Intrivia.

Inspiration is a difficult word. Many artists seek it, whilst others deny its existence. The alternative to inspiration is investigation: a laborious approach that sometimes leads to a life’s work. Transcription can be the convenient middle ground between inspiration a...

It takes a particularly strong conviction for two people to entrust both their intimate and public lives to each other. “Eames: The Architect and Painter” tells a neat story of Eames design, and of untidy workplace relationships; not only of the main protagonists but a...

John Penrose is the Conservative Minister for Tourism and Heritage. This month, he rejected a renewed application from the 2oth Century Society to list the Southbank Centre. And his department took the further step of granting a certificate of immunity for future attem...

The haphazardly arranged tiers and pathways of this year’s Serpentine Pavilion offer a shady area to sit on a hot afternoon in London. Children looking for adventure charge through cork-lined gangways and leap over steps. Adults drink, read, talk and sleep – as adults...

Is Patrick Keiller an architect, or is he an artist?

Perhaps this an obstinate question to ask? A man can be both, and more besides, can’t he? My answer to this is no. There are many professions where dual roles are acceptable. An actuary can also be a restaurateur, and...

King’s Cross Station has traditionally been a sober friend in relation to its shouty neighbour at St Pancras, which was always ready for a party even when it was down and out. Lewis Cubitt designed a building that looks like a station – it could be nothing else – like...

The heat of the concrete sidewalk is searing through the soles of these cheap canvas shoes. I have been walking along East Tropicana Avenue for thirty two minutes. The directions to University Plaza were clear enough, but the presumption was that I would be driving. No...

Big Yellow Storage buildings are most often glimpsed across a flyover from your car as you stutter between speed cameras on one of London’s internal arteries, though some have crept further into the city. Fulham Power Station has been converted utilising the large tran...

On my arrival at Zaha Hadid’s new gallery for Roca, Ariel appears in her contemporary apparel of black pencil skirt and tailored white blouse. She speaks to me of the watery world I have now entered, where the amorphous spaces have been imagined from the formation of w...

The mirror is often used as a literary metaphor. Its powers of reflection, refraction and subtraction just prove too tempting a device to leave on the wall. It is also an object with a number of practical functions. Brunelleschi reportedly used a mirror to develop his...