AJ 24.10.24: Climate resilience

Many of the excellent schemes showcased in this month’s AJ put biodiversity and climate resilience at their core.

The reimagining of the Gascoigne Estate is at the heart of Barking and Dagenham Council’s ambition to regenerate Barking as one of London’s greenest, most affordable and sustainable neighbourhoods. White Arkitekter has developed a landscape-led scheme and the practice benefits from having an in-house landscape team.

When it comes to working with water, rather than fighting it, Rotterdam offers a cornucopia of inspiration with its Seven City Projects and a number of other climate-resilient schemes such as the Keilehaven Tidal Park, designed by De Urbanisten.

Also featured in the issue are two retrofit projects: the Edinburgh Futures Institute by Bennetts Associates and Pricegore’s Nottingham arts centre.

In News, we report on how the team behind London’s Earls Court regeneration is embedding climate change shock absorbers into its huge plans. There is also a feature on why Southwark Council’s housebuilding drive has stalled, as well as coverage of the 2024 RIBA Stirling Prize.

Our lead feature in Culture is about the nature-based public art installations at Oxford’s Begbroke Innovation District, while in Opinion, Rory Olcayto asks why there are no architects on the New Towns Taskforce, and the Secret Architect wonders whether the stupidest ideas are the best.

Also included in the issue are sketches by Dimitris Argyros, a column by David Grandorge and our competitions roundup.

£16.00

AJ 22.08.24: Light, craft, space

 Lynch Architects’ Westminster Coroner’s Court is one of three building studies to be found in this month’s issue, with our critic declaring it to ‘invoke something of the “secular sacred” that’s rarely found these days’.

Also presented are AOC’s storage facility for the National Railway Museum in County Durham – which has delicate touches reminiscent of a white cube gallery – and Cooke Fawcett’s Deptford office rework for arts incubator Cockpit.

In the News section you can find out who’s odds on to win this year’s Stirling Prize, and read a profile of Jane Darke, whose 1976 examination of six London council estates highlighted a gulf between architects’ preconceptions and tenants’ reality.

The humble brick takes centre stage at an exhibition mounted jointly by Tate Liverpool and RIBA North, which is reviewed in the Culture section. Opinion pieces are authored by the Secret Architect on the Stirling, and Cristina Monteiro on Colin Ward: ‘We need his values to guide planning reforms’.

The Grenfell Tower Memorial is featured in Competitions, while David Grandorge’s column focuses on electricity, Tesla and Belgrade. At-risk cinemas are the hot topic in our Letters pages, and this month’s Sketchbook drawings are courtesy of Dom Walker.

£16.00

AJ Specification Jul 2024: Doors and windows

Doors and windows: Old School House by Blindloss Dawes; 106 Lilford Road by studio HANDS; and Fish Island by Henley Halebrown

£10.00

AJ 23.05.24: Belgium

The Belgium issue offers a deep dive into why this perhaps unlikely country has become a happy hunting ground for UK-based architects. As editor Emily Booth observes in her introduction, 'centuries of shared trade and cultural history over the choppy North Sea mean the similarities and the links with the UK run deep' - but it is the substantial opportunities for work that are the real draw for the UK's practices today.

In a special projects round-up, we explore these opportunities through the work of UK names currently working in Belgium, including Counterspace, DRDH and David Chipperfield Architects. Meanwhile, our building studies include the retrofit of a fire station, and the transformation of an industrial building into a residential development by local practices ATAM and Notan Office, respectively.

In News we reveal the 2024 AJ100 Awards Shortlist, including Practice of the Year and Employer of the Year. We also meet director of the Flanders Architecture Institute Sofie De Caigny, and explore Maccreanor Lavington's plans for a post-'Brusselisation' retrofit scheme.

In Culture, Florian Heilmeyer reviews Rotor, a book exploring the works of artist-turned-builder Marcel Raymaekers, while an essay from Ellis Woodman sings the praises of the Flanders-style open call.

Elsewhere David Grandorge explores what's changing in Belgium - and what is not in the UK - while The Coach answers burning questions on redundancy, including what do next if it happens to you.

This month's sketchbook comes curtesy of Robert Coz, director at ADAM Architecture and the latest Hellman takes aim Kier Starmer's grey belt development plans.

£16.00

AJ Specification Apr 2024: Brick and stone

Thornton House by FBM Architects; Six Columns by 31/44 Architects; and Gateway West by Gort Scott

£10.00

AJ 22.02.24: Schools

This month’s issue of the AJ explores a sector in need of drastic, visionary and financial intervention: schools. As editor Emily Booth points out in her introduction, ‘while bold budgetary changes are made with the sweep of a pen at the macro level, each crumbling classroom is a local, micro tragedy’.

In News Anna Highfield delves deeper into this topic, asking whether the Tories’ new rescue package goes far enough to address deteriorating conditions in schools, and what measures a new government might take. Plus, we take a first look at Jamie Fobert’s newly revealed Maggie’s Centre plans.

Our building studies include Rivington Studio’s secondary school at Silvertown - an oasis amid the regeneration of east London’s docklands - and a supportive woodland learning environment by Loader Monteith and Studio SJM. Finally we take a look at Surman Weston’s first self-build project - a strikingly innovative and energy-efficient home that reinvents the terraced house.

Elsewhere the first piece in AJ’s new series, ‘Blueprints for Change’, presents Tom Holbrook’s bold proposition for The Arc – an 100-mile public landscape with water at its heart. The series will give voice to ways architects are challenging the most pressing social and environmental challenges. 

In our Opinion pages Cristina Monteiro explains why we need to talk about social value in architecture, while Toko Andrews asks if specialisation is the way to succeed in the profession. And, in Culture, we explore two new exhibitions: SOAS University of London’s Building Africa and Abstractions: Studies of the National Theatre – photographs of Denys Lasdun’s South Bank masterpiece. 

Finally, in Sketchbook we meet Fatima Mejbil of FAUM Architecture, and Hellman introduces us to RIBA presidential candidate Chris Williamson.

£16.00

AJ 14.12.23: Later living

December’s edition of the AJ looks at how the older generation are living out their autumn years in the twenty-first century. Our three fascinating building studies of projects by Mole Architects, Mæ and Witherford Watson Mann take inspiration from the almshouse, while making subtle efforts to subvert this model’s tendency to put older people in need out of sight and out of mind.

In News, we present the results of a salary survey, which reveals that architects were handed an effective pay cut in 2023, while an accompanying essay by nimtim’s Tim O’Callaghan asks how architects can halt the race to the bottom that has created a culture of low fees and salaries.

In a packed Culture section we visit the Georgian Illuminations at Sir John Soane’s Museum, and the Unbuild exhibition at the Drawing Room; plus regular columnist David Grandorge offers his thoughts on the use of plastics in construction.

This month’s Opinion pieces are by Kunle Barker – who argues that sustainability categories within architecture awards should be ditched – and Martha Dillon, who shares her thoughts on Rowan Moore’s new book Property.

Lastly, festive cheer is provided in a Building of the Year quiz, AHMM Sketch Club and Hellman, who wishes AJ subscribers a HappAI Xmas.

£16.00

AJ Specification Nov 2023: Fire and insulation

Fire and insulation: Dugdale Arts Centre by Dallas-Pierce-Quintero; Benenden School Music School and Hall by Hollaway Studio; and Oak Cancer Centre by BDP

£10.00

AJ 21.09.23: Student Prize

Community and sustainability are the prevailing themes of this year’s AJ Student Prize, and all 100+ entries are showcased in AJ’s annual student special issue. This is a cohort acutely aware of the challenges facing the world, and determined to come up with their own solutions to the most testing issues of our times.

Also in this issue are the sobering findings of our latest race and diversity survey, which reveals how people of diverse ethnic heritage face barriers at every stage of their careers, and explores how the profession can become more inclusive. We also spotlight alternative practice pioneers Zean Mair-Macfarlane and Bushra Mohamed.

More than a year since a damning report uncovered decades of ‘serious misconduct’ at the Bartlett, we ask whether the celebrated architecture school is now safe for students. In Culture, the AJ reports from the European Architecture Students Assembly in Sheffield.

Other features in this jam-packed issue include the RIBA Stirling Prize shortlist (and the AJ’s verdict); columns by the AJ Coach and David Grandorge; sketchbook by Freedah Rehan; our monthly competitions round-up; and Hellman’s cartoon on the RAAC crisis.

Half-price subscription offer

AJ Specification Jul 2023: Retrofit and sustainability

Roundhouse Works by Paddy Dillon, Reed Watts Architects and Allies and Morrison; Black Country Living by Napier Clarke Architects; and 11 & 12 Wellington Place by tp bennett

£10.00

AJ 22.06.23: AJ100

AJ100 is back! Our annual deep dive into how the UK’s biggest practices are faring reveals that between them, they employ more architects than ever before. We drill down into the data to see how salaries and fees have changed since last year, what progress has been made on sustainability and the impact of rising energy costs on business performance.

You can read profiles and data for all of the AJ100 practices, and we reveal the winners of AJ100 awards in 2023. Pooja Agrawal, the recipient of the Contribution to the Profession award, talks to the AJ about her life in architecture and her pioneering work at Public Practice.

In the Culture section, we review Norman Foster’s retrospective at the Pompidou Centre (his sketches are also featured in our regular Sketchbook column), as well as the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Also in the issue is our monthly competitions round-up, columns by the Secret Architect, the Coach and David Grandorge, and cartoonist Hellman takes aim at The Line.

£16.00

AJ Specification Apr 2023: Brick and stone

White House School by vPPR; Wong Avery Music Gallery by Niall McLaughlin Architects; Riverview House by Mole Architects

£10.00

AJ Specification Mar 2023: Kitchens and bathrooms

Kitchens and bathrooms: St Catharine’s College by Gort Scott; Goodenough by Roz Barr Architects; and Tennyson Road by ROAR Architects

£10.00

AJ 26.01.23: Housing

Well-designed housing is at the heart of thriving communities, and in this issue you’ll find four building studies of such projects, featuring fewer cars, more colour and lots of gardens.

In Lincolnshire, Jonathan Hendry Architects offers a fresh take on suburban housebuilding; Page\Park has created a new landmark for Glasgow’s Gorbals with social housing for the over-55s; Pitman Tozer adds value to an unpromising site in Croydon with its mixed-use tower; and shedkm gives a Victorian cotton mill in Manchester a colourful rework.

In news, we revisit the Climate Innovation District in Leeds and hear about the realities of living in a testbed development; reveal proposals for Birmingham’s mammoth Smithfield scheme, ‘the most important city centre regeneration project in the UK’; and hear how residents of Glasgow’s Wyndford estate are fighting plans to demolish its towers.

Hari Phillips reviews a book about the Grenfell Tower tragedy ‘that will make you ashamed of the industry we work in’; the Secret Architect endures waffle from the Big-Vision Guys; and David Grandorge visits House for Artists. Meanwhile, the style wars rumble on, with Hellman re-imagining icons of modern architecture in Gove-approved styles.

£16.00