Building case studies
Offshore wind farms: Winds of change
Tidal turbine technology is changing fast and offshore wind turbines are getting bigger, so the government-backed firm Narec is investing £80m into its testing facilities to simulate the harsh conditions at sea. Thomas Lane explains
Special projects: Cutty Sark - the crystal ship
The world’s last surviving tea clipper has risen again - not just restored, but dramatically suspended in a vast diagrid glass canopy. Ike Ijeh looks around - and underneath - Grimshaw Architects’ impressive renovation
The Olympics: After the party's over
This year’s Olympics will not be the first time that London has hosted a global event of historic proportions, but what were the legacies of our previous efforts? Ike Ijeh tells a tale of grand museums, hallowed turfs and mass installation public toilets …
The Titanic Belfast: The ship comes home
The Titanic museum in Belfast is a striking and poignant memorial to a vessel whose history is intrisically intertwined with that of the city. Ike Ijeh reports
France's nuclear fusion reactor: The hottest and coldest place on earth
Building goes on the trail of the ITER - a £12.5bn multinational project that might just save the world …
Best supporting acts: The ICE awards
Beneath Londoners’ feet, on their roads and in their stations, the city is undergoing arguably its biggest transformation since the Victorian age. The ICE awards, held last week, celebrated the cream of this current wave of infrastructure projects. Thomas Lane rounds up the winners
Regional Olympic sites: The out-of-towners
It really isn’t just about London … Ike Ijeh casts an eye over the Olympic-related developments, upgrades and refurbishments that have taken place across the UK, from the white-water rapids of Hertfordshire to the 53m-high Weymouth Tower
Sustainable supermarket: M&S's new Cheshire Oaks store
At this enormous store in Chester, M&S is putting its Plan A sustainability programme to the test. And from the zero-waste policy to the innovative use of natural materials, all the evidence suggests that this is one plan A that is actually working … Building reports
Exhibition Road: Walkin' & wheels
Dixon Jones’ £28m reworking of South Kensington’s great museum quarter, Exhibition Road, resolves the long stand-off between pedestrians and cars by allowing them to share the same space. Ike Ijeh is knocked over by the simplicity of the design. Photographs by Tim Crocker
Projects of 2011
Arts-led regeneration projects, rail upgrades, Olympic venues, luxury flats and an opulently refurbished hotel all defied the downturn. Thomas Lane and Ike Ijeh revisit some of the splendours
Hydropower: Water works
With all the controversy over solar, you’d be forgiven for forgetting that hydropower produces a thousand times more electricity. Building investigates a power source that could light up the industry
Arts-led regeneration projects: Join the culture club
These days museums, art galleries and concert halls are built not for their own sake but in the hope they can transform deprived urban wastelands into vibrant communities. Ike Ijeh looks at the resounding successes - and some abject failures
Free school conversions: Making the switch
The government went out of its way to make it easier for free schools to be formed in non-school buildings by easing planning laws. So now that they’ve opened their doors, do they actually work? Take a look at two very different conversions…
The ArcelorMittal Orbit: Twist and shout
The ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Olympic park is being built to ‘arouse the curiosity and wonder of Londoners’. And the most curious thing of all is how this spiralling confusion of red steel actually stands up
Westfield Stratford City: Maxing out
?Westfield Stratford City in east London - dead handy for the Olympic park - is Europe’s biggest urban shopping centre, a retail behemoth so large it is really a city within a city with more than 300 shops and 2 million ft2 of retail and leisure space. Ike Ijeh goes wild with the credit card
The iCon centre: the beginning of something beautiful
These days, ’green building’ is often synonymous with ’ugly architecture’. One project trying to prove otherwise is the iCon Innovation Centre in Northamptonshire. With a carbon footprint of only 12.2kg/m2 and a bold architectural identity, is this a sign of a new era for eco?
Brettstapel envelope: The natural choice
Getting planning permission to build a house in the stunning Scottish Borders requires a sensitive design, which is why architect Gaia specified a wooden Brettstapel envelope for this project
Post occupancy: Is your building really so green?
How do low-energy buildings perform? The best way to find out is to test them once they’ve been used. In the first of two articles, Thomas Lane reveals whether two new offices lived up to their promises
Tesco's green specification process: Every little helps
Supermarkets don’t like to be beaten on price - or on their environmental credentials. To get ahead of the competition, Tesco is now testing every bit of green kit it can lay its hands on to build zero-carbon stores. Building reports on the savings
Sculpting the Hepworth
Art meets industry in David Chipperfield’s Hepworth Wakefield gallery, reflecting two facets of its Yorkshire location’s heritage. But is this work of art devoid of humanity?
It’s big, it’s bold, but is the Heron tower any good?
The City’s tallest skyscraper is the ultimate in lavish office space for ’boutique’ finance firms. But its design is a huge let down for Londoners
Guy's Hospital Tower refurbishment: Nurse, the screens
Penoyre & Prasad is giving Guy’s Hospital Tower – a brutalist eyesore in central London – a new £25m facade. But, says Ike Ijeh, it will take more than a clever bit of cosmetic surgery to turn this one into a looker
Zaha Brava: The Guangzhou Opera House
Architecture and geology collide in Zaha Hadid’s glorious Guangzhou Opera House
The Dali Enigma: HOK's Florida museum
HOK’s Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida marries the classical with the fantastical, a paradox the artist himself would have cherished
One Hyde Park: Heart's desire
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, known for its left-leaning sympathies, is the architect behind the world’s most expensive apartments: One Hyde Park in London’s Knightsbridge
The Midland Grand at London St Pancras: A touch of class
George Gilbert Scott’s Victorian gothic masterpiece, the Midland Grand at London St Pancras, is about to reopen as a five-star hotel after a painstaking restoration. The result is stunning
Winging it: Bombardier aircraft factory
Air traffic gridlock over the holidays might have put you off flying for life. But Bombardier is launching a new plane with high-tech carbon fibre wings - first, though, it needed a factory that could be designed in tandem with those wings
Fancy a half at your heritage local?
Historic buildings need to earn their keep these days, whether they’re in the City or the shires. They can’t all be museums or art galleries though, and the new preservers of our built heritage might surprise you
Pollard Thomas Edwards' Islington square: Shaping up nicely
Pollard Thomas Edwards has made a north London square whole by filling in its missing fourth side with a residential scheme that sensitively reinterprets its traditional context
Make's £100m Cube: Birmingham cubed
The Second City’s Jewellery Quarter inspired the facade of Make’s astonishing Cube development. But as with any box of jewels, its real treasures are inside
Sikh place of worship: The gurus of Gravesend
A cash-strapped project to build a Sikh place of worship in Gravesend procured the large marble domes, arched windows and highly ornate stonework from India - and saved more than £2m along the way
The use of force: Building information modelling
Building information modelling may make everything better, but most firms don’t want to use it. But that might change now the government plans to make it compulsory on all public projects. Stephen Kennett reports
Gilt trip: Refurbishing the Savoy hotel
The refurbished Savoy hotel looks a million dollars - which is just as well because it cost more than £200m to do up. Happily nobody was to blame for the cost and time overruns - except possibly the owner’s insatiably lavish tastes
Senseless acts of beauty
Foreign Office’s art college in north Greenwich is a beguiling mix of randomness, order and commercial astuteness
Maglev high-speed trains: London to manchester in 55 minutes
Magnetically levitating trains are faster and quieter than high-speed trains, use less energy and take up a lot less space. So why is this technology still waiting on the platform?
Rehousing animals: First catch your vole
The London Gateway port will handle 3.5 million containers a year and is a huge construction undertaking. But an added complication is the relocation of thousands of animals that inhabit the area - at a cost of £50m
Terry Farrell's Regent's Place: Regent’s spark
Sir Terry Farrell’s Regent’s Place is the fruition of a vision that should kick-start the regeneration of one of London’s more grisly thoroughfares. Ike Ijeh reports
Chatham Dockyard's salvage operation
Returning a wrecked building to public use is tough enough at the best of times, but when your main contractor goes under, the pressure piles on. Stephen Kennett hears how Chatham Dockyard overcame adversity to open its new cultural hub for the summer tourist season
2012 countdown: The aquatics centre
Since the aquatics centre’s 160m-long roof was lowered into place last year, work on the Zaha Hadid-designed venue has continued to power ahead
2012 countdown: Infrastructure
The Olympics isn’t just about show-stopping stadiums. In fact, the budget for venues is £700m less than the cost of the no-frills enabling works, roads and utilities
2012 countdown: Jonathan Edwards and the Olympic village
Don’t worry. Jonathan Edwards hasn’t fallen on hard times since winning gold at Sydney in 2000. Rather, Locog is using his expert knowledge to help with the delivery of the £1bn Olympic village, right down to the fixtures and fittings
Millennium projects: 10 years of good luck
From the wobbly Millennium Bridge to the infamous Spinnaker Tower and the runaway success of Tate Modern, fortune smiled on some millennium projects more than others. Ike Ijeh celebrates their 10th anniversary
Steelwork repairs hamper Shard progress
Mace’s deadline to build the Shard has come under renewed pressure after a key part of the 310m tall tower has had to be repaired
Welcome arrivals: East London Line
The East London Line extension has brought four new stations to the capital. Ike Ijeh reviews their designs
Support act: Cannon Place
Finding somewhere to lay the foundations for an office block above London’s Cannon Street station proved so difficult, the engineers had to call on the structural principles of the Forth Bridge to get the job done
Beyond the pale: Renzo Piano's Central St Giles
Controversial it may be, but Central St Giles has cheered up an obscure corner of London with a riot of reds, yellows, greens and oranges – making the rest of the capital look a tad grey.
The Shard: Foot of the mountain
The Shard had already climbed to 21 storeys by the time 700 truckloads of concrete were poured to create its foundation. So what was stopping it from falling down?
Strata tower: Southwark’s sore thumb
The Strata tower sticks out 150m above south London’s downtrodden Elephant and Castle. But, rather than being a symbol of aspiration, the building is turning away from the very area it’s meant to be giving a lift
Double crossing: Heneghan Peng’s Olympic bridge
Heneghan Peng’s 54m-wide central bridge at the Olympic park, which was lowered into place last week, has been ingeniously designed to form two narrower walkways after the Games have finished. Stephen Kennett explains how it all works
The best seats on earth: South Africa’s World Cup stadiums
On 11 June, the 2010 World Cup kicks off in South Africa, the first time it’s been held on the African continent. Some 32 nations will compete in 10 stadiums, five of which are new. Stephen Kennett and Thomas Lane take a look at the construction of the big three
Worcester Library and History Centre's roof
The Worcester Library and History Centre’s geometrically complex roof needed to bring light into the building as well as get air out. Luckily, a powerful parametric model came to the rescue, as Stephen Kennett discovered
Sunderland university student union: All bar none
There’s no room for slackers at Sunderland university’s dazzling new student union, which packs its impressively generous spaces with sports halls and exercise areas. You can’t even get a pint around here
Zaha's Museum of Transport: The battle of the oil can
Zaha Hadid’s Museum of Transport in Glasgow was designed with gothic zinc-clad ridges and 100m-plus roof spans. They looked great on a computer screen, but led to memorable rows with the project team
Stanbrook Abbey: Life and soul
Nuns may not be the most demanding of clients, but apparently they do expect a building to be ‘transcendental’. Dan Stewart took a pilgrimage to Feilden Clegg Bradley’s Stanbrook Abbey in the Yorkshire moors to find out what that means
Media City, Salford: This is the BBC
Developer Peel Holdings and Bovis Lend Lease enjoy a high level of trust – which is just as well, because when they took on the Beeb’s new studios at MediaCity in Salford, there was a fair degree of risk involved – and getting the project in before the pips was only part of it
KfW Banking HQ: Eco de Cologne
The Anglo-German practice Sauerbruch Hutton has released images of its almost completed 38,000m2 extension for the KfW Banking headquarters in Cologne
Hackney-sur-Mer: Levitt Bernstein’s Queensbridge Quarter
Dalston, a less-than-glorious corner of east London, is beginning to look as if it might be able to tempt well-heeled Londoners to give it a go – thanks in part to Levitt Bernstein’s Mediterranean-styled Queensbridge Quarter
Grosvenor Waterside by Make: Don’t tell Charles …
Within spitting distance of the notorious Chelsea Barracks site is this startlingly modern block of flats by Make Architects. Yet, so far, the good burghers of Belgravia haven’t uttered a word against it. And nor has you-know-who. What’s going on?
Crazy angles, soaring steel: Zaha Hadid’s Guangzhou opera house
As the Chinese city of Guangzhou races to build a new district in time for the 2010 Asian Games, the designs of two British architects enter the spotlight. Thomas Lane charts the trials, tribulations and triumphs of Zaha Hadid’s opera house and Wilkinson Eyre’s West Tower
New age medicine: healthcare technology
Willmott Dixon has developed a prototype of a healthcare facility of the future, which includes self-diagnosis pods, robotic medicine dispensing and remote treatment
Tubular belge: Buro Happold's steel shopping centre
Buro Happold’s roof for Liège’s new shopping centre takes the form of a 400m-long steel snake, which undulates to dramatically different heights. Stephen Kennett finds out how it was done
Gotta get through it: Halcrow builds the UAE's longest tunnel
This mountain range stands between Dubai and one of the UAE’s most important ports. Which is why a team from Halcrow is holed up there right now, enduring the heat and hard rock on the country’s longest ever tunnel project
The Building Awards shortlist 2012
Sixteen buildings - including laboratories, galleries, banks, the UK’s second tallest building and a space-shuttle-strength storage facility - are vying for two top prizes at this year’s Building Awards. Ike Ijeh runs down the shortlist
King's Cross Western Concourse: Space Travel
John McAslan’s 8,500m2 Western Concourse at King’s Cross is transport architecture on an epic scale, returning the station to the grandeur of the golden age of trave. Just a shame about the glazing …
Redeveloping Bart's and Royal London hospitals
It was tempting to hang a ‘do not resuscitate’ sign on two dingy, barely accessible London hospitals, but Skanska’s redevelopment of the sites has made them functional again - which should perk up medical staff and patients alike
From 1900 to 2012: Finishing the University of Birmingham
Aston Webb’s grand semi-circle of buildings conceived for Birmingham university in 1900 was the original redbrick campus. But only four of its five neo-Byzantine pavilions were ever built. Now Glenn Howells Architects and Bam have finished the job. Building reports
Cladding the Dorchester extension: The rich kid next door
When you’re building a hotel for the young and fabulously wealthy, bronze cladding may not sound excessive, but it was still proving beyond the means of the team behind the Dorchester’s new extension project - until they discovered a spray-applied alternative … Building reports
Canada's bold new library: Can we borrow it?
A city near Vancouver has taken a bold approach with its new public library - throwing out traditional study spaces and pioneering design by social media. Could it provide a template for our own beleaguered institutions? Ike Ijeh reports
Farringdon station overhaul: Boring? If only!
London’s Farringdon station has been given an overhaul and is ready for more passengers, bigger trains and Crossrail. But it hasn’t been an easy ride - and digging a 140m tunnel by hand was the least of it. By Thomas Lane. Photography by Colin Streater
The notorious work of Richard Seifert
Ten years after Richard Seifert’s death, Ike Ijeh asks how some of his most well-known works have shaped the architecture of modern Britain - and how controversial they really were
Flood-proof house: Home and dry
Would you build a house on the Norfolk Broads, one of the most flood-prone areas of the UK? LSI Architects did and its sophisticated design meant getting the project through planning was plain sailing.
University of the Arts: The art of simplicity
The new University of the Arts campus exudes creativity. Ike Ijeh visits the recently converted King’s Cross Granary to find a building that melds old and new, industry and art and provides a home for the next generation of designers
Rafael Viñoly's Firstsite centre: show time
Rafael Viñoly’s latest UK building finally takes centre stage, but why was it nearly undone by delays, overspends and legal spats? Thomas Lane reports, while below Ike Ijeh asks if it was worth all the pain
Tall building design: Is it safe?
Ten years ago the world watched two of New York’s most iconic towers come crashing to the ground. Since then the industry has changed the way tall buildings are built in an attempt to make them terror proof. Building takes a look
Top of the class: Passivhaus school design
A primary school in Exeter won’t win any architectural awards, but is earning gold stars in zero-carbon and Passivhaus design. Thomas Lane swots up on how to deliver a low-energy building on a budget
The National Maritime Museum: Time and a place
The National Maritime Museum’s £35m extension reconciles the rich architectural heritage of its Greenwich home with the need to provide thoroughly modern facilities. Building celebrates a building firmly anchored to its surroundings
King's Cross station's £500m redevelopment: King of King's
King’s Cross station was long ago toppled from its architectural throne by neighbouring St Pancras. But a £500m refurbishment is about to make it a terminus worthy of the people
The Shard: London's tallest building
Londoners have hardly been able to believe their eyes as the capital’s tallest building has shot up in front of them at dizzying speed. Building braves icy winds to report on an engineering triumph
Culture clash - Las Arenas, Barcelona
What do you get when you turn a 19th-century bullring into a 21st-century shopping centre? A theatrical melding of Spain’s cultural past and present
The London Bridge viaduct: The missing link
A railway viaduct is being built through the heart of London’s bustling Borough Market and in two weeks its new bridge will be a major landmark. All that remains is to move it to the right place
Rebuilding Iraq: Mott MacDonald's Marsh Arab school
How do you start to rebuild a country devasted by war? When Mott MacDonald was asked to make a school for the Marsh Arabs, it went back to using traditional woven reed – reconnecting the community to its roots.
West Ham's stadium: Up close and personal
West Ham won the acrimonious battle for the post-Games conversion of the Olympic stadium. But will its football stadium-cum-athletics arena be able to create the intimate atmosphere its fans demand?
This is the BBC ...
After nine years, two architects and £1bn, the controversial BBC Broadcasting House refurbishment is winding up. But is it a feat of architectural elegance and practicality, or just another prime-time flop?
High velocity: The Olympic velodrome
Hopkins’ Olympic velodrome is the first 2012 venue to reach the finish line and the result is a dynamic statement of simplicity and elegance
Blackfriars station: Pulling out the stops
Blackfriars station is being rebuilt on a bridge right over the River Thames. With a four-lane road to the north, live railway lines on all sides and the river below, it’s not the easiest site on which to deliver a complex project. So how was it done? Thomas Lane buys a platform ticket
Jakob + Macfarlane's Lyon office: The cube with a hole
Cuboid buildings may be all the rage but Jakob + Macfarlane’s provocative office block in Lyon is one of a kind
Projects of the year 2010: Take it to the max
The big, the beautiful and the bonkers - Ike Ijeh and Thomas Lane dish out the awards to an international array of projects that helped keep construction headlines lively in 2010
Nomura’s office fit-out
Invesment bank Nomura wanted its £100m, 400,000ft2 offfice fit-out completed in eight months, the problem was finding a contractor able to work at that pace. Building finds out how Como, Mace’s fit-out arm, managed to race to the finish line
Qatar's zero carbon stadium: 96 degrees in the shade
Qatar wants to host the 2022 World Cup. But first it has to convince FIFA that the game can even be played in a Qatari summer. So it got Arup Associates to create a micro-climate inside a 500-seat test stadium. Cool.
Laboratory of Molecular Biology: Master of science
The Medical Research Council’s new chromosome-shaped lab in Cambridge is an example of how attention to detail and planning can deliver complex buildings on time and to budget
Arena Stage, Washington by Bing Thom: Through a glass darkly
Peer closely and you’ll make out not one theatre behind that glass facade, but three. It’s Bing Thom Architects’ audacious response to the need to make artistic and architectural sense of two dysfunctional theatres in a deprived area of Washington DC. Ike Ijeh was wowed
The future looks rosy: Sheffield's Park Hill estate
Urban Splash’s refurb of a listed sixties council estate is turning one of the republic of South Yorkshire’s biggest problems into an aspirational address
Cost of school refurbishment: case study
They might not have the glamour of new-build, but refurbishments, such as this one at Castle Hill school in Kent, have their wow factor too - nowhere more so than on price. Ike Ijeh sums it up
Empire State Building window refurb: The empire strikes back
Manhattan’s Empire State Building is leaking air and carbon by the tonne. But a project to reduce heat loss and solar gain from its 6,514 windows has raised its green credentials - and drastically lowered its energy bill
Brockholes floating visitor centre: Tread lightly
The designers of a new visitor centre for Brockholes wetland nature reserve plan to float the facilities in the middle of a lake - while ruffling as few feathers as possible
Insulation retrofit: Sealing the house
So how do you get a leaky Edwardian building to be so airtight that it can be heated with a single towel rail? Robert Prewett, the architect behind the retrofit, takes us through the project’s first steps …
Kazakhstan: Building the world's largest tent
In the capital of Kazakhstan, Buro Happold, Foster + Partners and developer Sembol have built the world’s largest tent. And their heroic attempts to heave that 90m mast upright are enough to make fair-weather campers weep
2012 countdown: The temporary basketball venue
The Olympics may need a basketball venue the size of an aeroplane hanger, but London can probably get by without one after they’re over. So they’ve made the whole thing demountable
2012 countdown: The stadium
One year from now, the 80,000-seat Olympic stadium has to be ready. Will it make it?
2012 countdown: The velodrome
The plan with the velodrome was to make it as lean as a racing bike, says Chris Wise, one of its designers
Aldar’s Abu Dhabi HQ: One last spin of the wheel
Aldar’s Abu Dhabi headquarters is one of the final feats of jaw-dropping construction machismo we’ll see from the UAE for a while, says Thomas Lane. And it gives us plenty of reasons to mourn their passing …
Mainstream green: Brighton belle
One Brighton is the brainchild of the team behind super-green development BedZed. But although sustainability is at the heart of the scheme, it’s going to do it its own sweet way
Sands of time: Foster's shell roof
Novum Structures had just four months to build this complex shell roof structure - part of Foster + Partners’ sand-dune inspired pavilion for the Shanghai 2010 Expo. So how did they do it?
Positive thinking: Masdar HQ
The seven-storey Masdar Headquarters, under construction outside Abu Dhabi, will be the world’s first large building that generates more energy than it consumes
Bankside: Have you met the Tate’s new neighbours?
Once snubbed as the poor relation of the trendy South Bank, Bankside has been transformed over the past decade by ambitious design. Now, finally, the residential sector is moving in
Mall mania: Majid Al Futtaim Group’s building boom
You don’t have to be British to work for the Majid Al Futtaim Group but it certainly helps. Having built 10 malls in the Middle East, MAF now has plans for another 10 and, it wants you in on the shopping spree
The London Library: Speaking volumes
The London Library has been extending in higgledy-piggledy fashion ever since it moved to its St James’s home in 1845. Now Haworth Tompkins has set out to rationalise its circulation so that readers may actually be able to find the books they’re looking for
The two-year rush hour: London’s Park Plaza hotel
Park Plaza has built a 1,000-bedroom hotel and conference centre in the middle of one of London’s noisiest roundabouts. But it was delivering the project in just 24 months that kept the construction team suitably stressed
The hospitable: Foster + Partners’ Circle Bath hospital
Foster + Partners intended its first ever healthcare project – the 28-bed Circle Bath – to be as warm and welcoming as a five-star boutique hotel
The new arrival: Balfour Beatty’s Birmingham PFI hospital
Weighing in at £585m, Balfour Beatty’s Birmingham PFI hospital was expected to be a difficult birth. Instead, it has been delivered with few complications, no trips to casualty, and ahead of its due date. Thomas Lane hands round the cigars
The right formula: Abu Dhabi's Yas Hotel
With its dramatic architecture, precise engineering and top-speed construction, the Formula One-themed Yas Hotel has outlapped most of Abu Dhabi’s other buildings
Ropemaker or Watermark Place: The big square off
Two big hitters have emerged on the streets of the City: Ropemaker in the red corner (above left), Watermark Place in the blue (above right). But which will take the sustainability title and be crowned ultimate speculative office champ?
Get your skates on: Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic ice rink
The 2010 Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games has triggered a flurry of building activity – including this Trout Lake ice rink. Stephen Kennett hurried along for a preview
Taming the beast: Winchester’s green office refurb
This is the story of how a sixties brutalist eyesore was turned into a building more becoming to the genteel town of Winchester – and made into one of the UK’s greenest offices in the process
Penoyre & Prasad’s John Perryn primary school: Start again!
John Perryn primary in east Acton had lost the confidence of parents, staff and Ofsted. So the government stepped in to rebuild it, with a little help from Penoyre & Prasad and Willmott Dixon
Second time lucky: the Sigma II eco-house
When the Sigma eco-home at the BRE Innovation Park failed to hit the upper bands of the Code for Sustainable Homes, the blame was laid squarely on the building fabric. Now its maker is having another go
Party Tricks: Ash Sakula's Luton Carnival Arts Centre
Ash Sakula’s Carnival Arts Centre is Luton’s answer to Notting Hill – buzzing with life and invention and a haven for stiltwalkers and other forms of streetlife
Amanda Levete's Dublin bridge
Amanda Levete’s first project since she left Future Systems, the firm she ran with her late husband Jan Kaplicky, is a sculptural bridge in Dublin that lays the way for a new direction in her career
Sleeping beauty awakes: the St Pancras Midland Grand hotel
The fairy-tale castle that is the Midland Grand hotel has been asleep for a very long time. Now the arrival of the Eurostar has roused it, and it is once again to become the most stylish address in London
Meet the government's new best friends: Victorian refurb
Renovation will play a vital role in meeting the government’s target of an 80% emissions reduction by 2050. And it’s the owner occupier who’ll be doing the work. Two south London residents found out what it takes
