Architecture
Why confront the ugly lie of Islamic State with a tacky fake?
Can the beauty of Palmyra be reproduced by data-driven robots? Stephen Bayley on copies, fakes and forgeries
The lifts are lovely: Tate Modern’s extension reviewed
Tate Modern, badly overcrowded, has built itself a £260 million extension to spread everyone about the place more. This means…
Jonathan Meades on the postmodernist buildings that we must protect
Best of postmodernism: is that an oxymoron? Jonathan Meades thinks not
Are Egypt’s obelisks more stunning even than the pyramids?
On the banks of the River Thames in central London, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, known as Cleopatra’s Needle, reaches towards…
Further dispatches from Syria’s maelstrom
The mechanic, blinded in one eye by shrapnel, spent three days searching for his family in the destroyed buildings and…
The heart of Los Angeles feels like somewhere else entirely
There’s a certain kind of Englishman who falls hard for Los Angeles. Men such as Graham Nash, who swapped the…
Flying from Donald Trump to the beautiful ruins of another empire
Just as the presidential race in America started to get really crazy, I left for India. On the morning of…
Syria's Stalingrad: how Aleppo slipped from tolerance to terrorism
Justin Marozzi on the bitter irony of Aleppo’s ancient motto
The embarrassing story of Scotland’s most important 20th century structure
Finding St Peter’s is not straightforward. I approach the wrong way, driving up a pot-holed farm track between a golf…
The Heckler: why we must stop Thomas Heatherwick's Garden Bridge
Thomas Heatherwick is the most famous designer in the United Kingdom today and has an unquestionable flair for attention-grabbing creations.…
The couple behind the world’s most famous chair
Peter Mandelson, in his moment of pomp, had his portrait taken by Lord Snowdon. He is sitting on a fine…
The clock towers bigger than Big Ben
Bigger Bens Big Ben will have a £29m refurbishment. Who has the biggest clock tower? Kremlin Clock: Installed on the…
A crushing case for brutalism — with the people left out
Elain Harwood’s flawed but impressive study of modernist architecture manages perfectly to reflect its subject, says David Kynaston
Edmund de Waal’s diary: Selling nothing, and why writers need ping-pong
On the top landing of the Royal Academy is the Sackler Sculpture Corridor, a long stony shelf of torsos of…
The surreal beauty of Soviet bus stops
The Soviet Union was a nation of bus stops. Cars were hard to come by, so a vast public transport…
Palladio was the greatest influence on taste ever – but his time is finally up
Palladio gave his name to a style that spread around the world. But was it too successful for its own good, wonders Stephen Bayley
Escape Antigua’s tourists (but be ready to confront some grim secrets)
‘Tourism, tourism and tourism,’ said my Antiguan cab driver, when I asked what the country’s main industries were. Still, it’s…
The Heckler: architecture would be better off without Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid is the most famous woman architect in the world. Would women or, indeed, architecture, be better off without…
The new adventures of the adventure playground
Are adventure playgrounds set to make a comeback, asks Maisie Rowe
The moral case for gentrification
To gentrify or not to gentrify. That is the question, says Stephen Bayley
On the cusp: a cliche with a hidden astrological side
‘A stalker who dressed a pillow “mannequin” in his ex’s nurse’s uniform, then sent her a picture, has been told…
Fenchurch in the Sky Garden – like going for dinner in Total Recall
Fenchurch is a restaurant that is scared of terrorists. It cowers at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street, a skyscraper…
Should Euston Arch be raised from the dead?
Yes William Cook Rejoice! Rejoice! Fifty-four years after its destruction, Euston Arch has returned to Euston. Well, after a fashion.…
Welcome to Japan’s best kept cultural secret: an art island with an underground museum
In his introductory remarks to the Afro–Eurasian Eclipse, one of his later suites for jazz orchestra, Duke Ellington remarked —…
Renzo Piano’s new Whitney Museum is very good news - for the Met
About six years ago the first section of the now celebrated High Line was opened in New York and made…
