This has to be one of the most endearing sites on the Internet. It’s a meticulous one-person ode to all things Barbican Estate, from its history to housing rules and regulations. My personal favourite is the fantastically detailed guide to using the Garchey refuse disposal systems originally installed in each apartment.
Category Archives: Architecture
August 4, 2021
August 1, 2021
The remarkable life of the Royal Albert Hall (so far)
It took four years to build the Royal Albert Hall. While the building itself was being constructed in London, the roof was built in Manchester. It was taken to pieces for its journey by train to the capital, then put together again on arrival.
The roof simply sits on top – it is not attached to the Hall building in any way. When it was put in place, the weight of the roof caused the Hall to sink by just under a millimetre. It remains a sturdy construction after 150 years – the roof of the Royal Albert Hall is able to withstand the weight of up to 158 tonnes of snow on a particularly wintery day.
October 17, 2020
360 Panorama from The Shard
Will Pearson’s stunning gigapixel panorama short from the top of London’s tallest skyscraper, The Shard. You can make out many parks and the exclusive rooftop gardens most of us never get to see.
August 9, 2019
The Baffling Origin of London Stone
As architects began reconstructing the city, surveyors found that much like an iceberg, the visible stone was only a small portion of a much larger structure. The ‘root’ of the stone extended around 3m down into the earth. It could have been “a kind of Obelisque,” noted Robert Hooke, from the Royal Society, the UK’s science academy, at the time of excavation.
June 10, 2018
Abandoned ‘ghost village’ in China becomes overgrown
December 27, 2017
The best buildings of 2017
Out of these, the Tianjin Binhai Library is my favourite.