Architecture
Staffage of Legend
Fanciful Figures, a new exhibition at Sir John Soane’s Museum in London, draws attention to ‘staffage’ – the small figures in architectural drawings that became increasingly popular during the 18th century and remain totally charming today
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Resurrection architecture
British architect Jonathan Tuckey resurrects an early 20th century stone chapel perched in a picturesque Devon village
Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier’s Chandigarh furniture rediscovered
Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier were instrumental in the design of Chandigarh in northern India, including the furniture for the city’s public buildings. A recent public exhibition of a singular private collection prompts a retelling of a monumental Modernist design story
Once shuttered, Villa Borsani prepares to welcome design hoards at Alcova this April
Villa Borsani has seen a resplendent public interest in recent years, bolstered by popular design event Alcova moving in during Salone del Mobile in April 2024. Before Alcova’s curated hoard of experimental designers, institutions, talks and performances move in, explore the Modernist gem as it is, untouched
Czech posts: the turbulent 1940s were no barrier to architectural experimentation in three almost-forgotten summer houses
Three unique summer houses, designed by the architects František Cubr and Zdeněk Pokorný on the Seč Dam in Czechia, are early examples of the architects’ important vernacular work
Fossil fuel: the open-access science institute that helped feed a generation of aficionados
The air in the virtually unchanged Wagner Free Institute of Science in Philadelphia is still thick with the Victorian fervour for natural history
Casa in point: the home of Fausto Crespi in Milan is 1920s bourgeois Italy in a nutshell
With the Liberty style jewel destined to open to the public as a house museum in 2026, WoI takes a sneak preview before the grand reveal
Hot springs eternal in Germán del Sol’s volcanic rainforest baths
The architect visited Chile’s volcano-studded Villarrica National Park some 25 years ago, where he set about creating a thermal retreat joined by a network of timber walkways through the lush temperate rainforest
Balkrishna Doshi’s Modernist legacy in Ahmedabad
Balkrishna Doshi and his ‘guru’ Le Corbusier transformed Ahmedabad into a hotbed of Indian Modernism. Thanks to the architects’ work, including a collection of Brutalist buildings with vernacular flourishes, the city of 5 million people was put on the map of global architecture history
Carlo Clavarino’s picturesque Palazzo
Liguria’s capital loves visual trickery, and with its rich trompe-l’oeil frescoes the 16th-century Palazzo Angelo Giovanni Spinola has clearly absorbed the local aesthetic. Bankrolling a major restoration, owner Carlo Clavarino, whose patrician family has deep roots here, waved his own wand, adding hidden doors, faux marquetry and paint masquerading as velvet. Christopher Garis soaks up the sleight of hand
This perfectly preserved Art Deco lodge is a time capsule of the 1930s
A virtually untouched gem of a 1930s hunting lodge outside Paris by the designer and architect Pierre Petit is currently on the market, complete with original furnishings and decoration
New Builders: the architecture firm breathing new life into old buildings
This old Dovecote has been given a new lease of life by Highlands based architectural firm Ta-Ma
William Strickland evokes an Egyptian temple within a Presbyterian Church in the heart of Tennessee
Nashville may be a far cry from Egypt. But in the 1840s, American designer William Strickland had an unusual vision: to evoke a pagan temple within a traditional downtown Presbyterian Church in the heart of Tennessee
The National Library of Kosovo offers a distinctively Balkan take on Brutalism
Designing the National Library of Kosovo in Pristina in the early 1970s, Andrija Mutnjaković deployed the dome as one of his fundamental forms in order to mark the Ottoman empire’s impact on the region
Avery Singer free-falls into Hauser & Wirth London
The artist eerily creates a Minoru Yamasaki-inspired office building in Hauser & Wirth’s London gallery, which hosts her latest deepfake portraits
