The commission, valued at up to £46,000 (including VAT), will see the appointed architect work closely with ateb’s internal teams to deliver a 30-unit housing development, supporting the group’s mission to create better living solutions for the people and communities of West Wales. The two-year contract, running from July 2025 to July 2027, will require the architect to oversee all stages of design, from feasibility through to tender, in line with Welsh Government technical scrutiny and local authority planning requirements. The project is part of ateb’s ongoing commitment to respond to local housing need, regenerate communities, and provide a variety of affordable tenures, including social rent, rent to buy, and shared ownership.Advertisement According to the brief: ‘The ateb Group (where ateb means answer or solution In Welsh) is a unique set o companies that collectively has the shared purpose of 'Creating better living solutions for the people and communities of West Wales. ‘ateb currently has around 3,100 homes predominantly in Pembrokeshire, that we rent on either a social or intermediate rental basis.  ateb works closely with its Local Authority and other partners to develop around 150 new homes every year, to meet affordable housing need through a range of tenures such as, for rent, rent to buy or shared ownership.’ Tavernspite is a small village of around 350 inhabitants located 9.7km southeast of Narberth in Pembrokeshire. Ateb, based in nearby Haverfordwest, is a not-for-profit housing association managing around 3,100 homes across the county. The group’s social purpose is supported by its subsidiaries: Mill Bay Homes, which develops homes for sale to reinvest profits into affordable housing, and West Wales Care and Repair, which supports older and vulnerable residents to remain independent in their homes. Bids will be assessed 60 per cent on quality and 40 per cent on price, with a strong emphasis on experience in the housing association sector and collaborative working with internal client teams.Advertisement Applicants must hold professional indemnity insurance of at least £2 million and be prepared to attend in-person evaluation presentations as part of the assessment process. Competition details Project title Provision of Architect Services for Tavernspite Development Client Contract value Tbc First round deadline Midday, 3 July 2025 Restrictions The contract particularly welcomes submissions from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and voluntary, community, and social enterprises (VCSEs) More information https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/031815-2025

The farmhouse, Flint Farm, in North Hertfordshire, was in poor condition with a number of unsympathetic additions that had altered its character over the years. Will Gamble Architects was appointed to restore and extend it for a young couple who wanted to transform it into their long-term family home and improve the house’s relationship with its garden and wider farmyard setting. While the original brief had been to replace an existing conservatory with a new extension, the practice encouraged the client to extend by integrating an adjacent barn into the envelope of the reworked house, changing the way the property was used.Advertisement Existing unsympathetic extensions were removed and the internal layout was reconfigured, with a new linking element added between the barn and farmhouse. The series of internal spaces that has been created is designed to retain the character of the historic listed property. Architect’s view The barn was sensitively restored and converted into an informal living space. Its timber-framed structure was refurbished and left exposed to celebrate the historic fabric of the barn and the craftsmanship of its original construction. A contemporary picture window with parts of the historic timber frame exposed within its reveals frames a view of the garden, as well as the barn’s unique structure. The extension, that links both barn and farmhouse, is deliberately contemporary in appearance to ensure that the historic buildings remain legible. It’s low-rise, built into the sloping garden and particularly lightweight in appearance. Floor-to-ceiling glass sits on a plinth of semi-knapped flint, rooting the intervention into the garden. A ribbon of black steel, with shallow peaks and troughs hovers above. The form of this ribbon draws inspiration from the distinctive black timber-clad gables that characterise the farmhouse and the surrounding outbuildings of the old farmstead. Internally the addition’s structure is exposed, much like the historic timber framed structure of the farmhouse and the barn. The interiors are tactile, defined by texture and pattern and inspired by the characteristics of the old farmstead. Miles Kelsey, associate, Will Gamble ArchitectsAdvertisement Client’s view We bought the farmhouse as a family home to move out of our two-bed flat in north London. Will visited the farmhouse with us whilst we were working through the purchase to understand what we were looking to do and went on to support us through each stage. The farmhouse was a combination of the original 16th century timber-framed building that had been added to with unattractive, unusable, and poorly planned extensions that meant the house was completely disconnected from the garden. Will and Miles transformed the whole house including moving the front door, converting an adjacent barn and building the modern extension as our kitchen and dining room that makes the best of the garden and views. The process that Will and Miles ran was a perfect balance of what we wanted, Sophie’s specific tastes and creativity combined with the benefit of the architects views and what they have done before. What really stood out to us was the way they worked with the council during the planning process so we got consent for almost everything we wanted, expressing their own views but ensuring we were always leading the process and the attention to detail during the build stage. Overall we are incredibly happy with what Will and Miles helped us create and the way they led us through the whole process.   Source:Will Gamble Architects Project data Location North Hertfordshire Start on site April 2023 Completion February 2025 Gross internal floor area 320m2 Form of contract or procurement route JCT MW Building Contract. Design-Bid-Build Architect Will Gamble Architects Client Private Structural engineer Axiom Structures Principal designer Will Gamble Architects Main contractor Elite Construction

The Swiss architects first submitted controversial plans to overhaul the Grade II-listed terminus in the City of London in May 2023 on behalf of Sellar and Network Rail. Now the AJ understands the practice is drawing up a rival scheme, separate to its original proposal, which is effectively a third but as yet unseen design for the station and a development above it. ACME, on behalf of Network Rail, submitted its own proposals in April after Network Rail appointed the Shoreditch practice to draw up plans last year. This put the brakes on Herzog & de Meuron’s 2023 scheme, which had been updated with amendments in 2024 in response to criticism over heritage harm – though the application was never withdrawn and remains live on the City of London’s planning portal.Advertisement According to sources, Herzog & de Meuron – still with Sellar’s backing – is actively working on a fresh scheme with ‘much less demolition’, which could rival ACME’s plans as well as its own 2023 scheme. SAVE Britain’s Heritage, which the AJ understands is among several bodies to have been consulted on the ‘third’ scheme for Liverpool Street station, told the AJ: ‘There are now potentially three live schemes for the same site. ‘However, what is interesting about Sellar’s latest proposal is that it involves much less demolition of the station. Network Rail and their current favoured architect, ACME, would do well to take note.’ Historic England, which strongly opposed the original Herzog & de Meuron scheme, is understood to have been shown the Swiss architects’ latest proposals in March. The heritage body’s official response to the ACME scheme has not yet been made public. A spokesperson for the government’s heritage watchdog told the AJ of the emerging third proposal: ‘We have seen a revised scheme designed by Herzog & de Meuron, but it has not been submitted as a formal proposal and we have not provided advice on it.’Advertisement The C20 Society added that it ‘can confirm that it has been in pre-app consultation with both ACME and Herzog & de Meuron regarding the various schemes in development for Liverpool Street Station’. The body, which campaigns to protect 20th century buildings, added: ‘We will provide a full statement once all plans have been scrutinised.’ In November, the Tate Modern architects appeared to be off the job following the appointment by Network Rail of Shoreditch-based ACME, which came up with an alternative scheme featuring slightly smaller office towers as part of the planned above-station development. The ACME plan for Liverpool Street includes an above-station office development that would rise to 18 storeys, with balcony spaces on the 10th to 17th storeys and outdoor garden terraces from the 14th to 17th storeys. These proposals are marginally shorter than Herzog & de Meuron’s original 15 and 21-storey designs. However, despite these changes, ACME and Network Rail’s scheme has recently seen criticism by the Victorian Society, which told the AJ last month that it would object to the ACME scheme, claiming the above-station development ‘would be hugely damaging to Liverpool Street Station and the wider historic environment of the City of London’. In September last year, Sellar confirmed that that Herzog & de Meuron was working on an amended proposal, as the AJ revealed at the time. However, it is unclear if the latest, third option is related to that work. While both applications introduce more escalators down to platform level and accessibility improvements, the Herzog & de Meuron scheme proved controversial because of planned changes to the inside of the Grade II*-listed former Great Eastern Hotel building above the concourse, which would have seen the hotel relocate to new-build elements. The Swiss architect’s original proposals would have also removed much of the 1992 additions to the concourse by British Rail’s last chief architect, Nick Derbyshire – which had not been included in the original 1975 listing for Liverpool Street station. Historic England listed that part of the station in late 2022 after a first consultation on the Herzog & de Meuron plans. Network Rail told the AJ that it remains ‘fully committed’ to the ACME plan, which was validated only last month. Herzog & de Meuron referred the AJ to Sellar for comment. Sellar declined to comment. ACME has been approached for comment.

This edition of the Venice Biennale includes 65 national pavilions, 11 collateral events, and over 750 participants in the international exhibition curated by Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti. Entitled Intelligens: Natural Artificial Collective, its stated aim is to make Venice a ‘living laboratory’. But Ratti’s exhibition in the Arsenale has been hit by mixed reviews. The AJ’s Rob Wilson described it as ‘a bit of a confusing mess’, while other media outlets have called the robot-heavy exhibit of future-facing building-focused solutions to the climate crisis a ‘tech-bro fever dream’ and a ‘mind-boggling rollercoaster’ to mention a few. It is a distinct shift away from the biennale of two years ago twhen Ghanaian-Scottish architect Lesley Lokko curated the main exhibitions, including 89 participants – of which more than half were from Africa or the African diaspora – in a convincing reset of the architectural conversation.Advertisement This year’s National Pavilions and collateral exhibits, by contrast, have tackled the largest themes in architecture and the world right now in a less constrained way than the main exhibitions. The exhibits are radical and work as a useful gauge for understanding what’s important in each country: decarbonisation, climate resilience, the reconstruction of Gaza, and an issue more prevalent in politics closer to home: gender wars. What's not to miss in the Giardini? British Pavilion (photography: Chris Lane) UK Pavilion The British Pavilion this year, which won a special mention from the Venetian jury, is housing a show by a British-Kenyan collab titled GBR – Geology of Britannic Repair. In it, the curators explore the links between colonialism, the built environment and geological extraction. Focusing on the Rift Valley, which runs from east Africa to the Middle East, including Palestine, the exhibition was curated by the Nairobi-based studio cave_bureau, UK-based curator, writer and Farrell Centre director Owen Hopkins and Queen Mary University professor Kathryn Yusoff. The pavilion’s façade is cloaked by a beaded veil of agricultural waste briquettes and clay and glass beads, produced in Kenya and India, echoing both Maasai practices and beads once made on Venice’s Murano, as currency for the exchange of metals, minerals and slaves. The pavilion’s six gallery spaces include multisensory installations such as the Earth Compass, a series of celestial maps connecting London and Nairobi; the Rift Room, tracing one of humans’ earliest migration routes; and the Shimoni Slave Cave, featuring a large-scale bronze cast of a valley cave historically used as a holding pen for enslaved people.Advertisement The show also includes Objects of Repair, a project by design-led research group Palestine Regeneration Team (PART), looking at how salvaged materials could help rebuild war-torn Gaza, the only exhibit anywhere in the Biennale that tackled the reconstruction of Gaza face-on – doing so impressively, both politically and sensitively. Read more here. Danish Pavilion (photography: Hampus Berndtson) Demark Pavilion A firm favourite by most this year, the Danish exhibition Build of Site, curated by Søren Pihlmann of Pihlmann Architects, transforms the pavilion, which requires renovation anyway, into both a renovation site and archive of materials. Clever, simple and very methodical, the building is being both renewed while at the same time showcasing innovative methods to reuse surplus materials uncovered during the construction process – as an alternative to using new resources to build a temporary exhibition. The renovation of the 1950s Peter Koch-designed section of the pavilion began in December 2024 and will be completed following the biennale, having been suspended for its duration. On display are archetypal elements including podiums, ramps, benches and tables – all constructed from the surplus materials unearthed during the renovation, such as wood, limestone, concrete, stone, sand, silt and clay. Belgian Pavilion (photography: Michiel De Cleene) Belgium Pavilion If you need a relaxing break from the intensity of the biennale, then the oldest national pavilion in the Giardini is the one for you. Belgium’s Building Biospheres: A New Alliance between Nature and Architecture brings ‘plant intelligence’ to the fore. Commissioned by the Flanders Architecture Institute and curated by landscape architect Bas Smets and neurobiologist Stefano Mancuso, the exhibit investigates how the natural ‘intelligence’ of plants can be used to produce an indoor climate – elevating the role of landscape design and calling for it to no longer serve as a backdrop for architecture. Inside, more than 200 plants occupy the central area beneath the skylight, becoming the pavilion’s centrepiece, with the rear space visualising ‘real-time’ data on the prototype’s climate control performance. Spanish Pavilion (photography: Luca Capuano) Spain Pavilion One for the pure architecture lovers out there, models (32!), installations, photographs and timber structures fill the Spanish Pavilion in abundance. Neatly curated by architects Roi Salgueiro Barrio and Manuel Bouzas Barcala, Internalities shows a series of existing and research projects that have contributed to decarbonising construction in Spain. The outcome? An extensive collection of work exploring the use of very local and very specific regenerative and low-carbon construction and materials – including stone, wood and soil. The joy of this pavilion comes from the 16 beautiful timber frames constructed from wood from communal forests in Galicia. Polish Pavilion (photography: Luca Capuano) Poland Pavilion Poland’s pavilion was like Marmite this year. Some loved its playful approach while others found it silly. Lares and Penates, taking its name from ancient Roman deities of protection, has been curated by Aleksandra Kędziorek and looks at what it means and takes to have a sense of security in architecture. Speaking to many different anxieties, it refers to the unspoken assumption of treating architecture as a safe haven against the elements, catastrophes and wars – showcasing and elevating the mundane solutions and signage derived from building, fire and health regulations. The highlight? An ornate niche decorated with tiles and stones just for … a fire extinguisher. Dutch Pavilion (photography: Cristiano Corte) Netherlands Pavilion Punchy and straight to the point, SIDELINED: A Space to Rethink Togetherness takes sports as a lens for looking at how spatial design can both reveal and disrupt the often-exclusionary dynamics of everyday environments. Within the pavilion, the exhibit looks beyond the large-scale arena of the stadium and gymnasium to investigate the more localised and intimate context of the sports bar, as well as three alternative sports – a site of both social production and identity formation – as a metaphor for uniting diverse communities. The pavilion-turned-sports bar, designed by Koos Breen and Jeannette Slütter and inspired by Asger Jorn’s three-sided sports field, is a space for fluidity and experimentation where binary oppositions, social hierarchies and cultural values are contested and reshaped – complete with jerseys and football scarfs (currently a must-have fashion item) worn by players in the alternative Anonymous Allyship aligning the walls. Read Derin Fadina’s review for the AJ here. Performance inside the Nordic Countries Pavilion (photography: Venla Helenius) Nordic Countries Pavilion Probably the most impactful national pavilion this year (and with the best tote bag by far), the Nordic Countries have presented an installation with performance work. Curated by Kaisa Karvinen, Industry Muscle: Five Scores for Architecture continues Finnish artist Teo Ala-Ruona’s work on trans embodiment and ecology by considering the trans body as a lens through which to examine modern architecture and the built environment. The three-day exhibition opening featured a two-hour performance each day with Ala-Ruona and his troupe crawling, climbing and writhing around the space, creating a bodily dialogue with the installations and pavilion building itself, which was designed by celebrated Modernist architect Sverre Fehn. The American pavilion next door, loudly (country music!) turns its back on what’s going on in its own country by just celebrating the apathetical porch, making the Nordic Countries seem even more relevant in this crucial time. Read Derin Fadina’s review for the AJ here. German Pavilion (photography: Luca Capuano) Germany Pavilion An exhibit certainly grabbing the issue of climate change by its neck is the German contribution, Stresstest. Curated by Nicola Borgmann, Elisabeth Endres, Gabriele G Kiefer and Daniele Santucci, the pavilion has turned climate change into a literal physical and psychological experience for visitors by creating contrasting ‘stress’ and ‘de-stress’ rooms. In the dark stress room, a large metal sculpture creates a cramped and hot space using heating mats hung from the ceiling and powered by PVs. Opposite is a calmer space demonstrating strategies that could be used to reduce the heat of cities, and between the two spaces is a film focusing on the impacts of cities becoming hotter. If this doesn’t highlight the urgency of the situation, I’m not sure what will. Best bits of the Arsenale outside the main exhibitions Bahrain Pavilion (photography: Andrea Avezzù) Bahrain Pavilion Overall winner of this year’s Golden Lion for best national participation, Bahrain’s pavilion in the historic Artiglierie of the Arsenale is a proposal for living and working through heat conditions. Heatwave, curated by architect Andrea Faraguna, reimagines public space design by exploring passive cooling strategies rooted in the Arab country’s climate, as well as cultural context. A geothermal well and solar chimney are connected through a thermo-hygrometric axis that links underground conditions with the air outside. The inhabitable space that hosts visitors is thus compressed and defined by its earth-covered floor and suspended ceiling, and is surrounded by memorable sandbags, highlighting its scalability for particularly hot construction sites in the Gulf where a huge amount of construction is taking place. In the Arsenale’s exhibition space, where excavation wasn’t feasible, this system has been adapted into mechanical ventilation, bringing in air from the canal side and channelling it through ductwork to create a microclimate. Slovenian Pavilion (photography: Andrea Avezzù) Slovenia Pavilion The AJ’s Rob Wilson’s top pavilion tip this year provides an enjoyable take on the theme of the main exhibition, highlighting how the tacit knowledge and on-site techniques and skills of construction workers and craftspeople are still the key constituent in architectural production despite all the heat and light about robotics, prefabrication, artificial intelligence and 3D printing. Master Builders, curated by Ana Kosi and Ognen Arsov and organised by the Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana, presents a series of ‘totems’ –accumulative sculpture-like structures that are formed of conglomerations of differently worked materials, finishes and building elements. These are stacked up into crazy tower forms, which showcase various on-site construction skills and techniques, their construction documented in accompanying films. Uzbekistan Pavilion (photography: Luca Capuano) Uzbekistan Pavilion Uzbekistan’s contribution explores the Soviet era solar furnace and Modernist legacy. Architecture studio GRACE, led by curators Ekaterina Golovatyuk and Giacomo Cantoni have curated A Matter of Radiance. The focus is the Sun Institute of Material Science – originally known as the Sun Heliocomplex – an incredible large-scale scientific structure built in 1987 on a natural, seismic-free foundation near Tashkent and one of only two that study material behaviour under extreme temperatures. The exhibition examines the solar oven’s site’s historical and contemporary significance while reflecting on its scientific legacy and influence moving beyond just national borders. Applied Arts Pavilion (photography: Andrea Avezzù) V&A Applied Arts Pavilion Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) is having a moment. The US-based practice, in collaboration with V&A chief curator Brendan Cormier, has curated On Storage, which aptly explores global storage architectures in a pavilion that strongly links to the V&A’s recent opening of Storehouse, its new (and free) collections archive in east London. Featured is a six-channel (and screen) film entitled Boxed: The Mild Boredom of Order, directed by the practice itself and following a toothbrush, as a metaphor for an everyday consumer product, on its journey through different forms of storage across the globe – from warehouse to distribution centre to baggage handlers down to the compact space of a suitcase. Also on display are large-format photographs of V&A East Storehouse, DS+R’s original architectural model and sketchbook and behind-the-scenes photography of Storehouse at work, taken by emerging east London-based photographers. Canal Café (photography: Marco Zorzanello) Canal café Golden Lion for the best participation in the actual exhibition went to Canal Café, an intervention designed by V&A East Storehouse’s architect DS+R with Natural Systems Utilities, SODAI, Aaron Betsky and Davide Oldani. Serving up canal-water espresso, the installation is a demonstration of how Venice itself can be a laboratory to understand how to live on the water in a time of water scarcity. The structure, located on the edge of the Arsenale’s building complex, draws water from its lagoon before filtering it onsite via a hybrid of natural and artificial methods, including a mini wetland with grasses. The project was recognised for its persistence, having started almost 20 years ago, just showing how water scarcity, contamination and flooding are still major concerns both globally and, more locally, in the tourist-heavy city of Venice. And what else? Holy See Pavilion (photography: Andrea Avezzù) The Holy See Much like the Danish Pavilion, the Pavilion of the Holy See is also taking on an approach of renewal this year. Over the next six months, Opera Aperta will breathe new life into the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice Complex in the Castello district of Venice. Founded as a hospice for pilgrims in 1171, the building later became the oldest hospital and was converted into school in the 18th century. In 2001, the City of Venice allocated it for cultural use and for the next four years it will be managed by the Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See to oversee its restoration. Curated by architect, curator and researcher Marina Otero Verzier and artistic director of Fondaco Italia, Giovanna Zabotti, the complex has been turned into a constant ‘living laboratory’ of collective repair – and received a special mention in the biennale awards. The restoration works, open from Tuesday to Friday, are being carried out by local artisans and specialised restorers with expertise in recovering stone, marble, terracotta, mural and canvas painting, stucco, wood and metal artworks. The beauty, however, lies in the photogenic fabrics, lit by a warm yellow glow, hanging from the walls within, gently wrapping the building’s surfaces, leaving openings that allow movement and offer glimpses of the ongoing restoration. Mobile scaffolding, used to support the works, also doubles up as furniture, providing space for equipment and subdividing the interior. Togo Pavilion (photography: Andrea Avezzù) Togo Pavilion The Republic of Togo has presented its first pavilion ever at the biennale this year with the project Considering Togo’s Architectural Heritage, which sits intriguingly at the back of a second-hand furniture shop. The inaugural pavilion is curated by Lomé and Berlin-based Studio NEiDA and is in Venice’s Squero Castello. Exploring Togo’s architectural narratives from the early 20th century, and key ongoing restoration efforts, it documents key examples of the west African country’s heritage, highlighting both traditional and more modern building techniques – from Nôk cave dwellings to Afro-Brazilian architecture developed by freed slaves to post-independence Modernist buildings. Some buildings showcased are in disrepair, despite most of the modern structures remaining in use today, including Hotel de la Paix and the Bourse du Travail, suggestive of a future of repair and celebration. Estonian Pavilion (photography: Joosep Kivimäe) Estonia Pavilion Another firm favourite this year is the Estonian exhibition on Riva dei Sette Martiri on the waterfront between Corso Garibaldi and the Giardini.  The Guardian’s Olly Wainwright said that outside the Giardini, it packed ‘the most powerful punch of all.’ Simple and effective, Let Me Warm You, curated by trio of architects Keiti Lige, Elina Liiva and Helena Männa, asks whether current insulation-driven renovations are merely a ‘checkbox’ to meet European energy targets or ‘a real chance’ to enhance the spatial and social quality of mass housing. The façade of the historic Venetian palazzetto in which it is housed is clad with fibre-cement insulation panels in the same process used in Estonia itself for its mass housing – a powerful visual statement showcasing a problematic disregard for the character and potential of typical habitable spaces. Inside, the ground floor is wrapped in plastic and exhibits how the dynamics between different stakeholders influence spatial solutions, including named stickers to encourage discussion among your peers. Venice Procuratie (photography: Mike Merkenschlager) SMAC (San Marco Art Centre) Timed to open to the public at the same time as the biennale, SMAC is a new permanent arts institution in Piazza San Marco, on the second floor of the Procuratie, which is owned by Generali. The exhibition space, open to the public for the first time in 500 years, comprises 16 galleries arranged along a continuous corridor stretching over 80m, recently restored by David Chipperfield Architects. Visitors can expect access through a private courtyard leading on to a monumental staircase and experience a typically sensitive Chipperfield restoration, which has revived the building’s original details: walls covered in a light grey Venetian marmorino made from crushed marble and floors of white terrazzo. During the summer, its inaugural programme features two solo exhibitions dedicated to Australian modern architect Harry Seidler and Korean landscape designer Jung Youngsun. Holcim's installation (photography: Celestia Studio) Holcim x Elemental Concrete manufacturer Holcim makes an appearance for a third time at Venice, this time partnering with Chilean Pritzker Prize-winning Alejandro Aravena’s practice Elemental – curator of the 2016 biennale – to launch a resilient housing prototype that follows on from the Norman Foster-designed Essential Homes Project. The ‘carbon-neutral’ structure incorporates Holcim’s range of low-carbon concrete ECOPact and is on display as part of the Time Space Existence exhibition organised by the European Cultural Centre in their gardens. It also applies Holcim’s ‘biochar’ technology for the first time, a concrete mix with 100 per cent recycled aggregates, in a full-scale Basic Services Unit. This follows an incremental design approach, which could entail fast and efficient construction via the provision of only essential housing components, and via self-build. The Next Earth at Palazzo Diedo (photography: Joan Porcel) The Next Earth At Palazzo Diedo’s incredible dedicated Berggruen Arts and Culture space, MIT’s department of architecture and think tank Antikythera (apparently taking its name from the first-known computer) have come together to create the exhibition The Next Earth: Computation, Crisis, Cosmology, which questions how philosophy and architecture must and can respond to various planet-wide crises. Antikythera’s The Noocene: Computation and Cosmology from Antikythera to AI looks at the evolution of ‘planetary computation’ as an ‘accidental’ megastructure through which systems, from the molecular to atmospheric scales, become both comprehensible and composable. What is actually on display is an architectural scale video monolith and short films on AI, astronomy and artificial life, as well as selected artefacts. MIT’s Climate Work: Un/Worlding the Planet features 37 works-in-progress, each looking at material supply chains, energy expenditure, modes of practice and deep-time perspectives. Take from it what you will. The 19th International Venice Architecture Biennale remains open until Sunday, 23 November 2025.

I don’t know why, but it continues to astonish me just how foolish politicians can be – and how easily persuaded they are by really bad advice from smart but tin-eared advisers. In less than a year, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have squandered the gift of the huge majority won at last year’s General Election on one key issue after another: their response to the genocide in Gaza; wantonly cruel cuts in disability benefits; failing to find creative ways of taxing wealth; dealing with the water companies – and, now, on the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill. On 23 May 23, the Wildlife Trusts and the RSPB (with a combined membership of more than 2 million) launched a devastating attack on Labour’s whole approach to streamlining the planning system through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.Advertisement Part 3 of the bill will make it possible for developers to ignore existing environmental protections by paying money into a so-called ‘Nature Recovery Fund’, which will be used to pay for environmental projects elsewhere. Starmer and Reeves have gone out of their way, time after time, to claim that it’s these environmental safeguards that are responsible for delays and blockages in the planning process, even though they know this is completely untrue. According to the Wildlife Trusts, roughly 3 per cent of proposals for new housing are delayed for environmental reasons. As The Guardian reported: ‘the data from analysis of 17,433 planning appeals in England in 2024 found that newts were relevant in just 140 (0.8%) planning appeals, and bats were relevant in 432 (2.48%).’ ‘They pursue this path even though are no polls to show that this is what matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’ So what makes Starmer and Reeves both stupid and totally dishonest? By all accounts the rationale of their tin-eared advisers is to demonstrate to ‘Reform-friendly’ Labour voters that the environment is as unsafe in their hands as it would be in Nigel Farage’s. That economic growth is all that matters. That caring for the natural world is a middle-class self-indulgence (‘the well-to-do prioritising the nice-to-have’ over the interests of working people). And that pouring as much concrete as possible is self-evidently the best way of achieving that growth. And they go on pursuing this ideological path even though there are no supporting polls to show that this is what really matters to Labour voters tempted by Reform’s populist bullshit.Advertisement So they lie. They dig in. They break promises left, right and centre, ready to die, apparently, in this self-constructed ditch of developer-led deceit. That’s why every single amendment put forward through the committee examining the bill was summarily dismissed by the loyal but lumpen Labour MPs on the committee. These included an amendment tabled by veteran Labour MP Barry Gardiner requiring all house builders to provide a specially designed brick (costing £35) to help cavity-nesting such as swifts, house martins, sparrows and starlings – a measure that Labour in opposition enthusiastically supported! And there’s huge public support for this one small, cost-effective biodiversity regulation. To get a measure of this government’s subservient obedience to the demands of the volume housebuilders, just listen to the words of housing minister Matthew Pennycook: ‘We are not convinced that legislating to mandate the use of specific wildlife features is the right approach, whether that is done through building regulations or a freestanding legal requirement'. It’s all so demeaning. So unnecessary. And now that the mainstream environment movement, urged on primarily by the Wildlife Trusts, has realised just how high the stakes are with this Planning and Infrastructure Bill, it’s reasonable to assume that there will be a much more serious debate in the House of Lords, bringing down on ministers’ helmeted heads the righteous outrage of the entire movement. As we’ve learnt, in less than one deeply depressing year, this is a government that needs to be kicked harder and harder until they get desperate enough to make the pain go away. P.S. If you want to read a brilliant summary of ‘reasons to be outraged’ (and what to do about it), check out George Monbiot’s take on this. Jonathon Porritt is a campaigner and author and co-founder of Forum for the Future This article first appeared on his blog 2025-06-06 Jonathon Porritt comment and share

The duo will create a ball sports arena for local teams and the wider community, providing a new public square and gateway to an exhibition park in České Budějovice, a city 120km south of Prague. Inspired by the Möbius strip – a continuous surface with only one side and one edge – the winning design aims to reflect ‘energy, unity, and perpetual motion’ and serve as a catalyst for positive transformation in České Budějovice. WilkinsonEyre board director Sam Wright said: ‘We are thrilled to have been selected for this exciting project, which presents a unique opportunity to build on our design expertise and passion for sports architecture.Advertisement ‘We look forward to collaborating with our partners to create a world-class venue that inspires both athletes and spectators alike.’ Boele founding director Petr Suma, who has worked at both WilkinsonEyre and London-based William Matthews Architects, said: ‘By revitalising and redefining the southern entrance to the České Budějovice Exhibition Grounds, this project creates a catalyst for new development on the left bank of České Budějovice.’ Though the arena is primarily for volleyball, it will also host a range of ball sports, including handball, floorball, basketball and futsal, as well as concerts and conferences. The winning proposal was selected unanimously from 29 entries, and construction is expected to begin next year. České Budějovice is a major industrial centre with around 96,000 residents. Local landmarks include the Budweiser Budvar Brewery, the Baroque-style Museum of South Bohemia and the Neo-Gothic Church of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.Advertisement A separate contest to remasterplan České Budějovice was launched early last year.

The council granted consent to JTP's reserved matters application for the new amenity within the Blackbird Leys estate. The practice has been working on its wider vision for the estate’s regeneration since 2019. The district centre is being regenerated by housing association Peabody, which plans to create 294 affordable homes as well as shops, public realm improvements and active travel infrastructure. The community centre will be owned and operated by the council, and is designed to offer flexible space for support services, events and community activities.Advertisement It will feature three large halls, a range of office spaces and other areas for people to meet and relax. The building will be complemented by a new public square featuring play areas for children and young people, a rain garden, accessible equipment and public art. Peabody regional managing director Simon Barry described the planning approval as ‘really good news for Blackbird Leys’. He added: ‘Local people have told us how much they want a community space that’s welcoming, flexible and built around their needs, and now we can get started on making that happen. ‘We’re grateful to everyone who’s taken the time to share their views along the way, and we’ll continue working closely with the community as we move into the next phase.’Advertisement Blackbird Leys community centre co-design with Transition by Design Oxford cabinet member for housing Linda Smith described the approval as ‘a huge step forward for Blackbird Leys’. She added: ‘The new community centre will be a true home for community life – a vibrant, welcoming, inclusive space where residents can come to connect. ‘It’s been shaped by local voices every step of the way and will sit right at the heart of a regenerated district centre that offers real opportunities for the community, including much-needed homes, shops and outdoor space. ‘We are so proud to be delivering this vibrant new development, and I’m excited to see the next steps take shape.’ Construction of the community centre is expected to start later this year and is expected to be ready for internal fit-out in 2027. JTP's approved community centre for Blackbird Leys Oxford - axonometric

Scholars of gender and sexuality have been exploring ‘queer spaces’ for over six decades. While for many years homes and domesticity remained out of focus or at the margins of queer space research, a recent ‘domestic turn’ has brought queer people’s homes to the foreground. Queer Spaces (2022), a recollection of case studies of queer domestic spaces edited by Joshua Mardell and Adam Nathaniel Furman, is just one significant work within the recent shift to explore the intersection of queer identities and domesticity, for example. Disobedient Dollhouse No.1, 2023, Photography by Sophie Percival Over the past four years I have documented the homes of LGBTQ+ people and come to understand how they inhabit them through interviews, detailed spatial drawings and the creation of dollhouses. This methodology deliberately subverts traditional architectural model-making conventions, emphasising narrative over spatial clarity, interior qualities over façades, and incorporating elaborate details that standard architectural models typically avoid. While this may feel like a rather unusual pursuit for an architect, it’s also one I feel is necessary and urgent. Disobedient Dollhouse No.1, 2023, Photography by Sophie Percival My current research builds upon years of professional practice in London and scrutinises the limitations of standardised design approaches. Through interviews and detailed spatial surveys, I am examining how queer families navigate living spaces designed according to the London Plan’s Housing Design Guide.Advertisement Early findings from my field work show a chasm between the queer daily lives of some of London’s LGBTQ+ families and the rigid homes the standard produces. In cases where spatial flexibility is available within domestic architecture, wonderful, innovative, caring and radical uses of domestic space emerge, enabling queer forms of raising children or coexisting with current and former lovers. These are not just joyful nice-to-haves, but essential for my participants to live their queerness at home, in full. Homes should not just be where queer folk feel safe; they must also be spaces where our queerness flourishes. Disobedient Dollhouse No.1, 2023, Photography by Sophie Percival The housing emergency in the UK and most of the Western world has urged architects, planners and developers to focus on an increased delivery of ‘units of housing’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, my early findings suggest that this sense of urgency risks under-delivering on quality and space. Housing standards have codified aesthetic, functional, and spatial homogeneity. They reproduce conservative ideals of housing and family at a time when families are growing more and more diverse. All the while, with the expansion of permitted development rights, they are failing to deliver an overall improvement in size and quality of the UK’s housing stock. Disobedient Dollhouse No.1, 2023, Photography by Sophie Percival The need for an alternative, open-ended and, perhaps, queer toolkit to design homes – one that expands the ethical and aesthetic horizons of housing design – has never been more urgent. I am therefore also working on developing my ‘disobedient dollhouse making’ as a design tool. One that puts future users at the centre, allowing them to fabulate a different horizon for housing design. My aim is to use dollhouses as a ‘serious’ design game that enables participants to explore the true possibilities of housing beyond the ‘straightjacket’ of the standard. Follow Daniel Ovalle Costal’s research at @QueerDomCanon on Instagram 2025-06-03 Fran Williams comment and share

Source:&nbsp Shutterstock More than 40 per cent of seats on the RIBA council for the upcoming elections have no candidates – and there is zero interest in two entire regions, it has emerged A list of candidates for next month’s elections to RIBA council and for the role of vice-president membership, published earlier this month, shows six of 14 seats on the council have no candidates for the vote starting on 16 June. That includes two seats for the South and two seats for East, where ‘no valid nominations were received’ for either of the regional places on RIBA council. Meanwhile, two seats – Scotland North and Northern Ireland – will see candidates elected unopposed, due to there being no other interest in representing. No valid nominations were received for two associate member seats.Advertisement However, six candidates were named for the two student seats on the council. They are: Selen Akalin, Tamunokuro Krukrubo, Rachael Livingstone, AB Mukadam, Kavindu Narayana and Andrew Pizzey. Another four candidates are competing for two non-regional council member seats. They are: Daniel Jenkins, Laura Marr, Olga Tarasova and Rebecca Wise. The vice-president membership role has attracted eight candidates. They include Jaspal Bhogal, director of Jaspal Bhogal Associates; Sheleendra Fernando, managing director of 24/Three; Thomas Foggin, director and sustainable lead of R H Partnership Architects, and Douglas Hodgson, founding director of New-works. The other candidates are Patricia Leo, director of Studio NP; Gareth Maguire, chief architect of Studio MUA; Elliot McCall, architect at Inspire Architects; and Liam Russell, founder and chief executive officer of LRA Retinue. RIBA council has 42 members with around a third of the seats rotating every three years.Advertisement Successfully elected candidates will serve in their roles for three years, starting 1 September 2025 – the same day Weston Williamson + Partners co-founder Chris Williamson becomes RIBA president. Williamson was elected as president-elect last year with 45 per cent of the second-round vote with a total of 4,462 votes cast. However, turnout was just 9.3 per cent (compared with 12.4 per cent for Mace architect Muyiwa Oki when he was elected in 2022). Williamson told the AJ: ‘I was pleased with the applications for Membership Secretary but, yes, it’s disappointing that other positions are not contested. I think many architects are concentrating on their work right now.’ The Just Transition Lobby coalition of campaign groups, which successfully campaigned for Oki to become president in 2022 and has elected half a dozen RIBA members to council in the past two years, has not, as yet, announced any candidates at this election. The RIBA has been contacted for comment. 2025-05-30 Gino Spocchia comment and share

Developers have a ‘clearer path’ to pursue architects who design unsafe buildings following a recent Supreme Court ruling, legal experts have warned The judgement, which interprets important elements of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA) and the Defective Premises Act 1972 (DPA), heightens the need for practices to hold ‘comprehensive’ professional indemnity (PI) insurance, according to top lawyers. Earlier this month (21 May) the Supreme Court ruled that BDW, the main trading arm of Barratt Developments, was able to pursue damages from structural engineering company URS for alleged negligence in provision of design services for two residential schemes. This was despite BDW undertaking remedial works on the properties voluntarily more than three years ago and no longer owning the buildings. Judges dismissed the engineering firm’s latest appeal against BDW’s right to claim for compensation on all four grounds.Advertisement Nick Stockley, partner at law firm Mayo Wynne Baxter, said: ‘This ruling creates an easier route for builders to reclaim losses that they incur for the actions of design contractors. ‘It suggests that the time-out defence is no longer a fail-safe if the genuine blame rests with a design contractor. The ruling also takes away any voluntary-decision defence that either a design contractor or architect may try to raise. ‘It means that any design contractor needs to maintain insurance that extends to their work, irrespective of when the work was carried out. ‘An architect’s work should always be covered by professional indemnity insurance but that cover will need to be more extensive. An architect should review any existing insurance policy cover in order to check that that policy extends to all work carried out by the architect.’ The two projects at the centre of the BDW claim are Capital East in London and Freemens Meadow in Leicester. Advertisement The housebuilder carried out voluntary remedial works at these properties in 2020 and 2021, despite no longer owning them, after defects were discovered that created a danger to occupants.   It claimed damages from URS but the engineering firm appealed, initially to the Court of Appeal then to the Supreme Court, arguing that a voluntary act could not lead to recoverable losses, and only claims brought by a property owner under the DPA were subject to an extended 30-year limitation period.  URS claimed that a third party could not be owed a duty under the DPA and added that a contribution for liability could only be made once a settlement was finalised.  However, the Supreme Court found in BDW’s favour, saying that URS’s interpretation of the law ‘would penalise responsible developers, such as such as BDW, who had been pro-active in investigating, identifying and remedying building safety defects’.  It said DPA would ‘better serve the policy of ensuring the safety of dwellings’ if it had a wider application, ruling that ‘BDW itself has rights under the DPA against a party primarily liable for the defects’.  It added that BDW had ‘acted responsibly’ and ‘in accordance with the government’s strong encouragement’ in carrying out remediation work at Capital East and Freemens Meadow, concluding: ‘Penalisation of [such] developers would be contrary to the purpose of the legislation’. Rob Horne, head of construction disputes for Osbourne Clarke, which represented BDW, said: ‘For residential developers there is now significantly more clarity over the full effect of the retrospective limitation period introduced by the BSA. ‘Ultimately, the aim of the BSA was to ensure that safety failures are properly addressed and that those responsible bear the costs. This case furthers that aim by ensuring that developers have a clearer path to recover funds from designers and constructors who designed and built unsafe buildings.’  Horne added: ‘The Supreme Court has commented that proactive developers who, in effect, do the right thing in effecting necessary safety works, should not be penalised by having rights of recovery barred.  ‘Such developers are able to recover the remedial costs from those most responsible for the safety defects in question.’  ‘This reading gives the Defective Premises Act far more teeth’ Julia Tobbell, partner at law firm Forsters, said the decision will be ‘a relief to proactive developers’ as, ‘although their decision to voluntarily take on repairs may be a factor in assessing reasonableness of mitigation, it does not bar them in principle from being able to recover from negligent contractors’.  She added: ‘The court also found that the duty to build homes properly under Section 1 of the PDA is not just for the benefit of the homeowner, but also the developer who procures the contractor to carry out the works.   ‘The developer can both owe a duty (to the homeowner) and be owed a duty (by the contractor); this reading gives the DPA far more teeth.’  2025-05-30 Will Ing comment and share

Willis Building, 1975 Source:Nigel YoungWillis Building by Foster + Partners Located in Ipswich, Foster + Partners’ office for insurance company Willis Faber & Dumas features a swimming pool, roof-top garden and restaurant. Often used as an example of early high-tech buildings, the office hosts around 1,300 staff across open-plan offices and flexible spaces, which were said to be untraditional at the time. These spaces are spread over three floors connected by escalators which were innovative in the 1970s, particularly in offices. Outside, in contrast, the building reinforces rather than confronts the urban grain, with its free-form plan and low-rise construction responding to the scale of surrounding buildings, while its curved façade maintains a relationship to the medieval street pattern.Advertisement Read more about the project in AJ Buildings Library. Sainsbury Centre, 1978 Source:Ken KirkwoodSainsbury Centre by Foster + Partners This School of Fine Art and art centre was designed to house a collection gifted to the University of East Anglia by Sir Robert and Lady Sainsbury. The design incorporates structural and service elements within the double-layer walls and roof. Within this shell is a free-flowing sequence of spaces that incorporates a conservatory reception area, coffee bar, exhibition areas, the Faculty of Fine Art, senior common rooms and a restaurant. Full-height windows at either end of the structure allow the surrounding landscape to form a backdrop to the exhibition and dining areas, while aluminium louvres, linked to light sensors, line the interior to provide an infinitely flexible system for the control of natural and artificial light. Read more about the project in AJ Buildings Library.Advertisement Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, 1985 Source:Ian LambotHong Kong and Shanghai Bank by Foster + Partners Completed in 1985, this Hong Kong bank tower has no internal supporting structure, allowing for a naturally bright, 10-story atrium. used a high degree of prefabricated elements The project was completed in less than three years and tight schedule requirements meant that the practice turned toward the use of prefabricated and factory-finished elements. With a suspension structure, the tower is expressed externally as a stepped building formed of three individual towers with heights of 29, 36 and 44 storeys. This formation creates floors of varying widths and depths inside, accommodating garden terraces. Bridges span between floors, while a mirrored sun scoop reflects sunlight through the atrium to a public plaza below. Discover more about this project in AJ Buildings Library. Millennium Bridge, 2000 Source:Nigel YoungMillennium Bridge by Foster + Partners Foster + Partners’ Millennium Bridge spans 320m across the River Thames. Completed in 2000, the construction of the bridge marked the first new crossing on this part of the river in over a century. For pedestrian use only, the shallow suspension bridge’s structure is supported by cables that never rise more than 2.3m above the deck, which lets the bridge enjoy uninterrupted views of London. Find out more about the project in AJ Buildings Library. 30 St Mary Axe, 2003 Source:Nigel Young30 St Mary Axe by Foster + Partners London’s first ecological tall building and an iconic addition to the city’s skyline, 30 St Mary Axe, also known as The Gherkin, was commissioned to hold the London headquarters of insurance company Swiss Re. Set around a radial plan, its iconic enclosure was designed to be energy-conscious. Merging the walls and roof into a continuous triangulated skin allowed for a column-free floor space, maximising natural  light and views. The double-glazed cladding sits outside of the structural gridshell. Inside the building are office spaces as well as a shopping arcade accessed from a newly created public plaza. The triangular atria, which have the planning benefit of leaving the office spaces almost rectangular, also provide greater daylight penetration. Discover more about this project in AJ Buildings Library. Millau Viaduct, 2004 Source:Nigel YoungMillau Viaduct by Foster + Partners Designed with engineer Michel Virlogeux, the 2.46km-long cable-stayed bridge formed a crucial transport link in the Paris to Barcelona motorway across a valley in south-west France. It has the highest elevated roadway in the world, with its deck set 270m above the River Tarn. Supported on seven concrete piers of varying heights, the bridge has a 3 per cent slope from south to north to encourage drainage. A gentle curve as the bridge approaches the northern plateau helps wind resistance. Both these factors work aesthetically too, accentuating the sense that the structure is tailored precisely to a specific site. Each of its sections spans 342m and its columns range in height from 75m to 245m, with the masts rising a further 90m above the road deck. Find out more in AJ Buildings Library. Wembley Stadium, 2007 Source:Nigel YoungWembley Stadium by Foster + Partners A collaboration with sports design specialists Populous, Foster + Partners’ arena replaced the old Wembley Stadium, which was one of the most important sports venues in Britain. With a 90,000 capacity and a retractable roof, the new structure was designed to maximise spectator enjoyment and retain the stadium’s iconic status The geometry and steeply raked seating tiers ensure that every spectator in the 90,000-capacity stadium has an unobstructed view of the pitch. The stadium has a retractable roof that allows the turf to get sufficient sunlight and air, while in poor weather it can be closed to cover the entire seating bowl. The roof is supported structurally by a 133m-high arch that towers above the stadium, providing an icon and a new London landmark. Read more about Wembley Stadium in AJ Buildings Library. Image, top: Photo by Nigel Young Maggie’s Manchester, 2016 Source:Nigel YoungMaggie's Manchester by Foster + Partners This cancer care centre in Manchester uses landscaping and greenery to help create a therapeutic sanctuary. The 500m², single-storey building is focused around a garden. At the eastern side adjoining the car park the garden is broken up into small courtyards, offering private spaces leading from each of the centre’s counselling rooms. To the west, the garden is more open and offers a threshold between the street and the centre. Meanwhile, a greenhouse with a faceted glass façade echoes the building’s triangular rooflights. Naturally illuminated by these triangular rooflights, the building is supported by lightweight timber lattice beams. These beams act as natural partitions between different internal areas, visually dissolving the architecture into the surrounding gardens. Discover more about this project in AJ Buildings Library. Bloomberg London, 2017 Source:Nigel YoungBloomberg HQ by Foster + Partners Foster + Partners’ £1 billion European HQ for business news giant Bloomberg is ambitious, accomplished and lavish. The fins, 117 in total, are the building’s way of ‘breathing’, with each section opening or closing depending on exterior conditions. This allows air to flow into the building while keeping external noise to a minimum, as well as filtering incoming air. Chunky stone corners and shear walls form part of the sandstone façade, with muscular poché sections fitted with thermal doors allowing air to circulate through the structure. Discover more about the HQ in AJ Buildings Library. Foster + Partners Norman Foster 2025-05-29 Katie Last comment and share

JCT Construct is a subscription-based contract drafting system with advanced editing features, enabling you to create and amend your JCT contracts in a secure, flexible, and easy-to-use online environment Depending on the type of subscription chosen, JCT Construct also provides instant access to each JCT 2024 Edition contract, as soon as it is published. With JCT Construct’s powerful tools, you can edit the JCT contract text itself, adding your own amendments, clauses or other customised text. The system also features an intuitive Q&A-driven process to assist you in filling in your contract comprehensively. The JCT Construct system generates your contract in plain copy as well as a comparison document, making it possible to easily read the contracts and see all the changes from the published JCT text. Guest sharing supports collaborative working amongst those involved in the contract drafting to share drafts, to edit and to see all the changes. Version-to-version comparison allows you to see any changes between draft versions and against the published JCT text, ensuring full transparency between the parties to the contract at all times. Key benefits Easy to use, flexible, and secure online contract drafting. Access to each JCT 2024 Edition contract, as soon as it is published Add your own amendments, clauses, and other customised text. Clause numbers, cross-references in the JCT text, and table of contents all update automatically. Guest sharing supports collaboration and enables all those involved in the drafting to share drafts, edit, and see all the changes. Create boilerplates so you can reuse your standard set of changes. Print draft contracts for review. Print final contracts for signing. Print comparison documents showing all changes against the published JCT text for full transparency. Learn more and choose your subscription at jctltd.co.uk/jct-construct 2025-05-27 AJ Contributor comment and share

Sheppard Robson received an award for its four-storey Nucleus Building at the University of Edinburgh, while Architype also won for a very different education scheme: its 550-place Riverside Primary School in Perth.  Three further winning projects are in Scottish cities, including Collective Architecture’s 130-home Ellengowan Regeneration scheme in Dundee and Stallan Brand Architecture + Design and LDA Design’s £28 million overhaul of Aberdeen’s Union Terrace Gardens.  The other urban project is Holmes Miller Architects’s £85 million HMP and YOI for women prisoners in Stirling, while MLA was recognised for its Rosebank Distillery refurbishment scheme in Falkirk, on the bank of the Forth and Clyde Canal. Advertisement Three Highland projects were given RIAS Awards, including two castle restoration projects near Inverness: Ptolemy Dean Architects’ Aldourie Caste Estate and Simpson & Brown’s Fairburn Tower.  GRAS was given an award for its overhaul of Kinloch Lodge, a Victorian sporting lodge in Sutherland, while Izat Arundell received an award for the only non-mainland scheme: Caochan na Creige, a stone home on the Isle of Harris.  Source:Richard GastonCaochan na Creige, Isle of Harris by Izat Arundell The list of winners is rounded off by an infrastructure scheme: Moxon Architects’ Gairnshiel Jubilee Bridge in Aberdeenshire.  The 11 victorious schemes now become the ‘longlist’ for the RIAS Andrew Doolan Best Building in Scotland Award. The shortlist for that prize will be announced in July ahead of the winner announcement in November. RIAS had originally shortlisted 21 projects for its awards. Schemes by Hassel, Fraser/Livingstone, Ryder Architecture, Threesixty Architecture, Loader Monteith and Reiach and Hall are among those to miss out.Advertisement The successful RIAS Award winners will be considered for the RIBA National Awards, which will also be made public in July. The jury for the 2025 RIAS Awards was chaired by Jessam Al-Jawad, director of Al-Jawad Pike, who visited the projects alongside fellow judges Caroline Grewar, programme director at V&A Dundee, Craig Hamilton of Craig Hamilton Architects and Ann Nisbet of Ann Nisbet Studio.  Al-Jawad said: ‘This year’s RIAS Awards winners show an inspiring range of responses to Scotland’s landscapes, communities, and heritage – from quietly transformative conservation to bold public architecture. ‘Across the board, we saw a deep care for context, sustainability and the people who use these buildings. Taken together, these projects demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of talent in Scottish architecture today.’  Source:Simpson & BrownFairburn Tower, Highlands by Simpson & Brown The 2025 RIAS Awards winners Aldourie Castle Estate, Highlands by Ptolemy Dean Architects Caochan na Creige, Isle of Harris by Izat Arundell Ellengowan Regeneration, Dundee by Collective Architecture Fairburn Tower, Highlands by Simpson & Brown Gairnshiel Jubilee Bridge, Aberdeenshire by Moxon Architects HMP & YOI Stirling by Holmes Miller Architects Kinloch Lodge, Highland by GRAS Riverside Primary School, Perth by Architype Rosebank Distillery, Falkirk by MLA The Nucleus Building, University of Edinburgh by Sheppard Robson Union Terrace Gardens, Aberdeen by Stallan-Brand Architecture + Design & LDA Design Nucleus. University of Edinburgh King's Buildings Campus.

Collective Architecture, which this year makes its debut in the AJ100, has studios in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee, and has retained 80 per cent of its staff since it was founded in 1997. It has a transparent pay scale and does not use traditional job titles and roles up to director level, but instead ‘focuses on developing individual skills and talents’. All employees receive the same benefits from day one of employment and any required overtime is paid. Gensler, which returns to the AJ100 after some years away, pays two bonuses per year in addition to annual reviews and offers private medical and mental health care including additional neurodiversity and menopause support. In 2024, its talent development strategy included presentation skills training for all UK staff, and increased sustainable design and technical training. Corstorphine & Wright operates from 13 studios in the UK. Recent initiatives include a pilot mentoring scheme, a new whistle-blowing hotline and new policies on gender reassignment, dignity at work, and menopause. Maternity/adoption pay has been increased for those with more than two years’ service, with a £3000 return-to-work bonus for those with less. An all-employee bonus scheme gives up to 5 per cent of annual salary. HLM Architects and tp bennett, both regulars on the shortlist, are again finalists. Recent initiatives at 383-strong tp bennett include increased female representation in senior leadership, reverse mentoring for the board and investment in coaching. The practice hosted 100 work experience students in 2024 including 27 students from the Access Aspiration programme, which supports students from more diverse and under-represented backgrounds. HLM Architects has recently introduced annual mandatory EDI-training for everyone and has re-crafted role profiles, introducing a new level to encourage career aspirations. Based across five UK offices and one in Dublin, the practice last year joined the RIBA-EDI Leaders Group, and supported an inclusive recruitment drive to help more care-experienced young people into work. HLM paid an average bonus and salary increase of 7 per cent and enhanced all family leave policies and pay. HTA Design, which has won the award for the past three years, did not enter this year. Sponsored again by Bespoke Careers, the coveted category recognises employer best practice in relation to employment issues such as training, workplace culture, diversity, inclusion, and staff wellbeing and satisfaction. The winners of all the AJ100 awards will be announced in June. AJ100 Employer of the Year 2025 shortlist Collective Architecture Corstorphine & Wright Gensler HLM Architects tp bennett Sponsored by

The overall winner has been named as oo office. Its winning concept ‘Proudspeaker’ has been designed as a monumental megaphone intended to amplify LGBTQIA+ voices and stories in public spaces. ‘The form of the Proudspeaker is composed of individual stories, gathered and woven together in a magpie-like process,’ said practice co-founders Rania Francis, Karl Mok and Oleg Sevelkov. ‘It becomes speech made visible – an act of joy, pride and protest.’ The competition was open to students, emerging architects and representatives from established firms. It sought innovative proposals for a float in the annual festival and parade, which will be held in the capital on 5 July.Advertisement The project – backed by Brookfield Properties – will celebrate the contributions of LGBTQIA+ architects to the built environment. Proposals were required to respond to this year’s LFA theme of ‘Voices’ by expressing identity, inclusion and creativity while demonstrating a commitment to sustainability and the circular economy. Rosa Rogina, LFA director, said: ‘Architecture doesn’t just shape our buildings, it shapes our communities, our conversations and our sense of belonging. Proudspeaker is a defiant, joyful, and beautifully conceived response to our 2025 theme. It honours queer creativity and boldly asserts that LGBTQIA+ voices not only belong in the built environment – they are fundamental to it.’ Founded in 1972, the annual Pride parade and festival is the largest LGBTQIA+ event in the UK and the seventh largest in the world, attracting around 1 million people. The London event, traditionally held in July, features a large performance area in Trafalgar Square, with a procession of floats and walking groups. Hawkins\Brown won LFA’s inaugural contest for a float representing LGBTQIA+ architects at 2018’s London Pride. Raw Architecture Workshop won LFA’s 2019 contest for a float at Pride in London and Manchester. In 2021, a group of early-career architects working at Foster + Partners won an open call for a £10,000 installation representing LGBTQIA+ architects at St Anne’s Church in Soho.Advertisement The latest contest sought ‘safe, structurally sound, and suitable’ proposals for a float installation that will be mounted on a 7.5-tonne dropside truck during the annual parade. Concepts had to include handrails, space for speakers and weather-resistant materials. The winning design will now work closely with production specialists to bring their vision to life in time for the parade.

Ongoing Regent’s Park Estate Story Trail Regent’s Park Estate, London NW1Regent’s Park Estate Story Trail is a public art trail. Artworks include Unwritten by Polish artist Rafal Zajko, which excavates the history of a clandestine LGBTQ+ bar located beneath St Mary Magdalene church and You Are Here by Ocean Stefan, a queer, trans and non-binary artist based in Margate. olddiorama.com Unwritten by Rafal Zajko. Photography: Nick Turpin 22 May AJ goes OUT sixteen3’s showroom, London EC1Advertisement Sponsored by UK furniture designer sixteen3 and held at its showrooms in Clerkenwell as part of Clerkenwell Design Week, the AJ is holding a party to celebrate the release of this issue. Expect music, drinks, posters, copies of the AJ and lots of networking with co-collaborators and contributors. sixteen3.co.uk 24 May Queer Archi* Social London LGBT+ Community Centre, London SE1Organised by Queerscapes, Queer Archi* Social is a meet-up for queer and trans people working in the architecture, landscape, horticulture and built environment sectors. Not a formal networking event, it’s a chance to meet others who get it, swap stories and find new collaborators. londonlgbtqcentre.org queerscapes.com Still from E.1027 Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea. Credit: Rise And Shine World Sales 31 May Linden Archives Museum of LiverpoolStuart Linden Rhodes established Instagram account @Linden_Archives during Covid, digitising hundreds of 35mm photographs he shot for All Points North and Gay Times in the 1990s. This talk covers his books on the pub and club scene from Birmingham to Newcastle, as well as Pride events across the whole of England. liverpoolmuseums.org.ukAdvertisement 7 June Queer Realms – Zine Workshop Ada Haus, London SW8Part of The London Festival of Architecture, this zine workshop, organised by and for LGBTQ+ people, invites attendees to explore how their identities shape and are shaped by the London landscape, using zine-making as a creative tool. londonfestivalofarchitecture.org You Are Here by Ocean Stefan. Part of Regent's Park Estate Art Trail. Photography: Nick Turpin 9 June-14 September The Painted Picnic – A Summer Pavilion Citypoint, London EC2Designed by artist John Booth, Citypoint’s plaza will be transformed into a vibrant scene from an outdoor party. Inspired by the LFA’s 2025 theme Voices, the installation reimagines a still-life composition at an architectural scale that visitors can interact with. Digital illustrations by Booth celebrating Pride month will also be on display on the screen at Citypoint throughout June. Brookfield Properties as the commissioners. londonfestivalofarchitecture.org 14-18 June Queer Frontiers 1 Customs Wharf, EdinburghHeld over five days of the 2025 Architecture Fringe in Scotland, Queer Frontiers is a project that explores the ‘corporate capture’ of the queer as we progress towards a future where queer has become the norm. The event includes an exhibition and talks, organised by designer and researcher Kirsty Watt, designer Samuel Stair and Architecture Fringe co-director Andy Summers. architecturefringe.com Still from E.1027 Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea. Credit: Rise And Shine World Sales 18 June E.1027 Eileen Gray and the House by the Sea Museum of BathAs part of Queer Bath 2025’s festival and in partnership with FilmBath, this screening sheds light on Irish designer and architect Eileen Gray’s story and the significance of the Modernist villa E.1027 in queer architectural history. The screening will be followed by a discussion on gender, space, and visibility in design. queerbath.co.uk June, date TBC Architecture LGBT+ Life Drawing HOK, London W1Architecture LGBT+’s next free-to-attend monthly life drawing class is being held at HOK’s offices near Warren Street. A queer model will do a variety of poses throughout the evening for attendees to draw. Drawing supplies, music and drinks are all included. The event is aimed at those who work or study within the architectural field. architecturelgbt.com Life drawing at Heatherwick Studio. Photography: Daniel Innes and Joe Stancer 21 June Soho Queer History – Walking Tour Trafalgar Square, London WC2A two-hour walking tour exploring the history of London LGBTQ+ life. It takes you through the West End, sharing stories of drag queens of the 1700s, gay soirées of the 1920s, and the development of this queer neighbourhood. londonfestivalofarchitecture.org 4 July Queer Nightcrawl Through the City NLA, The London Centre, London EC2Dani Dinger and Dan de la Motte of Queer Tours of London shine a light on London's hidden queer stories. The tour strolls down Sodomites Walk, heads to the docks to discover the secret lives of the Mollies of 18th Century Wapping and minces down Old Compton Street to navigate the danger and dalliance of 1930s Soho. thelondoncentre.org 5 July Architecture LGBT+ London Pride Celebration 2025 London, location TBCArchitecture LGBT+ hosts a breakfast and drinks ahead of the London Pride parade to gather architects and built environment professionals together before joining the parade with the official architecture float. architecturelgbt.com London Pride Float competition winning scheme Proudspeaker by oo office. Credit: oo office 5 July London Pride Float Hyde Park Corner, LondonIn March this year, the LFA, Architecture LGBT+ and Freehold announced an open call for the annual £8,000 pride float competition, which is backed by Brookfield Properties and will celebrate the contributions of LGBTQIA+ architects to the built environment. The winner is oo office. architecturelgbt.com November, date TBC Queer Places: The Exhibition 2.0 Liverpool, location TBCLaunching its second round, exhibition Queer Places, a growing archive of Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ spaces past, present and future, opens its doors again in November. The exhibition will be filled with art, architectural models, maps, photographs and artefacts celebrating queer heritage. New this year are interactive 3D models of historic queer spaces. queerplaces.co.uk Queer Places exhibition. Credit: Queer Places Organisations, initiatives and platforms Architecture Foundation Young Trustees’ Spatial Queeries Spotlight Sunday A weekly spotlight on LGBT+ practitioners, design initiatives and queer spaces. @youngtrusteesArchitecture LGBT+ Not-for-profit organisation run by volunteers. It aims to provide an inclusive and prejudice-free environment for LGBT+ architects and those working and studying within the profession through learning, mentoring and networking events – including life drawing and yoga. architecturelgbt.com @architecturelgbtArchitecture LGBT+ Academic Champions Network (ACN) An alliance of academic champions – one per architecture school in the UK – working to improve representation and understanding of queer identity and action in architectural education. architecturelgbt.com/academic-champions-networkBuilding Equality UK-wide member association with resources for built environment consultants, engineers, developers, contractors and institutions – plus events. buildingequalityuk.comFirst Brick Community-led, democratically run housing organisation aiming to build housing and community spaces for LGBTQ+ people who want and need it. firstbrickhousing.co.ukFreehold Networking hub for LGBTQ professionals and allies in the UK’s real estate industry. freeholdlgbt.comFriends of The Joiners Arms: The JOIN Project Collaboration with community partners to explore how LGBTQIA+ venues and organisations can help create inclusive spaces and better opportunities for work, training and volunteering. friendsjoinersarms.comHomotopia Arts and social justice organisation based in Liverpool supporting local, national, and international queer and trans creatives, artists and makers. homotopia.netInterEngineering A professional network aiming to connect, inform and empower lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender engineers and their straight allies. interengineeringlgbt.comLondon LGBT Community Centre Based in pop-up premises in Southwark, this centre is a safe, sober space that welcomes and supports anyone identifying as LGBTQ+. The space was fitted out by the design and architecture community, who rallied around to support the space. londonlgbtqcentre.orgOpen Plan Scotland A volunteer-led advocacy and support network for all who identify as LGBTQIA+ and study or work across architecture in Scotland. openplan.scot @openplanscotlandOutwardly Creative A new event in Brighton bringing together queer members of the arts and creative industries, including architects. outwardlycreative.co.uk @outwardlycreativePlanning Out Network for LGBT professionals in the town planning and planning sector. @planningoutPride of Place: England’s LGBTQ Heritage Resource and interactive map uncovering and celebrating the LGBTQ heritage of buildings, places and landscapes across England. historicengland.org.ukThe London Queer Housing Coalition Specialist steering group made up of by-and-for LGBTQ+ housing and homelessness organisations working in the capital. stonewallhousing.org/lqhcThe Outside Project London’s LGBTIQ+ community shelter, centre, domestic abuse refuge and trans night shelter. lgbtiqoutside.orgThe Proud Place, Manchester Manchester’s LGBT+ Community Centre hosting The Proud Trust in a purpose-built building. theproudtrust.orgTonic Community-led, not-for-profit organisation focused on creating vibrant and inclusive urban LGBTQ+ affirming retirement communities to address issues of loneliness and isolation of older LGBTQ+ people. tonichousing.org.ukRIBA Collections: LGBTQ+ spaces Research guide to a few of the historical spaces that have formed sites where LGBTQ+ communities have explored, celebrated or concealed sexual and gender identities. architecture.comQueerscapes A platform and community for queer and trans spatial practitioners, including architects, designers, landscape architects, urbanists, builders, gardeners, artists and anyone working with space. queerscapes.com @_queerscapesQueercircle Charity founded to fill the gaps and advocate for systemic change where other arts, health and education institutions fail or actively perpetuate harm, based in the Design District in a David Kohn-designed building. queercircle.orgQueer Design Club Online platform where LGBTQ+ designers can celebrate queer contributions to the design industry and visual culture, share their work and connect with each other. queerdesign.clubQuEAN: Queer Educators in Architecture Network Network of queer spatial design educators – with a focus on queer theory, pedagogies, identities and intersections with spatial design – founded by Gem Barton. @quean_the_networkQueer Places A growing, free digital archive celebrating the vibrant LGBTQ+ spaces of Liverpool’s past, present and future. queerplaces.co.uk @queerplacesQueer Scenarios A research, practice and dissemination community that explores and supports queer identities and queer approaches within critical spatial practices, working collaboratively between teaching staff and students. Based at Central Saint Martins. @queer_scenariosThis list is by no means comprehensive and there are plenty of other resources available. If you are doing something in this field, the AJ would love to hear from you.

Queerness and nightlife go hand in hand. Out of the mainstream. Underground and counter-cultural. Whether it’s the location, venue, organisers or crowd, they are always outside the norm.  Some, like new lesbian bar La Camionera in Hackney, east London, have been designed, built and crafted by queer hands – the same ones which will soon be shaking, stirring and drinking negronis on a brushed aluminium countertop, or raising a glass in the purpose-built seating areas. Source: Rachel FerrimanLa Camionera The reopening of the quietly elegant La Camionera (Spanish for ‘female trucker’ and slang for butch lesbian) follows a months-long conversion of a temporary space led by its trans owner and a team of queer architects, contractors and trades. It is unique and stylish.  Advertisement But that’s not the only reason this tailored LGBTQ+ space stands out. Its mere existence sits against a background of queer venue closures because of an unholy trinity of rising costs, licensing issues and safety concerns. London, to take one city, has lost half of these safe spaces since 2006. Waves of redevelopment and gentrification have had their impact, too. One of the most famous victims was the wildly beloved Joiners Arms pub in Hackney Road in 2015. Never forgotten, attempts continue to resurrect this institution somewhere else in London’s East End a decade on. But can La Camionera pave the way for a design-led renaissance of after-hours ‘queerness’? One thing is for sure, there is a growing queer movement – architects included – to create safe, accessible LGBTQ+ spaces and define what that might look like. We’re going out (OUT), to find out. The state of play The Night Time Industries Association (NTIA) recently reported that 37 per cent of all night clubs across the UK have permanently shut since March 2020. That’s an average of three clubs a week, or 150 a year.Advertisement LGBTQ+ venues make up a considerable chunk of this. In the capital, between 2006 and 2022, Greater London Authority numbers show that 75 bars, clubs and LGBTQ+ pubs shut down – sometimes forever.  The list keeps growing. In the past 18 months, G-A-Y Late in Soho and The Glory in Haggerston have closed. Meanwhile, a third LGBTQ+ safe space, Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, has been fighting closure on and off for years – though it seems the east London venue may finally have had a late reprieve.  Venue closures are happening elsewhere in the UK, too, with Birmingham losing the Village Inn, Glasgow losing Bonjour and Sheffield losing the Queer Junction nightclub.  Based on the current rate of club closures, the NTIA warns the UK could have no nightclubs of any kind by 2030. The pro-nighttime body blames the collapse partly on the long-term impact of the Covid pandemic. Once closed down and locked up, these unique spaces rarely re-emerge, eyed up by developers for larger gain.  And, while the NTIA data does not explain how many of these closures are LGBTQ+, the community is among the hardest-hit because queerness and nightlife are so intertwined. Or, as Olimpia Burchiellaro, a shareholder of the Friends of The Joiners Arms campaign, puts it: ‘Nighttime is queer time’.  A call to (Joiners) Arms While The Joiners Arms, where reportedlyAlexander McQueen used to hang out, became one of the first LGBTQ+ venues to get protection in the planning system because of the sexual orientation of its users back in 2017, no on-site replacement has yet popped up on Hackney Road. Tower Hamlets Council had imposed a planning condition requiring any new development on The Joiners Arms site to include an LGBTQ+ venue. Developer Regal Homes had agreed to it. However, the proposed scheme that forced the closure has been delayed. No development, no new venue.  Burchiellaro tells the AJ that The Joiners Arms shows that LGBTQ+ spaces often act as ‘canaries in the coalmine’; a bellwether of the redevelopment cycle and of the state of the nighttime economy more generally. With little planning protection, they can be easily lost because they are often perceived as ‘unproductive’ uses in buildings ripe for replacement. Source: Friends of The Joiners ArmsFriends of The Joiners Arms protest outside the former pub ‘Gentrification and redevelopment are making it more and more difficult for communities who are not solely focused on profit, like queer spaces, to exist,’ argues Burchiellaro. ‘And, although queer clubs and bars have always been businesses, they’ve always been so much more than that.’ In the meantime, the Friends of  The Joiners Arms campaign has put on ‘an itinerant, moving club night’ at other east London venues as an act of resistance against anti-LGBTQ+ gentrification and the demise of LGBTQ+ nightlife in the capital, according to Aska Welford, an architectural worker formerly with Karakusevic Carson Architects. Welford, who is leading on co-design for a future permanent home for The Joiners Arms campaign, adds: ‘Even without the physical space, without a permanent, fixed space, queer people continue to exist and have a good time and be together.’ Safe and sound In Edinburgh, GRAS architect Kirsty Watt has also resorted to moving club nights, dubbed ‘Femmergy’, that turn the city’s historic urban fabric – including most recently a former biscuit factory – into a playground for femme-presenting members of the LGBTQ+ community, including trans people and afab women. Watt says: ‘In Edinburgh the queer nightlife scene particularly focused around cis gay men and so women, non-binary and trans people weren’t necessarily welcome in those spaces and that was the point of it, because there wasn’t really a space at all.’ Source: Kirsty WattFemmergy club night While Femmergy has difficulties finding Edinburgh venues with level access and accessible toilets, the club nights have provided a safe space for people ‘to be inherently themselves and represent themselves in a way that they want to while still feeling safe’, says Watt.  Both accessibility and safety are central to Femmergy, and are what makes it queer, she tells the AJ, ‘because people need to feel like they have a representation within their urban space’. However, she admits that having level access and accessible toilets have ‘limited us in terms of what venues we can work with, particularly in Edinburgh, because so many of the buildings are historic’. Putting the pop in pop-up So, if permanent dedicated spaces don’t always exist, what about bringing the nuts-and-bolts of a party to the people instead? This is the concept behind the Mobile Dyke Bar, a travelling lesbian disco started by former Royal Academy Interior design student Lucy Nurnberg and her right-hand woman, Ali Wagner, as part of a wider project dubbed Uhaul Dyke Rescue, a series of design-led club nights. The Mobile Dyke Bar is made of prefabricated parts which ‘slot’ into rental vans, which Nurnberg suggests is a tongue-in-cheek response to hyper-masculine removal van culture as much as it is a declaration of space for lesbians when there is barely any.  Its next stop is Mighty Hoopla, a pop festival in south London, later this month – the Mobile Dyke Bar’s second outing at the LGBTQ+ friendly event.  Source: Courteney FrisbyThe Mobile Dyke Bar at Mighty Hoopla in 2024 ‘The idea was that this would be a friendly space, but also about taking space for ourselves and being like, “Look, we need a bit of a dedicated corner here”,’ explains Nurnberg, whose Uhaul Dyke Rescue service was a reaction to ‘queer spaces in London generally declining, especially lesbian spaces’. Nurnberg adds that her interior design course informed Uhaul’s philosophy, ‘which is a bit secret and underground’ and had to be done on the cheap. It also looks at temporary structures as queer structures.  ‘We had a scaffold structure on the dance floor for our first night because I know that dykes love to flex muscle,’ Nurnberg explains, ‘But I also wanted to make it for anybody more femme presenting, and for anybody wanting to look a bit sexy, so we put a swing on the structure and people loved it.’ Why architects should design the night CAKE, a Dalston, east London-based practice, which was behind the Agnes stage at Rally festival in south London last year, has experience on an even bigger scale of delivering for a queer crowd.  The Layher scaffolding and translucent fibreglass-clad structure was designed to flip to become ‘The Strap’ at Body Movements – a queer festival the following day. That’s when the versatility of the modular structure’s raised platforms, floating walls, and one central dance floor all came into action – bringing the audience, artist and stage together. ‘For both days, depending on the music, it was a completely different environment,’ says CAKE architect Emiliano Zavala. ‘At  Body Movements people were dancing up on terraces and the whole thing was inhabited, and for Rally, the crowd was low and spread out, with the stage a kind of undercroft. The difference was really interesting.’ Source: Rory GaylorAgnes by CAKE Architecture Why did CAKE take on the challenge? Hugh Scott Moncrieff, creative director, says it ‘wasn’t the idea of making money’ but the opportunity to make creative architecture that reflects music, rhythm and sound, as well as context. Agnes, or The Strap, was possible because CAKE had proven to festival organisers with an earlier Rally stage that you could ‘spend a tiny bit of money on design work’ and win against standard fabrication teams ‘who weren’t coming at it from an architectural lens’, Scott Moncrieff adds. Agnes could be getting an upgrade for this year’s August bank holiday festivals. The structure also won the people’s choice award at last month’s AJ Small Projects. A sign of better-designed nights out to come? The future is niche – and lesbian If the Mobile Dyke Bar and Agnes could be the future of festivals and club nights, is La Camionera the future of LGBTQ+ nighttime spaces more broadly? A well-polished, honed product for a community crying out for something decent designed especially for them?  Daniel Pope, of newly established design studio and architects Popelo, which worked on La Camionera, says the bar is special because the result is super-niche. Certainly, there is no underfoot nastiness, peeling paint or unwanted design features common to many of the old underground venues. Yet this is queer through and through.  ’There’s not really many queer spaces where you can get a really beautiful drink in a nice glass, where the floor isn’t sticky,’ says Pope. ‘And with funding being so difficult, often queer spaces can feel quite DIY and quite shabby, perhaps not thought-through. With La Camionera, we really tried to make it feel high-end. So we focused the budget on specific areas, like the bespoke bench seat and polished aluminium bar; it feels quite luxe.’ Source: Rachel FerrimanLa Camionera interior by Popelo and WET Studio Those additions, Pope admits, had to be costed in and compensated for elsewhere. Making decisions like these is part of the ‘burden’ on queer architects delivering queer spaces – often pro bono or for a reduced fee. But designing with care and enthusiasm, and, crucially, with first-hand experience of being part of the community. As Pope says: ‘While I can’t talk for lesbians and there’s loads of spaces for gay men in London, I know that having a lesbian space that felt really sexy was key for La Camionera. The architect, who worked alongside LGBTQ+ set design firm Wet Studio on the job, argues that La Camionera’s queer energy was brought by that very queer team of ‘builders and makers who know how you want to feel in a space as a queer person’. On that basis, bespoke queer design for clubs, bars and music experiences in general could be the way forward – and a challenge to the troubles of the wider nighttime economy and a lack of LGBTQ+ representation in permanent spaces. He adds: ‘Talking from experience, when I was not out, I would go to events and never felt like I enjoyed it. It wasn’t until I started making queer friends and we would go to queer venues that you could be yourself and connect with other people in a really magnetic way.’ queer architecture 2025-05-22 Gino Spocchia comment and share Tagsqueer architecture

Liverpool Source:&nbsp Shutterstock Haworth Tompkins has been appointed to help plan the decade-long regeneration of St George’s Gateway, a 35ha site in central Liverpool Liverpool City Council has appointed a project team led by LDA Design to draw up a ‘transformational new masterplan’ for the cultural quarter, which encompasses an area from Lime Street Station to William Brown Street.  Other companies appointed to the team include multi-disciplinary giant WSP, development consultancy Pegasus, engineering consultant Hatch, community engagement expert PLACED and regeneration specialist Aspinall Verdi.  The council, which is partnering with Liverpool John Moores University and the National Museums Liverpool, says St George’s Gateway is ‘one of Liverpool’s most significant regeneration opportunities’, due to the recent demolition of the 1960s Churchill Way Flyovers. Advertisement The site includes some of the city’s most famous buildings, including the Grade I-listed St George’s Hall, the Grade II*-listed World Museum Liverpool and Walker Art Gallery, and the Grade II-listed Liverpool Empire Theatre. The masterplan will set out detailed public ream and landscape interventions, with a strategy to connect the area with the city centre; and propose transport improvements with an emphasis on net zero and active and active travel.  It will also promote green space with enhanced biodiversity, climate mitigation and capture of surface water run-off; propose interventions to unlock and maximise the value of development sites; and set design codes for the area.  Once approved by the council, the framework will be adopted as a Supplementary Planning Document to guide decision making and create investor certainty – just like the framework being drawn up by Levitt Bernstein and Turner Works for the nearby 30ha Pumpfields area.  Councillor Nick Small, Liverpool City Council’s cabinet member for growth and development, said: ‘This project represents a unique opportunity to reshape this key gateway site and help the city to attract investors in creating a truly world-class experience to match the area’s unrivalled architecture and history.’ Advertisement 2025-05-22 Will Ing comment and share

The AJ’s special LGBTQ+ issue – out tomorrow – explores thought-provoking discussions about queer culture, about whose voices are heard, about who gets to occupy space – and where, says Emily Booth The AJ’s going Out. And, really, you can’t miss it, given our amazingly colourful cover for this month's issue (photography by Wilson Hennessy, laser cuts by Luka Rocyn, art direction by the AJ’s ever-talented Maria Rodriguez). Indeed, our special edition (out tomorrow, 22 May) has been a whole team effort, led by our brilliant colleagues Gino Spocchia, Rob Wilson and Fran Williams, with a mission to explore, spotlight and, most importantly, celebrate the LGBTQ+ community’s rich contribution to architecture. The magazine lands just in time for Pride month, though we’re conscious that the issues raised within these pages go far beyond a single point in the diary. Advertisement We’ve endeavoured to share a wide range of voices through profiles, interviews, features, photographs and opinion pieces – while being acutely aware we can’t reflect every person, practice or project from such a diverse community. Source: Wilson HennessyBehind the scenes for the cover shoot Within the pages are thought-provoking discussions about queer culture, about whose voices are heard, who gets to occupy space – and where. Space is political, and that feels especially so at present. The RCA’s Gem Barton, who leads the Architecture LGBT+ Academic Champions Network (ACN), has a striking take: ‘To queer is to disrupt. To queer is to stretch, bend, reimagine and reject inherited structures that no longer serve us — if they ever did.’ Despite progress in LGBTQ+ visibility it can still sometimes feel like hard-won inclusivity has fallen behind. There are not, for example, many large practices led by an outwardly LGBTQ+ individual. Even today, coming out can be hard. So, from Gino’s excellent pieces featuring the community’s champions and leaders, looking at why we need LGBTQ+ housing, and even taking a deep dive into nightclub design; and from a special Sketchbook offering, to a detailed diary of upcoming events: we hope that the profession finds much affirmation and inspiration as the AJ goes Out. The May edition of the AJ will be published tomorrow. Subscribers will be able to read the digital edition here, or copies of the printed magazine will be available to buy here. An AJ subscription is better value – click here to view our packages.  Architecture LGBT+ 2025-05-21 Emily Booth comment and share TagsArchitecture LGBT+

Last month, the UK’s highest court unanimously ruled that a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities law. The court sided with campaign group For Women Scotland, which brought a case against the Scottish Government, arguing that sex-based protections should only apply to people that are born female. While the judgement does not remove trans people’s protection from discrimination under the 2010 Equality Act, among the outcomes of the ruling are bans on trans women from using women’s toilets and trans men using men’s toilets. All public buildings must provide single-sex toilet facilities following the ruling.Advertisement Writing in an open letter addressed to LGBTQ+ architects, planners, engineers and others, which was shared exclusively with the AJ, the UK’s largest built environment institutions said they acknowledged concerns raised over the court’s decision. The professional membership bodies also made promises to create an inclusive built environment in the letter, which reiterated ‘protections and provisions’ that ‘remain firmly in place’ despite the ruling. The six bodies said: ‘We acknowledge the recent Supreme Court judgment, and we need time to fully consider its implications [but] Our determination to foster an inclusive sector remains unchanged’. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Queerscapes (@_queerscapes) The response comes after the LGBTQ+ and trans-founded platform Queerscapes argued in a letter dated 18 April that its members were ‘deeply concerned and worried’ by the gender ruling. Queerscapes, at the same time, called for the professional bodies to show ‘clarity and courage’ on the issue. Writing in the open letter, the group said: ‘The recent UK Supreme Court ruling, redefining “sex” in the Equality Act 2010 as “biological sex,” has left many of us fearful.Advertisement ‘The ruling opens the door to exclusion’ ‘While legal protections for trans people under “gender reassignment” remain, the ruling opens the door to exclusion — from spaces, services, and workplaces — at a time when hate and hostility are already rising. ‘Our institutions must act decisively to support the trans and gender-diverse professionals in our sector.’ The letter in response to Queerscapes was signed by the RIBA, the Chartered Institute of Building, Institution of Civil Engineers, The Landscape Institute, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and the Royal Town Planning Institute. The RIBA and joint bodies admitted in their letter that they were unable to publish data on trans and gender-diverse members until they are ‘confident that its collection and publication will not put any member at risk’. This was in response to Queerscapes calling for action following a 2022 memorandum on inclusion and diversity. Other commitments made in 2022 on EDI included improving understanding of gender transition from education into employment, and training on EDI. This was part of a 45-point action plan agreed by the six bodies. Letter in response to Queerscapes Thank you for your letter dated 18 April. In 2022, we signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and its associated action plan as a demonstration of our collective commitment to creating a built environment sector that is inclusive and supportive of our entire membership. We are dedicated to ensuring that all members, regardless of their personal characteristics, thrive in this environment. We acknowledge the recent Supreme Court judgment, and we need time to fully consider its implications. Our determination to foster an inclusive sector remains unchanged. The MoU is set to expire this summer, and we expect all original signatories to re-sign, alongside welcoming new signatories, to further cement our commitment to supporting all our members. Consistent and robust data collection is the bedrock of our commitment. Since signing the MoU, we have agreed a consistent set of data collection practices, which include gathering data on trans and gender-diverse individuals. We intend to publish this data; however, we are currently working on improving our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to ensure that the data we collect can be stored safely and accurately. We will share the data once we are confident that its collection and publication will not put any member at risk. Additionally, we have provisions and protections in place for members and staff that ensure everyone is treated with dignity and respect. These policies remain firmly in place. At this time, we do not offer member services or benefits based on gender identity, and we have no plans to introduce such services. However, in terms of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), we are committed to promoting the use of the Inclusive Design Overlay across our membership and beyond. This framework is designed to ensure that spaces are inclusive and welcoming for all, including trans individuals. We recognise that some members and built environment professionals may be feeling increased levels of vulnerability and concern. Please be assured that we remain steadfast in our commitment to creating inclusive professions and, by extension, inclusive places and spaces. Discrimination of any kind has no place in society, and we will continue to do our part in eradicating it. Thank you again for reaching out. Members of the professional institutions with additional questions or concerns are encouraged to get in touch with their respective organisation. Yours sincerely, Chartered Institute of Building Institution of Civil Engineers The Landscape Institute Royal Institute of British Architects Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Royal Town Planning Institute