Yesterday it was cows using tools, today its penguins using satellite imagery.

Might now be a good time to revisit £200bn spending on a Trident programme entirely dependent on the US?

This is great. So brown. So Sunday.

Welcome to a post-human world: the vast anonymity of the data centre @edwinheathcote.bsky.social: www.ft.com/content/7692...

Read this and tremble — @edwinheathcote.bsky.social on the scary truths about AI data centres:— 'the gods that could destroy us, housed in the most generic buildings imaginable' 'Where does all the heat they generate go? ... It dissipates, slowly heating the planet' as.ft.com/r/266debec-9...

The FT's architecture critic, @edwinheathcote.bsky.social, on the banal, inhuman architecture of the 21st century: the AI data center. "An architecture built not for us but for the computing power we are coding and training (and which will be coding itself) to outsmart, even supplant us."

The FT got is architecture critic Edwin Heathcote to write about data centres and it's wonderful. www.ft.com/content/7692...

A good depressing piece by @edwinheathcote.bsky.social ‘Every age has its own distinctive building type. For the 19th century it was the railway station, for the 20th century it was the skyscraper. For the 21st century it looks like it’ll be the data centre.‘ as.ft.com/r/2817c6fc-2...

Is this real?

Amazingly, Zahawi only got round to deleting the below after the press conference announcing his defection to Reform.

"The Foreign Secretary said exercising the right to free speech and assembly should never come with the threat of.. reprisals"

So glad @edwinheathcote.bsky.social has just gone out and said that Lego kits stifle creativity. If you just want to make models, go to Airfix.

This idea that the Tories would prevent under 16s using social media is hilarious. It’d last exactly until a tech firm offers to give a grand to a minister.

Though naturally reluctant to criticize Denmark at a difficult time, @edwinheathcote.bsky.social isn’t convinced by “Smart Lego” as.ft.com/r/4c23b02d-4...

Still there. S. Express. Holborn.

I’m no longer an architect. Decided not to pay my ARB fees this year. Haven’t practised for 25 years but it’s a curious thing to lose your profession overnight. Need to change my letterhead.

London tap water, which always used to be so good, now tastes really sharply of chlorine. Horrible. Thanks Thames Water, another triumph of privatisation.

Taichung Museumbrary. SANAA. Amazing public space.

www.ft.com/content/14d2... Taichung’s museum and library complex weaves together art, light and learning. SANAA in Taiwan. Paywall here but a few pics to follow.

London New York. Few years apart.

Watching now. Is The Godfather a Christmas movie?

I always find these memorials at Postman’s Park unbearably moving. They make my eyes water every time. It’s a lovely idea, to commemorate ordinary people who do extraordinary things.

Might sound an odd Christmas piece but here’s me on why arcades are the essence of London at Christmas, and of urbanity itself. www.ft.com/content/e6cd... When the shopping arcade sparkles back to enchanted life

Merry Christmas from the City.

Better with the awnings.

“Architecture is slow and I’m afraid we are destroying its meaning.” From @edwinheathcote.bsky.social’s interview with Diébédo Francis Kéré: www.ft.com/content/a286...

I don’t want to be all Scroogey but I’m getting ooo replies now from People who will be back on 6th Jan. As someone who does not get paid holiday I could weep.

Taichung.

Massive pay check to fuck something else up and leave.

The person of the year is just outside of the frame, sawing through the girder.

Excellent interviewee, excellent interviewer @edwinheathcote.bsky.social. Lamb sounds pretty good too. I'm really excited for Kéré's Rio library. www.ft.com/content/a286...

Sometimes Lunch with the FT is not Robert Jenrick pissing everyone off, it's Africa's most feted architect, DiébédoFrancis Kéré, in Moro with @edwinheathcote.bsky.social and it's just a vibe. Enjoy. as.ft.com/r/7183320a-1...

This is good from @hawthorne.bsky.social

$1 million in mattresses?

www.ft.com/content/5937... From sheds to super-stadiums, the football ground is bigger than architecture. Including Home Ground, curated by @petecollard.bsky.social

‘The Virgin and Child with Saints Louis and Margaret’ fantastic new acquisition at the National Gallery in London. Absolutely worth it. Just look at that fella.

I learnt to microfilm documents when I worked for Kodak one summer.

As the Mayor of London adopts the coat of arms that once belonged to the Greater London Council, here’s @edwinheathcote.bsky.social making the case for the capital’s government returning to its real home: County Hall on the Embankment #fromthearchives buff.ly/whyNAa5

Yes.

My uncle David Heathcote died a couple of weeks ago, I’m going to post a few of his works, he was a wonderful artist and a truly lovely man.

Gehry full obituary here: www.ft.com/content/d174... Frank Gehry, architect, 1929-2025

Frank Gehry, architect, dies aged 96 on.ft.com/3KAu2dW

www.ft.com/content/2e24... Frank Gehry, architect, dies aged 96

Frank in his kitchen. RIP.

Frank Gehry RIP. Bad couple of weeks to be an architect.

The getting rid of juries has, in my opinion, a darker rationale. It means protestors, who are more likely to get let off when juries are involved, will now all be found guilty. Part of a sinister cross party agenda of slowly criminalising protest.

Steve Cropper! Oh no. Most minimal and brilliant guitar in soul. RIP

This looks a pretty disappointing list for the National Gallery new building. Have they ever seen a Kengo Kuma building?

I know most people don’t agree but I think this, Jean Nouvel framing Christopher Wren, is pretty good.

Bob Stern RIP. Didn’t agree with him on much but he was a substantial figure. The New York books alone were an astonishing achievement.