Cold beer time in the Place Perret, Le Havre. Named for August Perret, the architect who masterplanned the postwar reconstruction of the city. One of his superb blocks on the left. Yes, I have seen his magnificent church.

Went to see Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides in Paris today. Preposterously grand of course, also looks as if it's moulded from chocolate

If data centres were REALLY clever they wouldn't need vast amounts of energy and water, would they? They'd run on recirculating ions or something.

All these people with important or interesting messages to convey on video now do so while walking along busily. I can't pay attention because I'm waiting for them to trip over something or walk into a lamp post.

This.

Early evening, bit of a breeze so I went to sit down in the garden with a cold drink. Mistake. The house behind me is a giant radiant storage heater, the breeze like a hairdryer. Retreated inside again. #heatwave

The James Dyson techno-strawb season has begun. Not bad flavour-wise but a bit watery

A party worker who was definitely not canvassing on polling day called to ask if I had voted yet. Yes, I said. So she asked who I had voted for. I replied that this was meant to be a secret ballot. She took this to mean I hadn't voted for her lot. Correct.

'Escorting commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz' is proving quite the tongue-twister this morning, eh newsreaders?

Joining us for coffee in the garden this morning are:

There's a product in a plastic tub for everything

Our garden now seems to be owned by fox cubs

A very sweetly singing Blackcap in the garden. Just about holding its own against the cacophony unleashed from the clutch of house extensions being built up and down the street.

The BBC live reporting on the Artemis moon mission is being edited by Jenna Moon. Good morning.

Author I've never heard of was apparently using a pseudonym shock

I made a whole BBC TV series (2020) about the remarkable resilience of the people of Iran and their culture over centuries of threat and callous rule. You can watch it right here: www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...

If you need to ask this question, The Times, then you've not been paying attention

That moon rocket needs to be white. But it's piebald, majority rusty brown. Looks like something from Scrapheap Challenge

Simplistic article with usual cliches (plazas have to be 'windswept', and the word 'dystopian' must be deployed, right?) but it's fun to see the writer grappling with the fact that Brutalist architecture can actually be (gasp!) POPULAR. But only in London yeah? www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

I shudder to think how many invaluable contacts and yacht parties I must have missed out on in my 36 years of not going to the annual property-market splurgefest of MIPIM in Cannes

Spencer's a lovely guy who has been a key figure in the Foster office for decades. But is what the Foster office designs 'high tech'? Do come this Thursday evening March 12, physically or virtually, to hear us chat and to ask him questions!

So good to see the MacEwen Award flourishing. The tenth year since we at the RIBA Journal set up this annual hat-tip to 'architecture for the common good' and they kindly invited me back to be a judge. And what a great winner in York by Tonkin Liu! www.ribaj.com/buildings/he...

Historic re-enactment: I dig out a book from 2008 which has a dvd inside its back cover, a fad of the time. My middle-aged PC even has a retro cd/dvd drive, hardly used. Gingerly I insert the disk. Much whirring and clonking. It works! Photos, movies! But my, weren't the graphics crude back then?

Rejoice!

So it begins. We're not even slightly Scottish so this is cultural appropriation #burnsnight

In Belper, Derbyshire (Eas Midlands) they are 'channels', so presumably related to the gennel/ginnel type identified further north.

NEWS: C20 has helped to safeguard a frieze of fifteen exquisite terracotta mural panels by artists Philippa Threlfall and Kennedy Collings from the 1980s Broad Quay House office building in Bristol, featuring Concorde, the Co-op movement and SS Great Britain. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/frieze-...

This little hillside chapel suddenly hoved into view as we descended a lane from the Alpine heights of Matlock Bath/Dale in Derbyshire. Architect Guy Dawber, built 1897, clinging to a forested cliff above a trickling spring. In the care of the excellent @friendlesschurches.bsky.social

'Jazz and blues infused' renditions of classical music: just stop it, please.

It's a splendidly varied collection

So John Carey has died at 91. The king of readable lit crit, Oxford all his life but no whiff of High Table about him, recruited by Harry Evans to the Sunday Times and still writing there in 2023. And he could rock a leather jacket in his 80s.

Notable that half of the 6 architecture firms shortlisted to design the National Gallery's big extension are led by women - Moussavi, Selldorf, Seilern. Alongside them, Foster, Piano and Kuma.

Great culture can save lives. Literally. Amazing letter in today’s @thetimes.com about Tom Stoppard

This is a shame. When the university bought the listed former HMRC campus by Hopkins it seemed a great outcome. What now? Struggling University of Nottingham already selling £80m 'vanity project' campus - Nottinghamshire Live share.google/HHxHIHj10nY1...

New laptop, and as always I feel cheated that they haven't installed a better Internet

And from Art nouveau to Ziggurats join fellow architectural style lovers for the @c20society.bsky.social Christmas lecture..Last few in person tickets here. But there are also tickets to watch online... One for all twentieth century-loving girls and boys

NEWS: A bold new vision for the upgrading of Liverpool Street Station by John McAslan + Partners has been unveiled today. Backed by heritage campaigners, it promises to deliver crucial accessibility upgrades without large scale demolition of the listed station. ➡️ c20society.org.uk/news/a-new-v...

The fellow seeking donations for a food bank said he'd been there for 2 hours and I was the first person to give him anything, so he gave me some mistletoe in return. 'I hope I bring you luck,' I said. 'May you be showered with kisses,' he replied. And so we parted in great good humour.

EVENT: Join C20 President @SamiraAhmedUK for our annual Xmas Lecture: From Cathedrals to Cooling Towers–Global stories about the buildings that bond us. 🗓️ Tue 2 Dec 2025 6.30pm – 8pm 📍 The Gallery, Cowcross St+Online 🎟️ Book tickets: @c20society.bsky.social secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

➡️ Please consider giving generously, click the link below for information on how to donate online, via text, Payroll Giving, or to leave a legacy. c20society.org.uk/sup.../elain...

A tremendous scholar, campaigner and bundle of fizzing energy who saved many fine buildings. If you can donate, please do.

Tremendous November half-price offer from Yale on all books in their catalogue priced at less than £100. Which means - for instance for the architecture student in your life for Christmas - my book ABOUT ARCHITECTURE can be yours for a mere £15! Unbeatable! yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

With essays by your fave architectural historians, incl. @hughpearman.bsky.social and @osaumarezsmith.bsky.social

Just 45 cooling towers left in Britain, all but one in the process of decommission and demolition. If, like me, you are fond of these silent sculptural giants scattered across the landscape, you will love @c20society.bsky.social supersized new book.

Had to write a cheque to pay for a government legal service. No other option. Cheque book took some finding. Last time I used it was to pay a locksmith in 2017. Felt so retro I used a fountain pen.

He's building a mausoleum/shrine to himself isn't he? Someone will have designed the giant gilded effigy to go in it like an evil reclining Buddha.

Us setting off to see our tiny new grand-daughter for the first time

So Sir Terry Farrell has died, aged 87, a fortnight after his one-time architectural partner Sir Nicholas Grimshaw. Farrell was a particularly talented large-scale urbanist. An era ends.

A Brit running Gaza? What could possibly go wrong? We could call it a "Mandate" www.thetimes.com/article/4277...

To think I got into this place a lifetime ago on the strength of two A levels and glandular fever www.thetimes.com/article/b3a3...