Charles Holland
@charlesjholland.bsky.social
Architect
Professor at UCA, Canterbury
Principal at Charles Holland Architects
Professor at UCA, Canterbury
Principal at Charles Holland Architects
Just wondering if there has ever been a more depressing govt than the UK’s current one. For sure there have been worse and more demonstrably revolting ones, but for sheer, supine, aimless and amoral stupidity this one is hard to beat.
November 16, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Just wondering if there has ever been a more depressing govt than the UK’s current one. For sure there have been worse and more demonstrably revolting ones, but for sheer, supine, aimless and amoral stupidity this one is hard to beat.
According to the Guardian, “Keir Starmer will warn the Labour party that history will not forgive his government if it fails to confront and defeat Reform. No need to project so far into the future. No one forgives him now.
September 26, 2025 at 7:53 PM
According to the Guardian, “Keir Starmer will warn the Labour party that history will not forgive his government if it fails to confront and defeat Reform. No need to project so far into the future. No one forgives him now.
Routine pearl clutching and attacks of the vapours from middle brow conservationists is so boring. Objecting to any kind of infrastructure by self-confessed admirers of Victorian industry is the only thing that gets half the people in this country out of bed.
July 14, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Routine pearl clutching and attacks of the vapours from middle brow conservationists is so boring. Objecting to any kind of infrastructure by self-confessed admirers of Victorian industry is the only thing that gets half the people in this country out of bed.
At what cost? Well, I’d be happy to pay this one myself. Brontë country FFS.
July 14, 2025 at 10:26 AM
At what cost? Well, I’d be happy to pay this one myself. Brontë country FFS.
Dear Mr Bluesky! Lazy ass researching here but any recommendations for 20th onwards school buildings in UK gratefully received.
July 6, 2025 at 11:45 AM
Dear Mr Bluesky! Lazy ass researching here but any recommendations for 20th onwards school buildings in UK gratefully received.
Halsey Ricardo’s (sadly demolished) 8 George Street office building, 1888. A little rational beauty. Stuff like this makes current trad arguments about ‘fitting in’ seem particularly silly. A gem, partly because it differs so much from its neighbour with entirely different rhythms and proportions.
July 6, 2025 at 9:46 AM
Halsey Ricardo’s (sadly demolished) 8 George Street office building, 1888. A little rational beauty. Stuff like this makes current trad arguments about ‘fitting in’ seem particularly silly. A gem, partly because it differs so much from its neighbour with entirely different rhythms and proportions.
A tribute to Robert Venturi on the centenary of his birth. His work continues to inspire me and I recently wrote an essay exploring his use of mirrors, doubling and copies. Here is the sublime Trubek House, a complex, awkward and difficult little object, but also beautiful and perfectly realised.
July 2, 2025 at 6:36 AM
A tribute to Robert Venturi on the centenary of his birth. His work continues to inspire me and I recently wrote an essay exploring his use of mirrors, doubling and copies. Here is the sublime Trubek House, a complex, awkward and difficult little object, but also beautiful and perfectly realised.
As a follow on, a friend remarked the other day that they didn’t think that they had ever really been taught design as such in five years of studying architecture. They had learnt loads, explored ideas, read endlessly but not actually been taught directly about design. Kind of extraordinary.
June 30, 2025 at 7:35 PM
As a follow on, a friend remarked the other day that they didn’t think that they had ever really been taught design as such in five years of studying architecture. They had learnt loads, explored ideas, read endlessly but not actually been taught directly about design. Kind of extraordinary.
Been reading Vincent Scully’s The Shingle Style. Struck me that literally nobody writes this kind of formal analysis of architecture any more. The slow unpacking of design decisions in relation to historical precedent, contemporary habit, aesthetic evolution etc.
June 30, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Been reading Vincent Scully’s The Shingle Style. Struck me that literally nobody writes this kind of formal analysis of architecture any more. The slow unpacking of design decisions in relation to historical precedent, contemporary habit, aesthetic evolution etc.
Labour are pitiful. Really far more awful than I could have imagined. Stupid, timid, offensive, dull and nasty all in one package.
May 13, 2025 at 5:56 PM
Labour are pitiful. Really far more awful than I could have imagined. Stupid, timid, offensive, dull and nasty all in one package.
Invoking the desire of “the British people” is always. A prelude to air some truly obnoxious views. As if nationalising racism makes it ok.
May 13, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Invoking the desire of “the British people” is always. A prelude to air some truly obnoxious views. As if nationalising racism makes it ok.
So good….
I was a teenage manics fan, and this is brilliant newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Owen Hatherley, Mislaid Plans — Sidecar
On the Manic Street Preachers.
newleftreview.org
April 5, 2025 at 11:33 PM
So good….
Join me, Cat Rossi and a host of brilliant speakers at the School of Architecture and Design, UCA on 25.02.25 for a discussion on BEAUTY. Free and open to all, in person or online. Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/839546...
February 20, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Join me, Cat Rossi and a host of brilliant speakers at the School of Architecture and Design, UCA on 25.02.25 for a discussion on BEAUTY. Free and open to all, in person or online. Register here: events.teams.microsoft.com/event/839546...
Pretty much correct on every count (though I thought Guy Pierce was pretty dreadful). The Brutalist demystified by Owen Hatherley.
‘Pointing out its solecisms and caricatures is also a way of trying to find something concrete to hold on to in this gas giant of a film’ – Owen Hatherley watches ‘The Brutalist’ under protest
The Brutalist, reviewed | Apollo Magazine
Brady Corbet’s epic starring Adrien Brody as a Bauhaus-trained architect in America pretends that all the real Bauhaus-trained architects never existed, writes Owen Hatherley
buff.ly
February 9, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Pretty much correct on every count (though I thought Guy Pierce was pretty dreadful). The Brutalist demystified by Owen Hatherley.
Has there been an architect more destructive of other architects work than Herbert Baker? He managed to ruin buildings by Soane (bank of England) and Voysey (Greyfriars) and did his best to ruin Lutyens’ Viceroy’s Palace. A bizarre legacy.
February 8, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Has there been an architect more destructive of other architects work than Herbert Baker? He managed to ruin buildings by Soane (bank of England) and Voysey (Greyfriars) and did his best to ruin Lutyens’ Viceroy’s Palace. A bizarre legacy.
Here’s some more up-to the-minute architectural advice. The decorative possibilities of antlers…from Clive Aslet’s book The Edwardian Country House.
February 2, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Here’s some more up-to the-minute architectural advice. The decorative possibilities of antlers…from Clive Aslet’s book The Edwardian Country House.
Just about to complete that competiton entry when: www.instagram.com/reel/DCxCtAF...
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January 19, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Just about to complete that competiton entry when: www.instagram.com/reel/DCxCtAF...
Piers Gough’s Jacuzzi in Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House turned upside and repurposed as a dome by Borromini.
January 10, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Piers Gough’s Jacuzzi in Charles Jencks’ Cosmic House turned upside and repurposed as a dome by Borromini.
Some Cosmic Morning
January 10, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Some Cosmic Morning
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, Part 2. Unit P70 by Foster Associates, home to the Milton Keynes architects department. (And yes, I know how much it informs 6As MK Gallery).
January 9, 2025 at 9:00 PM
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore, Part 2. Unit P70 by Foster Associates, home to the Milton Keynes architects department. (And yes, I know how much it informs 6As MK Gallery).
Shaken, not stirred. Me on good old Roger Moore.
Roger Moore may not have a great deal of range as an actor, but he always played himself to perfection and brought that sense of panache to his most famous role, writes @charlesjholland.bsky.social www.apollo-magazine.com/roger-moore-...
The camp brilliance of Roger Moore’s Bond | Apollo Magazine
The actor may not have had much range, but he always played himself to perfection and brought that sense of panache to his most famous role, writes Charles Holland
www.apollo-magazine.com
January 9, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Shaken, not stirred. Me on good old Roger Moore.
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Or, perhaps, they do. Anyway, this is cool. Peter Walden, House In Hampshire, 1980
January 7, 2025 at 7:01 PM
They don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Or, perhaps, they do. Anyway, this is cool. Peter Walden, House In Hampshire, 1980
The current state of UK housing supply is clear in this image. Because house builders develop one field at a time and because no one is actually planning where and how housing happens, it ends up like this, fenced off, oblivious to its surroundings and without any sense of what comes next.
January 4, 2025 at 4:36 PM
The current state of UK housing supply is clear in this image. Because house builders develop one field at a time and because no one is actually planning where and how housing happens, it ends up like this, fenced off, oblivious to its surroundings and without any sense of what comes next.
Got Owen Hatherley’s Modern Buildings in Britain for Xmas, and boy is it good. Not only an extraordinary achievement in its scale and scope but consistently brilliant in its observations. Describing Peter Cook’s Bournemouth Art School building as “Rave Grandad”, merely one of many favourites.
December 26, 2024 at 9:31 AM
Got Owen Hatherley’s Modern Buildings in Britain for Xmas, and boy is it good. Not only an extraordinary achievement in its scale and scope but consistently brilliant in its observations. Describing Peter Cook’s Bournemouth Art School building as “Rave Grandad”, merely one of many favourites.
Reposted by Charles Holland
England’s Green Belt
Labour’s headline housing policy is to loosen it in 2 ways
But that won’t get its 1.5 million houses built. Here’s why www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/hous...
Labour’s headline housing policy is to loosen it in 2 ways
But that won’t get its 1.5 million houses built. Here’s why www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/hous...
December 7, 2024 at 9:23 AM
England’s Green Belt
Labour’s headline housing policy is to loosen it in 2 ways
But that won’t get its 1.5 million houses built. Here’s why www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/hous...
Labour’s headline housing policy is to loosen it in 2 ways
But that won’t get its 1.5 million houses built. Here’s why www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/hous...