Articles
Architecture
Book tickets to lectures, screenings and panel debates with architects, writers, academics and critics.
Inside the Academy
1 month ago
The future of architecture: meet the RA Dorfman Prize 2024 nominees
Meet the four nominees for this year’s RA Dorfman Prize, which celebrates international architects reimagining the future of architecture.
Artists
8 months ago
My sketchbook: designing the houses of the future with Peter Barber RA
Take a look inside the sketchbook of architect Peter Barber RA and learn how he draws buildings and neighbourhoods.
RA Exhibitions
9 months ago
Crunch: inside the first Architecture Window display
Will Jennings meets architecture graduates in the RA’s display ‘Crunch’ who are repurposing and reimagining building materials.
Opinion
1 year ago
RA Architecture Prize Winner 2023: Shane de Blacam
Shane de Blacam’s former student, critic Shane O’Toole, celebrates the architect’s thoughtful transformation of public places across his home country of Ireland.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Introducing Bêka & Lemoine
Edwin Heathcote meets the architectural filmmakers whose documentary of life in a rehabilitation centre is featured in the RA’s Herzog & de Meuron show.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
In the studio: Peter Barber RA
The architect renowned for his social housing projects operates from a converted 19th-century shop in King’s Cross. He gives Sarah Handelman a tour.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Six buildings to know by Herzog & de Meuron
From hospitals in Switzerland to an Olympic stadium in China, here are six buildings around the world designed by Swiss architectural practice Herzog & de Meuron.
RA Exhibitions
> 1 year ago
Start here: Herzog & de Meuron
Find out what you’ll see in our latest exhibition, which looks behind the scenes of architectural practice Herzog & de Meuron.
Inside the Academy
2 years ago
Video: meet the winning practice of the Royal Academy Dorfman Award 2022
Vinu Daniel, founder of India-based firm Wallmakers, explains his unique approach to architecture and what winning the Dorfman Award means to him.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Six works to know by architecture duo Bruther
In 2007 architects Stéphanie Bru and Alexandre Theriot combined their names to form Bruther – a studio dedicated to inventive, generous and socially engaged buildings. Before they give the Royal Academy’s 31st Annual Architecture Lecture this month, get to know their work here.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
Meet four artists in the RA Schools Show 2022
As the Royal Academy Schools Class of 2022 open up their studios for their final show, they reflect on how the building – from its Mayfair location to its crumbling corners – has influenced their practice.
Artists
> 2 years ago
In memoriam: Richard Rogers RA
Norman Foster RA remembers his friend, fellow student, Team 4 partner and pioneer of inside-out buildings.
RA Exhibitions
> 2 years ago
The fantastical world of John Hejduk and the ‘Widow’s House’
An ambitious architectural installation is coming to the RA. Here, Kester Rattenbury sheds light on American architect John Hejduk and his visionary constructions.
RA Exhibitions
3 years ago
Step inside Hélène Binet’s London studio
We meet the photographer in her studio to discuss her upcoming exhibition ‘Light Lines’, her love of music, and her ability to ‘draw’ with light.
RA Recommends
> 3 years ago
Eileen Gray: an architect and designer you should know
A designer of decorative furniture and Modernist architecture, Eileen Gray found recognition aged 94. Here’s our guide to the life of this overlooked master, and her infamous seaside villa, E-1027.
RA Exhibitions
4 years ago
Cristina Iglesias: the artist who transforms public space
Cristina Iglesias, whose sculptures bring out the otherworldliness of the cobbles, stones, bricks and mortar of cities, speaks to Debika Ray about winning the 2020 RA Architecture Prize.
RA Exhibitions
> 4 years ago
Revisiting the exhibition: Sensing Spaces
In 2014, an architecture exhibition took over the Royal Academy that invited audiences not just to step inside it, but to touch it, smell it and feel it. With a curator’s introduction, a documentary from the show and interviews with the architects, we take a trip back to the monumental exhibition, ‘Sensing Spaces: Architecture Reimagined’.
Opinion
< 5 years ago
“It’s about acceptance” – the drive to make architecture more inclusive
The founder and director of Built By Us, a social enterprise that champions inclusion in architecture and the construction sector, is convinced that diversity is about far more than recruitment. Lois Innes reports.
Artists
> 5 years ago
Norman Foster RA introduces the Museo del Prado extension
In this video, architect Norman Foster RA discusses the redevelopment of Madrid’s Museo del Prado and his practice’s unique take on the boundaries between the old and the new.
RA Recommends
> 5 years ago
Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio: “The city is a public resource”
This year’s RA Architecture Prize winners, Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, are responsible for New York’s High Line, MoMA, Lincoln Center and The Broad – among many buildings. With two projects in London on the way, the American duo met Edwin Heathcote to talk punk, surveillance, disagreements and resistance.
Opinion
< 6 years ago
What are the building blocks of a liveable (and loveable) city?
As part of RA Architecture Studio’s Invisible Landscapes series, urbanist Rachel Fisher weighs up the myriad ways that social technology can help us build human-centred cities.
RA Exhibitions
6 years ago
Renzo Piano: 8 buildings to know
With an RA exhibition profiling the work of Renzo Piano, we introduce eight of the architect’s landmark projects, from New York’s Whitney Museum to London’s iconic Shard.
RA Exhibitions
6 years ago
Renzo Piano: “my buildings are explorations”
He gave us the Shard in London, and in Paris the Centre Pompidou. On the eve of his first exhibition in the capital for 30 years, Renzo Piano meets Jonathan Glancey and reflects on a life of making buildings.
Artists
> 6 years ago
A tribute to Will Alsop RA: 1947 - 2018
Architect Will Alsop RA was known for blurring the boundaries between art and architecture. Following the sad news of his death, the RA’s Head of Architecture and Peter Cook RA reflect on his career.
Inside the Academy
> 6 years ago
David Chipperfield: “Architecture is the background”
As the Royal Academy opens its doors after a major redevelopment to mark our 250th birthday, we caught up with its architect, David Chipperfield RA, to hear about his vision for the new RA.
Inside the Academy
< 7 years ago
Five architects to know: meet the shortlist of the RA Dorfman Award
From a collective encouraging communities in Bogotá to self-organise to build, to a woman architect mentoring the next generation in Ethiopia, the shortlist for the first RA Dorfman Award recognises global talent from around the world. Find out more about the architects hoping to pick up the prize.
RA Exhibitions
< 7 years ago
“It’s a trick on consciousness” – Antony Gormley on virtual reality
To celebrate our From Life exhibition, filmmakers followed artists and architects including Antony Gormley, Farshid Moussavi, Yinka Shonibare and Humphrey Ocean as they experimented with virtual reality in their practices. Watch five clips from the documentary here.
RA Recommends
7 years ago
Take a look inside the buildings on the Stirling Prize shortlist
On 31 October, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) will announce the winner of the Stirling Prize. From a seaside pier to a Scottish college, we take a look at the projects vying for the prestigious award.
Opinion
> 7 years ago
“Architecture impacts everyone. We need to inspire greater visual and spatial literacy for all”
Architecture is part of our culture and society, and the conversation about it should be accessible to everyone. That’s why the RA pledged to champion architecture 250 years ago, and why we’re renewing that commitment now, says Head of Architecture Kate Goodwin.
Opinion
> 7 years ago
“Brutalism is back – but its fetishisation comes at a cost”
Post-war concrete architecture is finding its way into magazines, blogs and Instagram feeds – but its commodified comeback is completely at odds with Brutalism’s social agenda, argues architectural critic Catherine Slessor.
Opinion
8 years ago
Debate: are utopian ideas good for architecture?
Can utopian ideals help architects to build better futures? Or are these efforts doomed to be too rigid, over-simplified and suppressive? Ian Ritchie RA and Hugh Pearman go head to head. Vote on the winner below.
Our Collection
8 years ago
How to read it: “the origin of the Corinthian order”
Sir William Chambers’s beautiful 18th-century drawing tells an ancient story about the beginnings of architecture.
Artists
8 years ago
An architect to the day he died: my friend John Partridge RA
The RA’s former Surveyor to the Fabric remembers his friend and colleague John Partridge, the celebrated architect of housing, colleges and courthouses, who died this summer aged 91.
Artists
8 years ago
Cities of dreams: Peter Cook RA on the importance of imagination
As the Academy stages a show of Peter Cook RA’s drawings to mark his 80th birthday, Kate Goodwin asks the architect about his vision for urban ways of life.
Artists
> 8 years ago
A tribute to Michael Manser RA: champion of modern housing
Known for his elegant style of housing, the founder of the Manser Medal leaves a legacy of modernism across the UK. Following the architect’s death aged 87, architectural historian Margaret Richardson pays tribute to a remarkable career.
Artists
> 8 years ago
Architect Leonard Manasseh at age 100
As Leonard Manasseh becomes our first centenarian Royal Academician, his cousin, the architectural historian Timothy Brittain-Catlin, takes a look at a career of over 80 years.
Opinion
> 8 years ago
Why TV-am was Britain’s most maverick building
Home to ITV’s famous breakfast show, Terry Farrell’s postmodern studio was a burst of energy that shifted views of what architecture could be, says the artist and designer, Adam Nathaniel Furman.
RA Exhibitions
> 8 years ago
Britain’s top 10 maverick buildings
To celebrate the end of our Mavericks season, we asked you to nominate your favourite boundary-pushing buildings in the UK. Here’s what you came up with.
Artists
> 8 years ago
A tribute to Zaha Hadid RA: 1950–2016
One of the world’s greatest architects, Zaha Hadid inspired a generation. Following the sad news of her death, the RA’s Head of Architecture and two fellow architects reflect on a visionary career.
Opinion
< 9 years ago
The month in architecture
Five things you need to know this month – the top architecture news stories, the most exciting new projects and the latest prizes.
RA Exhibitions
< 9 years ago
12 mavericks of architecture
From championing ground-breaking styles of architecture to famously abandoning commissions before completion, these British architects broke the mould. Meet the mavericks, as our new architecture display goes on show.
Opinion
< 9 years ago
12 of the most iconic public spaces
Every day, public places around the world are used by ordinary people to exercise their rights. We look at four general “spaces of freedom” and their most famous examples.
Artists
< 9 years ago
Art quiz of the year 2015
Know your art? Take our quiz of the year and see how you measure up…
Opinion
9 years ago
Architecture and Freedom: a changing connection
With architectural production becoming ever more beholden to the needs of capital and the building industry, the role of the architect is changing, says our curator. Owen Hopkins introduces the critical issues informing our new season of events.
Artists
9 years ago
Thomas Heatherwick RA: “Inspiration is a cliché”
Thomas Heatherwick RA delights in discovering his ideas don’t work – it’s all part of a process of elimination that results in his extraordinary designs, as Sam Phillips finds out.
Artists
> 9 years ago
My studio life: Piers Gough RA
As Piers Gough RA guides us round his practice in Clerkenwell, he tells us what it was like to work with Paul Smith, and what it really takes to be an architect.
Opinion
10 years ago
Is beauty an essential consideration in architecture?
Ron Arad RA and Sam Jacob discuss whether considerations of beauty are valuable in architecture, or whether they detract from more important issues.
Artists
10 years ago
Remembering Sir Philip Dowson PRA
A few personal notes on a fellow architect and mentor by Sir Michael Hopkins RA.
Artists
> 10 years ago
Richard MacCormac RA remembered
People from around the RA pay tribute to leading architect Sir Richard MacCormac, who has died aged 75 following a long illness.
Opinion
> 10 years ago
Louis Kahn at the Design Museum
Architect Trevor Dannatt RA pays tribute to Louis Kahn, whose poetic buildings are celebrated at London’s Design Museum.
Artists
< 11 years ago
Meet the architects: Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura
More than any other architects, Álvaro Siza and Eduardo Souto de Moura have made me look with a fresh eye at the Royal Academy’s galleries and architecture.
Artists
< 11 years ago
Meet the architects: Kengo Kuma
It may seem a strange term for an architect to coin, but Japanese architect Kengo Kuma has been developing an idea of what he calls “weak architecture”.
Artists
< 11 years ago
Meet the architects: Diébédo Francis Kéré
When putting together this group of architects I purposefully sought out those who would bring a variety of perspectives on how we think about architecture and the spaces around us.
Artists
< 11 years ago
Meet the architects: Li Xiaodong
It was when sitting with Li Xiaodong in a courtyard garden in the Huairou district, a mountainous area near the Great Wall, an hour north of Beijing, that many of his observations of Chinese culture and sensibilities became much clearer for me.
RA Exhibitions
< 11 years ago
Pezo Von Ellrichshausen: to the Pacific edge
Curator Kate Goodwin visits a “heroic” house perched high, overlooking the ocean in Chile.
Artists
< 11 years ago
Meet the architects: Sofia von Ellrichshausen and Mauricio Pezo
Spending some time with the Chilean architects who ‘consider’ rather than ‘design’.
Artists
11 years ago
Meet the architects: Grafton
“Buildings tell the stories of our lives in built form… We walk through and feel spaces with our whole bodies and our senses, not just with our eyes and with our minds. We are fully involved in the experience; this is what makes us human.”