Date: Christiane Bürklein follows up with me on 15 July with an Instagram-Live interview. More details to come!

May 2020

I've posted a blog that asks: Is the COVID-19 pandemic bringing us closer to the digital matrix?  This essay is connected to my City of the Singularity blogs and it's called:

 Hello, Bomb?

April 2020

With the overwhelming viris crisis, I'm frustrated that a key film that Spheron Architects made with me for Hong Kong's pavilion at the Venice Architecture Bienalle awaits the fate of the event. 

In the meantime, there's related material in my 2018 keynote speech on Post-Digital Psychogeography (now moved to YouTube).

Newly blogged: A Bridge over Troubled Water originally in Blueprint, about Renzo Piano and his new Genoa bridge to replace the Morandi Bridge which fatally collapsed in 2018. 

Hoping you're all okay out there! Let's get ready for life beyond these strange times!

March 2020

From Washington and New York there are fantastic things to report, but of course the virus crisis swept in, and everything is on hold. Mecanoo's simply amazing library projects will be opening, hopefully soon! 

Meanwhile, the new Blueprint carries my articles on the exciting rebirth of the Express Building, Mancheser, and a partly-woven building for Homes England near Cambridge.

And two exhibition reviews published in CoBo... but venues are closed for now.

Langlands & Bell at the Soane, London

Countryside, The Future at Guggenheim NY

Here's hoping we all get through this in good health!

February 2020

After shooting some footage with Spheron Architects, we sat around talking. Here's a simple but important comment about feelings and architecture!

Great to see C3 magazine no.405 with my lead story Major Offices: New Positions in Sustainability ... I ask, why the hell are we building out-of-town offices with huge car parks? 

January 2020

I've posted the next part of an exploration of superintelligence in the urban future:

The City of the Singularity Part 2:

Missions Too Important to Jeopardise

Missions that direct AI city management have political and social implications. We may be sleepwalking into a digitally immersive future, but there's one path that's good for the planet and us. 

Now Online:

The Centre de Conservation du Louvre at Lens, France, designed by RSHP - a fortress to defend culture!

Blueprint Nov 2019/ designcurial Jan 2020

December 2019

I met Renzo Piano in Genoa to talk about his new bridge to replace the city's Morandi Bridge which collapsed in 2018, killing 43. Read about it in January's Blueprint 367 

Flowers on Mars looks at the prospect of colonising Mars, including a very different idea from Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, currently in a London Design Museum show

The Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2019 has closed. One show rose above the pleasures of aesthetics - Agriculture and Architecture had a powerful message for cities, and curator Sébastian Marot jumped the gun on Koolhaas's 2020 show to spotlight the issues... Read the review in January's Blueprint 367

A Buldge in a Tight Alley- Neon, Leather and Drama in Studio SODA's Soho scheme. My Blueprint 366 article now online

The City of the Singularity: You See Us

The first part of a speculation about machine intelligence in complete control of the city and its citizens. The technical feasibility of this science-fiction scenario may come soon, with political, philosophical dimensions

blog November 2019

Monday 21 October 2019

I chaired a Negroni Talk at the

Groucho Club, London

Theme:    The Soul of Soho

Organised by Fourth Space

The panellists: Katrina Larkin, co-founder of Fora + Charlotte Skene Catling, architect, Skene Catling De La Pena + Russell Potter, SODA Studio architects + Darren Coffield, artist & writer

The question: What happened to the gritty bohemian neon-edged Soho of illicit pleasures? Is it all to be bland and brands... or can we save the Soul of Soho? 

Read more here 

Nice turn-out, good discussion, stimulating speakers, great evening - worth the walk-up! 

October 2019

 I report from Gwangju Design Biennale in Korea, decipering its theme 'Humanity' for CHAMP

I contributed words & voice-over to ArtHertz's film Tamesis Trilogy 1 which won a Cult Critic Award! More to come...

László Rajk 1949-2019

An extraordinary Hungarian architect, set-designer and dissident has died. 

I have posted a brief personal tribute.

also in September 2109

I visited the Chicago Architecture Biennial - a report to follow in Blueprint!

Blueprint magazine 366 Sep/Oct 2019 includes my feature coverage of David Chipperfield's James-Simon-Gallerie, Berlin + insights into London's Illuminated River, the first installment of artist Leo Villareal's vision + review of Alexander Calder show in Santander.

C3 magazine 403 carries my essay Come Together, considering several Community Buildings and issues they raise

___________

SAVE THE DATE! 24 June 2019

Francine Houben:

Designing for Culture

I'm in conversation with Francine Houben at the V&A Museum London, discussing cultural venues her practice Mecanoo have designed around the world - including Taiwan's vast National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts. Part of the London Festival of Architecture program 

Book here!

Summer 2019 Project - feedback welcome! 

I'm re-publishing the link to my talk

Post-digital Psychogeography 

given at Element Urban Talks in Krakow last December:  https://lnkd.in/e8AyatR 

Why am I doing this now?

With specific objectives in mind, I am now developing some of the thoughts I presented. One particular focus is The Singularity's potential impact on urbanism. I am therefore interested in any comments, suggestions -- and any potential opportunities to present an updated talk.

 You can email me

*The Krakow talk was very much a first draft of a work in progress - and I recognise shortcomings in its original presentation!   

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