16
Oct
Brick Lane Inquiry — Day Three (Afternoon): The Aesthetics of Adequacy
“Once the means of decision become routine, the imagination collapses.”
4 min read
Latest
16
Oct
Brick Lane Inquiry — Day Three (Morning): Landmarks and Blind Spots
Forshaw’s testimony turned planning jargon back into moral language.
“The battle,” he said, “isn’t over style — it’s over stewardship.”
6 min read
16
Oct
The Great Housing Betrayal Already Happened in Brick Lane
When Aditya Chakrabortty exposed how Labour’s leaked housing memo judged success by whether “developers welcome the package strongly on
5 min read
16
Oct
Brick Lane Public Inquiry — Day Two (Afternoon): Heritage as Commodity
3 min read
15
Oct
Brick Lane Inquiry — Day Two: The Grammar of Power
When the morning session ended, Burrell’s restraint had become its own statement. The KC’s authority was procedural; the architect’s authority was experiential. One argued for deliverability, the other for belonging
4 min read
15
Oct
John Burrell’s Alternative Vision for Brick Lane: Regeneration Without Erasure
“To conserve,” Burrell wrote, “is to sustain the relationships that make a place thrive.”
3 min read
14
Oct
Brick Lane Public Inquiry — Day One Summary
The architects’ presentations — however elegant — cannot conceal the structural truth: this is not heritage-led regeneration; it is displacement by design.
5 min read
07
Oct
Architects for Social Housing: Repair, Not Erasure
If demolition is the architecture of finance, ASH’s work is the architecture of resistance.
7 min read
04
Oct
Saving Station Street: Who Benefits When Britain Erases Its Own Memory?
Station Street contains all the ingredients of sustainable urban life: density, walkability, mixed use, and heritage that anchors community identity. What it needs is maintenance, not obliteration.
5 min read
29
Sep
Building New Towns, Letting Old Ones Die: How UK Housing Policy Betrays Finance, Culture, and Community
When the Labour government announced plans to build 12 new towns as the flagship answer to Britain’s housing crisis,
6 min read