This week, in honour of Hallowe’en, we’re going Gothic.  Nope, we don’t mean dressing entirely in black, piling on the scary eyeliner, and emptying a bottle of noir-shaded hair-dye over our head.
Although – note to self – that may not be a bad idea for Saturday night’s festivities…
No, we’re talking about the Gothic style of architecture.  Typical [...]

A few days ago, I read a Knight Frank report proclaiming that the price of country houses had risen for the first time in two years.
Ever since, I’ve been plagued by the Blur song which features that particular property type. You know the one: he lives in a house, a very big house…
Anyway, I digress. [...]

Richard Rogers, as you probably know, won the Stirling Prize for architecture last week.
I meant to blog about this property then, but, well, it slipped my mind.
It’s by David Chipperfield, a former Stirling winner (2007) and currently the subject of an exhibition at the Design Museum in London.
If you like crisp lean minimalist spaces, this [...]

Other people’s homes: always interesting, aren’t they? Following on from Joss’s post below about a very pink house in New York, here’s a video from style magazine dwell about a very black apartment in the same city.
It’s owned by Cindy Gallop, an international advertising consultant.
Cindy, who has enough shoes to put Imelda Marcos to shame, [...]

I love New York. And I love pink. So how much do I love this NYC townhouse with its fabulously pink bedroom? Very, very much, is the answer.

However, even I’m aware that intensely pink bedrooms with golden angels adorning the walls are likely to be the stuff of nightmares rather than sweet dreams for most people.
But [...]

As shiny homes go, they don’t get much shinier than this.
Looking like another escapee from the set from Blade Runner (cf. The Pyramid House), it is in fact the overall winner of the 2009 Solar Decathlon over in Washington D.C. - a competition which seeks to raise awareness about renewable [...]

Art Deco is quite possibly the architectural equivalent of Marmite, given its tendency to divide people into two distinct camps: lovers or loathers.
I’m on the loving it side, myself, particularly when it comes to properties. I love the blend of gracious curves and crisp lines, the flat roofs, the flurry of windows, and the frequently extravagant designs.
But [...]

An architectural classic this week: the Georgian Townhouse.
Of course, given that there were several King Georges, the Georgian period lasted for well over a hundred years, starting – logically – with George I’s reign, which began in 1714, and ending with the death of George IV in 1830.
Styles of architecture changed during this long period, [...]

Brighton: it’s been practically impossible to miss it in the media this week, what with the political circus that is the Labour party conference rolling into town last Sunday.
And what a telly-genic place it is, too, particularly when the sun is shining, as it’s been doing a lot over the past few days.
Even Gordon Brown [...]

What do you do when your building plot includes an enormous horse chestnut tree that you’re not allowed to cut down?
Grand Designs devotees will remember that architect Peter Romaniuk and his clients David and Anjana Devoy solved this problem by creating a beautiful curved house that traces the perimeter of the site and extends an [...]