We have been shortlisted to the final five studios to lead the design of the Grenfell Tower Memorial, as a result of an international competition.
During the final stages of the competition over the past year, our work has been one of reflection, listening, and learning. The Grenfell Memorial design process has been unlike anything we have undertaken before — a journey that asked us to move beyond architecture as a discipline, and towards architecture as an act of care.
The Mumbai taxi encapsulates the city’s identity—a vessel that carries stories, people, and prayers. Within its garlanded interiors, passengers encounter an elevated experience that is part journey, part ritual. The driver shares space with small idols, their presence transforming the vehicle into a sanctified space. Through the taxi’s windshield, Mumbai reveals itself, a collage of chaos and culture. Unlike Western cities, where speed dominates, Mumbai unfolds slowly. Traffic jams heighten awareness, making every moment a contemplation of the present. Streets brim with life—vendors, sacred cows, and makeshift markets encroach on pavements, creating a landscape where movement is as much about weaving through humanity as it is about forward motion. The city, viewed through the taxi’s framed windows, becomes both personal and shared—a reflection of its people’s aspirations, struggles, and unyielding spirit. To ride a Mumbai taxi is to glimpse the soul of a city in constant flux.
A [public] building with no public to inform is a powerless structure, and therefore no building at all. Wolfflin tries to categorise the mood of an epoch in isolation. He tries to attach an emotion to built form and uses corporeal theory heavily in his method. Only two bodies are prevalent in Wolfflin’s work; that of the building he studies, and that of his own. He positions both himself and the building outside of society – the building has no place, and it is not a place. Wolfflin examines the object as a piece of art. Thus we can state that Wolfflin attempts an analysis of singular objects, developed over centuries and compartmentalised into stylistic epochs, but not objects grouped in a city with inhabitants. For surely to attempt this would require a passage, of movement, of the human body from building to building, and place to place, and so would be contrary to Wolfflin’s methodology. Wolfflin does not parade the building. The building parades Wolfflin, and Wolfflin alone, and reveals its mood.
“What people want to see is their own meanings in the environment – with their own systems of values, from their own frames of reference, shaped by the expressive systems that they share with their community but not necessarily with the designer.”
What does Wolfflin’s dialogue with the building reveal? Can Wolfflin achieve what he attempts? Can he reduce a building to an anti-spatial work of art, and thus truly deem his critique an a-social production?
The most striking feature of the Manor Road Library Group is its grand external staircase, often referred to as the Oxford Steps. This architectural element extends outward like an inviting path, leading visitors toward the summit of the library complex. Its design, a minimalist triumph with elongated risers and understated balustrades, evokes a sense of movement and purpose. Yet, the steps do not celebrate arrival; instead, they emphasize the journey. Visitors ascend with blind faith, unable to see their destination from the bottom of the staircase. This purposeful elongation reflects the architects’ intention to celebrate the act of progression over the final goal. The design draws comparisons to Eisenstein’s Odessa Steps, though here, the emphasis is on individual endeavor rather than collective action. With every step, the Oxford Steps ask us to contemplate our purpose and embrace the journey toward knowledge and enlightenment.
Varanasi, often referred to as the 'Eternal City,' is a unique intersection of religion, history, and human interaction. With roots traced back over 2,000 years, it is not only a spiritual center for Hindus and Buddhists but also a dynamic, ever-changing urban tapestry. The Dashashwamedh Ghat, one of 80 ghats lining the sacred River Ganges, becomes a space where the stratified Indian caste system meets the daily rhythms of pilgrims, tourists, and locals. Here, the Ghat serves as a leveller in theory—a space where caste and class boundaries blur under the watchful eye of the holy river. Yet, in practice, social hierarchies subtly dictate the behaviors and interactions of its users. Through ceremonies like the daily pujas and the movement of people, the Ghat transforms into a stage, capturing the timeless, intricate dance of cultural rituals, socio-political constructs, and personal devotion
In the early 15th century, the Florentines, never slow in self-congratulation, had much to be proud of.” It was a golden age, where Florence stood as a beacon of wealth and intellectual progress. Luminaries like Boccaccio, Salutati, and Brunelleschi collaborated to shape a cultural renaissance amidst breathtaking creations like Ghiberti’s baptistery doors and Masaccio’s frescoes. Florence, the “Athens of Europe,” was proud of its republican traditions, appearing as a paragon of progress. Yet, beneath its grandeur lay a darker twin—‘the Florence Corrupt.’ The city, a masterpiece of art and learning, masked political turbulence and plots of violence. The Medici family emerged during this volatile period, subtly transforming Florence’s democratic traditions into a landscape of calculated control. Behind the façade of beauty, power struggles painted a different, shadowy picture. It was a time when art and architecture flourished, even as the foundations of democracy cracked under the weight of ambition.
Where once shop fronts dominated the landscape, now the edges of city blocks are the signs from which the driver understands the city. The intellectual reading that we have of objects, of pedestrian crossings, one-way signs, traffic barriers, are disregarded, and as Danius cites from Maeterlinck, the motor vehicle turns the quiet road into a spectacle with static objects springing forward. Granted, although this example shows cars perforating a city landscape, and not quiet village roads, the experience of speed and the overwhelming of visual stimuli [the 2 characteristics of the modern world posited by Octave Mirbeau] clearly render the city as a pure visual phenomenon – with the car windshield framing the city for the human to perceive the city as a cinematic experience. All speed and light and objects flitting in and out of perception.
And when Danius states that it is nature, not the car, that emerges as the reckless force, further relations can be drawn between the text and this example; for does the Fast and the Furious refer to the drivers or the city itself? It is the city that roars past the windshield, whilst the driver is cocooned.