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Culture

Essays and videos on the arts, literature, travel, rituals and celebrations
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Architecture

The celebrated architect who took inspiration from sitting, waiting and contemplating

29 minutes

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Architecture

West Africa was once an architectural laboratory. Is it time for a revival?

12 minutes

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Architecture

‘I listen to the land’ – poetry and greenery intertwine in Emilio Ambasz’s architecture

9 minutes

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Architecture

The new architecture wars

Traditionalist and modernist architecture are both mass-produced, industrial and international. Is there an alternative?

Owen Hatherley

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Architecture

The subtle art of elevation

Architectural drawing speaks of mathematical precision, but its roots lie in the theological exegesis of a prophetic book

Karl Kinsella

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video

Architecture

Tour the European architecture that dreamed of a wondrous, fictitious China

16 minutes

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Cities

The rise and fall of Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s infamous urban monolith

18 minutes

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Design and fashion

The art of Istanbul dances to life in a tribute to the city’s timeless beauty

4 minutes

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History of technology

See the Mediterranean as it was captured in some of the earliest surviving photographs

20 minutes

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Architecture

Modern architecture should embrace – not ignore or repel – the nonhuman world

8 minutes

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Thinkers and theories

Jeremy Bentham was consumed by creating a perfect prison. Here’s the result

4 minutes

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Architecture

The radically impractical 18th-century architect whose ideas on beauty endure

19 minutes

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Cities

Inside the unique London community built by residents to defy housing discrimination

21 minutes

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Architecture

Why a sculptor pivoted from gallery installations to big-box stores design

9 minutes

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Architecture

How the Dorze in Ethiopia make ‘beehive’ houses from bamboo that last a lifetime

35 minutes

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essay

Architecture

Being in a building

One of the great buildings of the Renaissance reminds us that buildings are made to be explored, smelled and even tasted

David Karmon

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Architecture

Heritage at sea

Must we simply accept the loss of beloved buildings and cities to the floods and rising seas of the climate crisis?

Thijs Weststeijn

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essay

Architecture

Acoustic naturalism

Our movies and offices are engineered to sound natural based on what rang false in the theatres of 18th-century Paris

Joseph L Clarke

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video

Architecture

A whirlwind tour of Hong Kong’s high-rises is an awesome meditation on urbanity

9 minutes

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Architecture

Cultural wisdom begets cozy temporary homes for the Nenets of the Siberian Arctic

32 minutes

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Architecture

A world of shacks and shanties is a place of makeshift beauty on England’s margins

12 minutes

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Architecture

Surreal, audacious, unfinished – the Sagrada Família remains a divine work in progress

6 minutes

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Cities

The city is a lie

From Ancient Egypt’s deltas to Edinburgh’s crags and peaks, the city pushes back against the dream of human separateness

Sam Grinsell

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video

Cities

How the Barbican brought back living into the working heart of London

22 minutes