Kristina Rapacki

2 weeks ago | architectural-review.com | Kristina Rapacki

Recent attempts to ‘reinvent’ the hospital are not as innovative as their architects would like you to believeIn December 2024, Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) unveiled plans for Jawaher Boston Medical District in Sharjah in the UAE – a series of rectangular pavilions under a canopy of photovoltaic cells described by Piano as ‘a new model for the hospital of the future’. Three years earlier, in 2021, OMA and Buro Happold presented their designs for the Al Daayan Health District in Qatar.

2 weeks ago | architectural-review.com | Kristina Rapacki

Undercutting and regulatory neglect make construction the deadliest job in the UKNeil Hayes was a talented footballer, described by those who knew him as a sharp wit, someone who could tear up a dance floor. Last summer, Hayes became a statistic, one of dozens of UK construction workers who die on the job every year, when he was crushed by a hydraulic machine while preparing the ground for Allies and Morrison’s latest smooth‑skinned enclave for the branded gentry.

3 weeks ago | architectural-review.com | Kristina Rapacki

The work of the UK’s first female chartered building surveyor prioritised the wellbeing of some of the poorest people in the country‘Everyone wants to build, nobody wants to do maintenance,’ wrote the author Kurt Vonnegut. Irene Barclay (1894–1989), Britain’s first female chartered building surveyor and secretary of the St Pancras Housing Association, however, wanted to do – and did – both.

1 month ago | architectural-review.com | Manon Mollard |Eleanor Beaumont |Kristina Rapacki

Herzog & de Meuron | Baas Arquitectura | Casa Solo Arquitectos | Nord Architects | 3RW Arkitekter | Witherford Watson Mann | Clancy Moore | Irene Barclay | Ecomimesis Soluções Ecológicas | Adamo FaidenFor most of us, life begins in a hospital and is likely to end in a medical facility too. We visit hospitals during our lives – if not for a broken arm or surgery, then for an unwell loved one. Although healthcare is a universal need, access is deeply unequal.

1 month ago | architectural-review.com | Ellie Duffy |Kristina Rapacki

Lynch Architects’ renovation and extension of Westminster Coroner’s Court reintroduces death in the city while paying particular attention to the needs of the bereavedRachel Elliott of Lynch Architects is shortlisted for the MJ Long Prize for Excellence in Practice 2024. Find out more about the W Awards hereWestern culture does not seem to be growing any less squeamish about death.