Why We Love/Hate Brutalist Architecture
Developed in response to the post-World War II housing crisis, the once celebrated Brutalism quickly became an aesthetic only an architect could love.
The Spy Who Shared My Foyer
Luminaries from Agatha Christie to Walter Gropius gravitated to London’s “Lawn Road Flats.” So too did a far less conspicuous cohort: assets for the USSR.
Red House: The Perfect Home for a Victorian Socialist
Subject to myriad interpretations over the last 150 years, William Morris’s Gothic-inspired home has been an enduring influence on Anglo-American architecture.
Plant of the Month: London Rocket
London rocket was observed in abundance following the Great Fire of London in 1666, but why does this non-native weed still interest English botanists?
Fake Stone and the Georgian Ladies Who Made It
Coade stone was all the rage in late eighteenth-century architecture, and a mother-and-daughter team was behind it all.