It’s an island country that has a royal family, drives on the left, drinks lots of tea and doesn’t always say what it means. And yet no architect from Japan has ever received a major commission for the capital of the other country my sentence describes – Britain. The recent choice of Kengo Kuma and Associates of Tokyo to design (with British firms BDP and MICA) the new wing of the National Gallery in London is therefore notable even before examination of its proposal. Pleasin

In New York, architecture critics have mauled a new office development in Midtown. In London, residents are opposing a new office development in the Barbican. JPMorgan Chase & Co. is the owner of the former and was client for an abortive scheme near the latter; it also continues to quietly occupy a striking building elsewhere that few seem to notice. So if Britain and America are two countries divided by a common language, is that also true of buildings in both territories co

As I’ve recently discovered, there are many reasons for devouring the superb Netflix series The Diplomat , created by Debora Cahn. The exceptional performance of Keri Russell in the title role, and Rory Kinnear’s outstanding support as the British Prime Minister; the brutal, brittle relationships between them and Rufus Sewell (also good) as her husband; the agonising geo-political dilemmas that entwine them all and feel disturbingly real. But there is also the drama’s unprece

You, or your loved one, might well have received a bottle of the world’s most famous perfume last week. You, or they, might even dab it on tonight to welcome in the new year. Whilst it’s a scent that has always sold itself, thanks in part to that famous bottle, it didn’t always convey the right image – by the Seventies, Chanel N°5 was thought a bit too ordinary. To reposition the brand as one that epitomised style, glamour and luxury, our very own Ridley Scott was brought in

Which is the more emotive, the still photograph or film footage? It’s hard to say. Your mother as a pigtailed girl, smiling cheekily, in a sepia snapshot; your son, scoring his first goal, in a shaky camcorder video. Both can have a profound impact when viewed. The motion picture depended on its motionless predecessor to exist and many films have of course featured photographs, but productions that blur the divide between the two intelligently and innovatively can generate re

Napoleon III’s remodelling of Paris in the last decades of the nineteenth century – managed by career civil servant Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Prefect of the Seine département – changed the face of the City of Light. The most wide-ranging programme of urban renewal ever carried out in a modern city is best known for its broad, straight boulevards driven through tightly-packed mediaeval neighbourhoods. Easing the connections between districts but also creating dramatic views an

At a time of global uncertainty, a feature-length drama illuminates the moral arguments a US Presidency might face when responding to a...