Douglas Murphy

Douglas Murphy is a writer and architect. He is the author of ‘The Architecture of Failure’, ‘Last Futures: Nature, Technology and the End of Architecture’ (Verso) and, most recently, ‘Nincompoopolis: The Follies of Boris Johnson’ (Repeater Books)

Will the Glasgow School of Art ever be rebuilt?

Six years after the devastating fire, Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s masterpiece is no closer to being restored. What can possibly explain the delay?

12 Sep 2024

How Iannis Xenakis abandoned architecture and remade modern music

The Greek polymath who once worked for Le Corbusier is the subject of an appropriately wide-ranging survey in Athens

30 Oct 2023

Richard Roger in front of the Centre Pompidou in Paris in November 2007.

Richard Rogers was as significant an architect as Lutyens

The architect who created some of the most memorable buildings of the last century and was a major influence on urban policy in Britain has died at the age of 88

21 Dec 2021

(1920), Nicolai Aluf. Stiftung Arp e.V., Berlin

True to form – Sophie Taeuber-Arp’s touching faith in geometry

In the course of her adventures in abstraction, the artist seemed determined to test herself in every available medium

14 Dec 2021

The school that gave us starchitecture

The Architectural Association in London has always been a quirky place, writes Douglas Murphy, but its pupils still go on to dominate the profession

18 Feb 2021

Repairing the Houses of Parliament will cost so much that no one dares put a figure on it

What do decades of neglect look like? For the Houses of Parliament, a repair bill upwards of £12 billion

29 Jan 2021

The dining room of the Villa Majorelle, designed by Henri Sauvage (1873–1932) and built in 1901–02, with a fireplace designed by Alexandre Bigot (1862–1927) and stained glass by Jacques Gruber (1870–1936). Photo: S. Levaillant; © musée d’École de Nancy

‘Living in it would be delectable but exhausting’ – at the Villa Majorelle

The art nouveau house Henri Sauvage designed for the manufacturer Louis Majorelle has been restored to its richly decorated former glory

30 Mar 2020

Leadenhall Market in the City of London, designed by Horace Jones (1819–87) and opened in 1881 (photo: 2011).

Going concerns? The Victorian market halls of Horace Jones

Once feted for infrastructure projects in London, the architect is now better known for designing Tower Bridge and Leadenhall and Smithfield markets

27 Nov 2019

Walter Gropius: the man who built the Bauhaus

Fiona MacCarthy’s biography suggests that the architect’s greatest achievement may have been to assemble so much talent in one place

18 May 2019

in the 1980s after its partial collapse in 1970 (photo: 2017)

The novelty and nostalgia of the Victorian seaside pier

The great iron structures of 19th-century Britain are important parts of the island’s cultural memory

23 Oct 2018

Glasgow School Of Art's Mackintosh building on fire for the second time.

‘The building as it was is gone for good’ – remembering the Glasgow School of Art

The devastating fire at the Glasgow School of Art means that incredibly difficult decisions lie ahead

18 Jun 2018

Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1893), James Craig Annan.

The genius of Charles Rennie Mackintosh

The architect and designer’s reputation stands higher than ever – but the source of his talent remains elusive

9 Jun 2018

The Temperate House at Kew Gardens, designed by Decimus Burton and Richard Turner and built between 1859 and 1898, © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

The contradictory career of Decimus Burton

The architect was once best known for his neoclassical buildings, but his reputation now rests on the glasshouses at Kew Gardens

26 Mar 2018