Olly Wainwright
@ollywainwright.bsky.social
Architecture and design critic of the @theguardian.com
oliver.wainwright@theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/oliver-wainwright
oliver.wainwright@theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/oliver-wainwright
Never seen this before – the original winning entry to the 1958 Sunday Times ideas competition for an extension to the National Gallery, won by Mr Barrie Dewhurst, who received £2,500
May 1, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Never seen this before – the original winning entry to the 1958 Sunday Times ideas competition for an extension to the National Gallery, won by Mr Barrie Dewhurst, who received £2,500
Pangolin postmodernism – inside David Kohn's fruity new addition to New College, Oxford www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
A tower topped with a pangolin! The Oxford university building inspired by Tolkien … and the pandemic
A chubby, rhubarb and custard-coloured tower bedecked with anteaters and moles make a fun neighbour to the city’s dreaming spires. It’s left some locals lost for words
www.theguardian.com
April 1, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Pangolin postmodernism – inside David Kohn's fruity new addition to New College, Oxford www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Very pleased to learn that the Korean pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale will be called Little Toad, Little Toad.
March 26, 2025 at 9:37 AM
Very pleased to learn that the Korean pavilion at this year's Venice Biennale will be called Little Toad, Little Toad.
Congrats to Liu Jiakun on winning the Pritzker Prize! It was an honour to meet him (and his many cats) in Chengdu recently www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘I aspire to be like water’: the exquisite buildings of Liu Jiakun, winner of architecture’s top prize
He turns steelworks into parks and makes ‘rebirth bricks’ from earthquake rubble. As the novelist, meditator and ‘accidental architect’ wins the Pritzker prize, we look at the masterful temples, caves...
www.theguardian.com
March 4, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Congrats to Liu Jiakun on winning the Pritzker Prize! It was an honour to meet him (and his many cats) in Chengdu recently www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Why The Brutalist is making architects mad - and what really happened when Marcel Breuer was commissioned to design a big concrete church on a hill www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ja...
Backlash builds: why the architecture world hates The Brutalist
Brady Corbet’s Oscar-tipped film is clearly based on real-life modernist master Marcel Breuer but brazenly misrepresents him and his revered modernism
www.theguardian.com
January 29, 2025 at 1:53 PM
Why The Brutalist is making architects mad - and what really happened when Marcel Breuer was commissioned to design a big concrete church on a hill www.theguardian.com/film/2025/ja...
How SO-IL and Tankhouse are shaking up the New York housing scene, carving out space for architecture through creative interpretation of the zoning codes www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘The banks thought we were mad’: coral castles and look-at-me loos reinvent New York housing
With building codes strict and land values high, Big Apple apartment blocks tend to be grim. But two firms, SO-IL and Tankhouse, are fighting back with lush courtyards, breezy landings – and glass-walled toilets 15 storeys up
www.theguardian.com
January 28, 2025 at 10:44 AM
How SO-IL and Tankhouse are shaking up the New York housing scene, carving out space for architecture through creative interpretation of the zoning codes www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
The Guardian's Travel desk asked me to pick my personal wonder of the world. It had to be the mad, multi-levelled megacity of Chongqing, which feels like being in a cross between Inception and game of snakes and ladders www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...
A sprawling megacity of multi-level madness: why Chongqing in China is my wonder of the world
This megacity is like Hong Kong on steroids – a vertically sprawling, astonishing urban phenomenon that can only be understood in three dimensions
www.theguardian.com
January 20, 2025 at 11:17 AM
The Guardian's Travel desk asked me to pick my personal wonder of the world. It had to be the mad, multi-levelled megacity of Chongqing, which feels like being in a cross between Inception and game of snakes and ladders www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...
Reposted by Olly Wainwright
A century of foolhardy development, including public subsidies for rebuilding in the firebelt, hugely contributed to this tragedy. LA must rethink – and build upwards not outwards | @ollywainwright.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
‘Criminally reckless’: why LA’s urban sprawl made wildfires inevitable – and how it should rebuild
A century of foolhardy development, including public subsidies for rebuilding in the firebelt, hugely contributed to this tragedy, writes our architecture critic. LA must rethink – and build upwards n...
www.theguardian.com
January 16, 2025 at 10:28 AM
A century of foolhardy development, including public subsidies for rebuilding in the firebelt, hugely contributed to this tragedy. LA must rethink – and build upwards not outwards | @ollywainwright.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Reposted by Olly Wainwright
OPINION
We need to talk about Saudi Arabia, says Jeremy Till
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion...
We need to talk about Saudi Arabia, says Jeremy Till
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion...
We need to talk about Saudi Arabia
Recent posts on LinkedIn (including those by RIBA chair Jack Pringle and former NLA chief Peter Murr...
www.architectsjournal.co.uk
December 16, 2024 at 12:46 PM
OPINION
We need to talk about Saudi Arabia, says Jeremy Till
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion...
We need to talk about Saudi Arabia, says Jeremy Till
www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/opinion...
Reposted by Olly Wainwright
Which turns out to have been designed by Kenzo Tange (who designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial). @ollywainwright.bsky.social wrote a story about it in 2013:
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Assad's palace: an empty, echoing monument to dictator decor
Oliver Wainwright: Designed by celebrated architect Kenzō Tange, what does the Syrian presidential palace say about the Assad regime?
www.theguardian.com
December 12, 2024 at 6:36 AM
Which turns out to have been designed by Kenzo Tange (who designed the Hiroshima Peace Memorial). @ollywainwright.bsky.social wrote a story about it in 2013:
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
All eyes will be on the freshly restored Notre-Dame cathedral this weekend – but the real story is what's happening right outside it www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Notre Dame review – glorious resurrection is as close to time travel as it gets
Five years since it was gutted by fire, the soul of Paris is about to reopen its doors. Our critic is wowed by the buttery stonework, gleaming lead and gawp-inducing gilding
www.theguardian.com
December 6, 2024 at 1:23 PM
All eyes will be on the freshly restored Notre-Dame cathedral this weekend – but the real story is what's happening right outside it www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Chapman Taylor’s new art museum in Almaty looks like they put the Museum of Liverpool through a grinder
November 28, 2024 at 1:12 PM
Chapman Taylor’s new art museum in Almaty looks like they put the Museum of Liverpool through a grinder
Two of the *municipal pools* (with amazing spas attached) that I swam and steamed in at the weekend in Vienna - Jörgerbad (1919) and Amalienbad (1926). Oh to live in a socialist city 💦🧖♂️✨
November 28, 2024 at 8:35 AM
Two of the *municipal pools* (with amazing spas attached) that I swam and steamed in at the weekend in Vienna - Jörgerbad (1919) and Amalienbad (1926). Oh to live in a socialist city 💦🧖♂️✨
📢 Architects! Curators! PRs! I'm compiling a 2025 preview, so please tell me what you have coming up next year...
November 20, 2024 at 11:44 AM
📢 Architects! Curators! PRs! I'm compiling a 2025 preview, so please tell me what you have coming up next year...
What a draughtsman 💥 Inside the dazzling Piranesian worlds of Paul Rudolph www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
November 19, 2024 at 5:13 PM
What a draughtsman 💥 Inside the dazzling Piranesian worlds of Paul Rudolph www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...