urban design, web 2 and the orgasm
*UPDATE: for those viewing in RSS, click through to the site for the video as it may not appear in your reader* The Pecha Kucha presentations from last week’s be2camp are now available in both slide and video. The guy who wanders on screen in the eighth minute with a beer in his hand is […]

be2camp
I’ll be parachuting into the capital on Friday to take part in the first be2camp unconference. I’m really looking forward to being able to properly announce one of my latest projects: YouCanPlan Lozells. A few weeks ago, Birmingham City Council put out an invitation to tender for an extremely innovative and ambitious proposal that would […]

is this new street?
“Stunning new look for Birmingham’s New Street station…” Wait a minute, that looks rather familiar… Gare de Lyon by Santiago Calatrava

not so free run
Times are hard. Your credit is being crunched and there’s nothing you can do about it. Your value is being chamfered. Open the door and run. Run like the wind. Jump. Jump up. Jump up, jump up and get down. Nobody can take that from us, it’ll always be ours. Everything else has gone to […]
Urban Design since 1850
More notes from Architecture, You and Me by Siegfried Giedion (found in a second hand bookshop in 2005). This time it’s the recounting of a delightful list of important urban design developments since 1850 – books and building – according to Mr Giedion. The New Urbanists amongst you may find the regular appearance of Corb […]
inputs and outputs
Still here. Like a Norwegian Blue, I’ve just been resting. I return with some summer frippery. First, another day in the life post, since the past one proved quite popular. This time delivered via twitter, an offering made even more poignant perhaps by yesterday’s news that they’ve pulled the plug on the UK. So, from […]
in btween
A quick note to highlight some places I’ll be this week, in the hope that you’ll come by and say hello if you happen to be there too… Tomorrow I’ll be taking part in a workshop event leading up to the btween conference in Manchester. I’m very flattered to find myself invited along to play […]
Rehoused – part 4
Time to put my money where my mouth is, as they say. Here’s the fourth and concluding part of the ‘architecture re-housed’ trilogy – photos of the completed houses. Of course, although I’ve been quoted on the Building web site this week about the need to focus on existing housing, that doesn’t mean I’m not […]
John Madin: Architect
Here in Birmingham we await the results of the competition to see which starchitect will be delivering us their iconic vision for the future of the city’s library. As you can imagine, we’re all jolly excited about it *cough*. Before we get to this bright new future, the previous one has to be dealt with. […]
compact family home
Richard Horden in BD on the development (2 years on) of his micro compact home: Horden is now working on the family compact home, where kids have their own cube. ‘I’m constantly coming up with variants,’ he says. ‘Next is a low-carbon version. It could be built like a car on a production line, but […]