letter from london

All eyes will be on London later this year when the Olympic finally hit town – and we work out whether the UK taxpayer contribution to the event, more than £9 billion – looks like money well spent.
In my view the answer is a resounding yes, for a variety of reasons. First the Games provided [...]

The final dinner at last week’s World Architecture festival was held in the inimitable surroundings of the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion, courtesy of the Mies Foundation and the City of Barcelona. The pavilion can be transformed into a temporary restaurant, seating 64 people at eight tables. I think it is fair to say that [...]

World Architecture Festival is nearly upon us, and with just a few days to go, we are all very excited about this year’s event, our spin-off show’ Inside: World Festival of Interiors’ which takes place in the same venue at the same time, and the fact that we have made it to the the fourth [...]

Following the Fukushima disaster it looked as though the triennial congress of the International Union of Architects (UIA) in Tokyo might have to be cancelled, partly because of the time and resources needed in responding to the crisis, and partly because of concern that there would be reluctance on the part of potential overseas delegates [...]

Talk to any architect anywhere in the world about architectural education and you will soon be embroiled in a mixture of personal reminiscence and propositions about better ways of teaching. Unless of course you are talking to teachers, in which case you will get gossip about extraordinary back-biting and knife-throwing, but an underlying feeling of [...]

This has been a terrific year for the World Architecture Festival Awards. With more than 700 projects entered we are at a three-year high, despite continuing economic problems in many parts of the world.
The number of entries increased by nearly 200 to 704, while the number of countries represented increased by 13% to 60 (against [...]

The World Architecture Festival Awards programme, now in its fourth year, attracted a fantastic 704 entries – the biggest number since our launch just as the world economy starting dropping in 2008.
And judging by the reaction of our short-listing jury in London this week, more certainly doesn’t mean worse – quite the contrary.
Fourteen judges worked [...]

If you have forgotten to enter WAF this year, or meant to but didn’t get round to starting the process, THERE IS STILL TIME!
Our closing day to register and pay is tomorrow, Friday 8 July. Do that and you can complete your electronic entry and send your boards next week.
To register, visit www.worldarchitecturefestival.com.
Don’t miss out!
Best [...]

World Architecture Festival and our sister event Inside (World Festival of Interiors) have been globetrotting over the last month. We had a launch party for this year’s events in Barcelona, courtesy of our sponsor Figueras in whose showroom we enjoyed excellent Spanish wines and jamon. A great range of people including old friends [...]

The American Institute of Architects convention is the biggest annual gathering of the profession; this year it will be a poignant occasion, visiting the recovering city of New Orleans, which has become a case study for renewal and regeneration in the aftermath of extreme environmental damage.
Happily, in the spirit of optimistic America, the convention will [...]