Gothic   Author Jonathan Glancey makes a brilliant return to architecture criticism to show how Gothic architecture retains its grip on our imagination and why we still need its formal template and its moral example. Far from being a cultural dead end, Gothic architecture reached fresh heights in the 20th century. Skyscrapers could be seen… Read More

Brutalism   Brutalism, says Barnabas Calder, author of Raw Concrete: The Beauty of Brutalism, is hard to define, but easy to recognise. In this considered essay, he argues that whilst exposed concrete is now the key identifier for most of Brutalism’s fans, it is the structural potential of concrete that excited architects most at the… Read More

Metabolism   When they were documenting Metabolism for their book, Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist described it as “the first non-Western avant-garde movement in architecture.” Others have pointed to it as the vital pre-condition for contemporary architecture. Academic Penny Lewis ingeniously asserts the importance of a short-lived architectural movement and shows what can happen… Read More