In November, a lobbying firm approached me and asked to pay me to write articles critical of the Building Safety Regulator for newspapers. Filmed undercover, their staff admitted secretly paying reporters for copy in British newspapers friendly to their clients: www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Lobbying giant filmed offering reporter payment for flattering client coverage in national press

Exclusive: Guardian investigation of CT Group uncovers practice that appears to seek hidden influence over public opinion

theguardian.com

'Unlocking affordability' is a seductive idea. But in Manchester - where luxe flats are built at pace - average house prices are up more than 60% in a decade. www.ft.com/content/d151...

Why socialists should embrace luxury apartments

High-end developments can be more effective at unlocking affordability than social housing programmes

ft.com

As i've been predicting for the past few years –– social housing will be the next right wing moral panic. It's incredible the speed in which this stuff (directly lifted from far right blogs) has ended up in centre-right publications

Listen now to the @opencity-uk.bsky.social Deconstructed podcast with @matthewlloydr.bsky.social and I discussing Grosvenor Square, 1968 and protest. shows.acast.com/601c017e2709...

Deconstructed: Grosvenor Square - Protest and the State | Open City

shows.acast.com

🚨 My new post on Substack tells the story of the London County Council's ‘Patronage of the Arts’ Scheme that installed over 70 works of art in schools and housing estates across the capital. municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-lcc-an...

The LCC and the Arts II: the ‘Patronage of the Arts’ Scheme

Last week’s post looked at the LCC’s open-air sculpture exhibitions but arguably the more significant contribution to the worthy attempt to bring art to the people lay in its ‘Arts Patronage Scheme’ i...

municipaldreams.substack.com

Have a listen to this new episode of Open City’s De-constructed podcast! I talked with @matthewlloydr.bsky.social about England’s first ever council housing cooperative - a bold experiment in tenant control in 1970s Wapping 🧱🛠️✊ open.spotify.com/episode/3hiS...

It is exactly two years since C20 Society established the Elain Harwood Fund to secure her legacy, and hosted an incredibly moving event in her honour at the Southbank Centre. We’re pleased to announce the Fund has now reached £81,000 in donations – over half way to our initial target of £150,000. 🧵

Now live! I was interviewed by @matthewlloydr.bsky.social for @opencity-uk.bsky.social Deconstructed podcast discussing the Keeper's Lodge at Plumstead Common, built by the LCC in 1894.

There is still time to get a ticket for our tour of Poundbury with the Ross Sharpe and Hilary Satchwell for @opencity-uk.bsky.social next Saturday 7th June, with options to join us on the train from London! The weather forecast is looking promising! open-city.org.uk/events/pound...

Poundbury on trial — Open City

Join Open City tours for a critic-led tour of Poundbury

open-city.org.uk

📢In the latest Deconstructed podcast, host @matthewlloydr.bsky.social R discuses the past, present and future of London's troubled Euston station with architectural historian Ewan Harrison🎙️🎧 shows.acast.com/opencity/epi...

Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.

📢 Our latest Deconstructed podcast sees @matthewlloydr.bsky.social joined by George Saumarez Smith to discuss St Anne's Limehouse designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. You can listen in all the usual places and also today at 2pm on Resonance 104.4 FM 🎙️🎧🏙️ www.resonancefm.com

🎧 New episode of Deconstructed just dropped! 🎧 @matthewlloydr.bsky.social is joined by George Saumarez Smith for a chat all about St. Anne's Limehouse, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. Listen on Acast: shows.acast.com/opencity

Got the amazing opportunity last week to visit the restoration work at St Stephen Walbrook courtesy of Luka Pajovic — a brilliant effort to secure the future of the finest Wren parish church in London, and credit to Daedalus Conservation for impeccable work

So excited to be involved with this new podcast project over at @opencity-uk.bsky.social

Merlin Fulcher@merlinfulcher.bsky.social · 2y ago

This week we are announcing a major refresh of the Open City Podcast with a new line up of shows and hosts – covering news and current events as well as in depth studies of landmark buildings, and cities around the UK and world.

What were the vibes of 2024? We did our best to talk about some of them on our latest episode, from unionisation to Tehran to AI to The Sphere! out now wherever you get your podcasts or on our YouTube channel: youtu.be/OJ1VlSKegGA?...

2024 Architectural Vibe Check — AB+C 119

YouTube video by About Buildings + Cities

youtu.be

2024 HIGHLIGHT Neural networks & the architectural imagination by @matthewlloydr.bsky.social recessed.space/00186-AI-neu...

🎧 The new De-constructed podcast from Open City sounds terrific, with Finsbury Health Centre a cracker of a building to kick-off. Bring on January! Big congrats to host @matthewlloydr.bsky.social, listen to a trailer here: shows.acast.com/opencity/episo…

Merlin Fulcher@merlinfulcher.bsky.social · 2y ago

🎙️ We're launching Deconstructed -- a new podcast in 2024 hosted by the amazing @matthewlloydr.bsky.social 🏙️ It will explore buildings, places, landscapes and communities, taking apart their architecture piece by piece to better understand what makes them so compelling! More details + trailer below

Time to bring a twitter series to Bluesky: Given the incredible number of 20th-century churches in Northrhine-Westphalia (the topic of my dissertation), I’m going post one or two every day. None of these images are mine, they're all credited in the alt text, and I'll take any down if asked

Hello 👋🏼 I’m India, an AHRC-funded PhD candidate at Cambridge. My research examines the architecture of the Inns of Court in the 17th century. I’m the Editor of the London Topographical Society Newsletter and I’m currently undertaking a curatorial research placement with Historic Royal Palaces.

Heritage crime: Three Grade II listed 'Richardson Candle' street lamps - designed by Sir Albert Richardson in 1957 - have been stolen from Trumpington St in Cambridge. Stolen-to-order or student prank? Police are urging anyone with any information to come forward. www.thetimes.com/article/fb80...

Hello Blue Sky! Check out our latest episode, on the Beaux-Arts school in 1920s America, on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts: youtu.be/Jj1anRYMmLI?...

How to be a Beaux-Arts Architect — AB+C 118

YouTube video by About Buildings + Cities

youtu.be

Fucking love Nicholas Hawksmoor

Today the GLA published its annual ‘Housing in London’ report data.london.gov.uk/housing/hous.... It has 70 pages of analysis and data visualisations and I think you should read the whole thing, but here is a thread with some of the key findings.

They do not sign leases, as we that are left sign leases: Their landlords do not come into their flat with less than 24 hours notice, nor their boilers break down. At the paying of the deposit, and in its retention We will remember them

Had an incredible, chilly and almost hallucinogenic trip far east down the estuarine Thames on the Open City boat tour yesterday, led with inimitable vim by Benedict O'Looney, from Tudor naval yards to Ballymore's flatland — strongly recommend you book tickets for the next one

remarkable to see the lonely island of the Express Building by Ellis & Clarke ft. Owen Williams floating on its own as part of large scale demolition of the surrounding office blocks (themselves barely 20 years old) to make room for BIG's wraparound pastiche deco stepback mess

Is it true that there are people who have accounts on Bluesky who are also fans of architecture?

Want to cross the road safely? Disabled? Pushing a pram? Tough luck. What an utter, selfish disgrace. Seeing this every day now in London.

Thrilled to share the start of a new miniseries of the SAHGB podcast in which Jess Kelly and I think about the subject of 'Architecture and Media'! We are thinking about the way that buildings a shaped by their representation in different media: open.spotify.com/episode/3NQY...