News and Recent Articles by Herbert Wright

Home

Architecture and Cities

Visual arts reviewed

Space and astronautics

Everything Else

Save the Date!

5pm, Saturday 26th January 2019

I will be chairing Architectural Scale: Physical and Virtual Resolution in the Post-digital Image at Anise Gallery 13 Shad Thames London SE1 2PU. The panel comes from digital artists (ab)normal, architects D*Haus and architectural renderers VR studio AVR... We promise to stimulate! 

Helsinki Midnight Blue- a short story 

posted December 2018

Save the Date and go to Poland...

I'm giving a talk!

Post-Digital Psychogeography

from Paris to Shenzhen

 from Debord to the Digital Matrix

 from the Streets to the Singularity

Can the Situationists Save the City… and the Human Race?

Saturday 1st December 2018

part of the Element Urban Talks conference

October 2018

I've been in Kaohsiung in Taiwan, where I visited the Mecanoo-designed Weiwuying Center for the Arts, then I went on to Hong Kong and Shenzhen. More updates to follow, but in the meantime check out some instagrams!

4th October 2018, Berlin

It was an honour to moderate and interview photographer Ken Schluchtmann at his exhibition Architecture and Landscape in Norway, at the Nordic Embassies, Berlin! We had a packed house and most of all, Ken's photos are simply sublime... if in Berlin, see the show!

July 2018

The new Blueprint 359 includes my feature on Ingenhoven's Marina One, Singapore + review of London Festival of Architecture and....

Venice Architecture Biennale - (almost) the Whole Thing. With Francesca Perry, Ruth Lang and Johnnny Tucker, Blueprint tries to digest this impossible offering. 5 pages online. I'm left with 'an underlying anxiety that the poetry of architecture cannot be oblivious to the problems of the real world'

May 2018

Dreams of Nature and Concrete: Studio Drift at the Stedelijk - What do those floating concrete blocks mean? And much else from Studio Drift's Lonneke Gordijn and Ralph Nauta

profile in Elephant May 2018

interview in CoBo Social June 2018

The new Blueprint 358 includes my cover story about Elizabeth de Portzamparc's Musée de la Romanité in Nimes

+ CentrePoint appartments

+ review: Superstructures exhibition about High-Tech architecture at Sainsbury Centre, Norwich

March/April 2018

I have been in Singapore and I will report on Marina One by architects Ingenhoven and landscapers Gustaf Porter + Bowman!

My interviews with Bjarke Ingels of BIG, Grand Paris Aménagement and Benoit Chang CEO of developers EuropaCity, about the planned €2 billion green leisure neighbourhood, are published in a special issue of l'Architecture d'Aujoud'hui 

The new Blueprint 357 includes many of my articles including:

Billion Dollar Cube- Trump tweeted that he'd steer clear of the new US Embassy in London, by Kieran Timberlake - but I checked the $1B outpost out

Jan/February 2018

Design Society - Views from the Top

An interview with Ole Bouman, director of Shenzhen's cool new museum/institution that's out to set China's design agenda

CoBo Social

A spotlight on Shenzhen's Urban Villages - and the future of cities

Unexpected lessons from UABB 2017 and the miraculous not-so-instant megacity

blog 

... and see article below...

Talking of Shenzhen's Urban Villages- interview with Meng Yan of Urbanus, co-curator of UABB Shenzhen 2017, about the hidden wonders of the Urban Village

CoBo Social 

Note: a full review of UABB SZ will appear in Blueprint magazine in March, and an essay on Shenzhen's urban villages will be published shortly 

Andreas Gursky- Getting the Big Picture

An epic retrospective of photographer Andreas Gursky at the re-opened Hayward

FAD magazine 

Blueprint 356 (Feb 2018) now published - my articles includes my look at Foster's new Bronzed and Breathing Bloomberg HQ, London + a house in Portugal by Miguel Arrudas

December 2017

We weren't selected to curate Oslo Architectural Triennale 2019, but the proposal from me and my 'FUBuLoUS' team was in the final 5 from 71 entries! 

We now REVEAL our curatorial proposal for OAT 2019... titled 'NO WAY BACK' 

The Christmas podcast of Nibble Night by CAMP features Christmas diaries of the famous, from Andy Warhol to Che Guevara - females read by Melanie Coles, males by me!

I've been travelling in China...

In Changsha, Hunan Province, I saw progress on Zaha Hadid Architects' great cultural project, in Shenzhen I attended UABB 2017... and more. Amongst my interviews were the great architect Meng Yan of Urbanus, and director of Design Society, Ole Bouman... watch this space!

In the meantime, check my instagram for a taste of my trip...

21st November 2017

Shortlisted for Oslo!

The Oslo Architecture Triennale has battled thru' 70 proposals to curate the 2019 edition and my 'FUBuLoUS' team of non-architects are in final shortlist of 5! Surely, an admin error? No- see the link above. Our proposed title is NO WAY BACK. Above is the fabulous artwork by Christopher Rainbow (Sputnikat Press) made for us.  

 I'm so pleased I may explode!   ?

November 2017

Blueprint 355 (Nov/Dec 2017) now published - my articles include a full review of the Chicago Architecture Biennial + Superflex at Tate Modern + Snøhetta's shiny cubist KMD college in Bergen, Norway

October 2017

It's been such a madly busy month, I am late updating this website - apologies! 

Here's what I saw in Lisbon: Bill Fontana transcends Lisbon’s vast 25th of April Bridge

And... I've grown wary of skyscrapers but am quoted by BBC about them in The Skyscrapers about to Change London's Skyline ... and ;) I nominated Centre Point the best one to be unveiled in 2018!

September 2017

I Was a Juror at SCI-Arc's Graduate Thesis Weekend

Does top Los Angeles architecture school SCI-Arc still have the radical edge of its past? In September, I was invited to judge graduate projects and see for myself.  

Blog published October 2017

Note: This blog was edited and re-re-published as

 California Dreaming: Exploring the Visions of SCI-Arc Graduates 

designcurial November 2017

I then headed back east for the Chicago Architecture Biennial, which will be reviewed in Blueprint. Back to Europe via Philadelphia Museum of Art to hear about Gehry's expansion project

Blueprint 354 (Sep/Oct 2017) now published - includes my articles:

*  Ready for the Rain: Renzo Piano's Centro Botín The futuristic new art centre in Santander, Spain, is shaped like two lungs in porcelain, but floats above the waterside

* The vGGG house in Berlin Mitte

Between a power station and legendary clubs, a new block by Gonzalez Haase has an internal and external dialogue with Berlin

* Reviewed: Soul of a Nation - the liberation, the joy and some funky stuff in Tate Modern's major African-American srt survey

* Industrial chic: the White Collar Factory

AHMM's robust London 'urban campus' block with more than a hint of Jean Prouvé

A busy Summer 2017!

In July I spent a week in Berlin. In August I visited projects in Bergen, Norway and Nimes, France... watch this space!

Blueprint 353 (July/Aug 2017) now published - includes my articles:
* COVER STORY Buried Treasure

The world's first porcelain courtyard marks the spot in Amada Levete's V&A extension -- the treasure is a vast new gallery

* Studio Indiginous' Wiikiaami in Colombus, Indiana

*Warsaw Rising: Libeskind's Złota 44

A new luxury tower challenges a Stalinist icon on Warsaw's skyline. I couldn't resist asking Daniel Libeskind his thoughts on non-luxury towers too.

* Californian Design at London's Design Museum Review of Designing Freedom, a show which cruised design from acid blotters to Autopia- but where is California taking us in the digital age?

* Fletcher Priest's ghostly skyscraper in The City, London

* Transformation within Antwerp's contemporary art museum M HKA

The Feuerle Collection: Juxtaposition in a Berlin Bunker

A visit to an extraordinary collection of ancient and contemporary art, and a talk with its collector, Désiré Feuerle

CoBo Social August 2017

Jonathan Baldock & Emma Hart take on Mr Punch in Blackpool

Rising London art stars take us into the world of Punch & Judy, and it is strange and sinister

FADMagazine July 2017

The Appearance of Ding Yi and his Crosses in London- the most constant of Chinese abstract artists, interviewed at his first London show

CoBo Social May 2017

Blueprint 352 (May/June 2017) now published - includes my articles:
* COVER STORY Museum of the Second World War, Gdansk +see below**

* A Letter from Gdansk

* Mies and Stirling at RIBA reviewed 

* Musée Camille Claudel

* from the Archives... my 2007 article at photographer John Donat

**The final interview with Prof. Paweł Machewicz before his dismissal as director of Museum of Second World War, Gdansk - transcript and follow-up statements from related parties

'For The Record' blog

March/April 2017 

I've been to Poland - to see the stunning Museum of World War 2 by Kwadrat in Gdansk and the Złota 44 tower by Libeskind in Warsaw - and explore these fascinating cities. Reports will be published! In the meantime, some instagrams ...

Blueprint 351 (Mar/Apr 2017)

includes my articles on:

> Frame Work - The Europa Building is the new European Commission HQ. Within a huge box made of old window frames, a curvaceous form floats like a captured moon. now online!

> Imagine Moscow at the Design Museum - a feast of Soviet avant-garde and social realism

now online!

> Slough's new library The Curve

> Electricity show at Wellcome, London, reviewed -

It's all now online!

Subscribe to Blueprint here

When Time Jumps through the Roof

I survey buildings built on top of buildings to make a new whole- recent projects from Elphilharmonie to a castle ruin in Spain, plus a historic survey. 

Korean & English, print only 

C3 magazine 388 March 2017

February 2017- now online

Waving not Drowning- Elbphilharmonie

Herzog and de Meuron's amazing new wavy crystal fantasy in Hamburg, pregnant with a vast concert hall 

from Blueprint 350 Jan 2017

March 2017 - now online

Anne Pigalle Celebrates the Soho of Dreams and Desires

The naughtiness of London's bohemian heart - artist Anne Pigalle leaves a brilliant trace of its evaporating pleasures

FAD magazine

Finding the Meaning of Peter Märkli

The Swiss architect with a cult following displays drawings and models in London

FAD magazine 

Zaha Hadid's art in Hong Kong - an interview with curator Amira Gad

CoBo Social 

Child's Play - Mark Neville's photo exhibition at Foudling Museum reviewed

(see a moosehead in the kitchen). We need to think about kids' right to play. 

FADmagazine Feb 2017

Paul Nash at Tate Britain - review of the Tate Britain show about painted two world wars and the mysticism of the English countryside

Blueprint Jan 2017, blogged Feb 2017 

Just found, from the Deep Archives! My 1998 interview with Ian Brown (ex-Stone Roses vocalist, then emerging indie solo star)

TransAction/ Rock-the-World Sep 1998

Blueprint 350 (Jan/Feb 2017)

includes my articles on:

> London's new Design Museum, Gone West - the history, the architecture, the shows + interviews with architect John Pawson and director Deyan Sudjic (mega-feature)

> Herzog & de Meuron's Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg (cover story)

> Rome's new Congress Centre by Fuksas (feature)

> Paul Nash, painter of war and mystical landscape, at Tate Britain

> Langlands and Bell's Frank Pick memorial wall down Piccadilly Circus station

> John Pawson's Feurerle Collection in Berlin

Subscribe to Blueprint here

Trump meets Lenin at The Crossroads.

Fake news! 

Journal of Wild Culture January 2017

.

.

.

.