Martha Dillon

2 months ago | architectsjournal.co.uk | Martha Dillon |Alan Gordon

By posting online a New Year’s ‘to-do’ list (pictured) with only six tasks on it, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) was asking for trouble. It could have been written at any point in the past 100 years. Dealing with structural injustices, boosting housebuilding and tackling poor housing quality are longstanding concerns. But times have changed and MHCLG doesn’t seem to be keeping up.

Oct 9, 2024 | architectural-review.com | Martha Dillon |Kristina Rapacki

Recent advances in concrete decarbonisation are enticing but not enough to save the planet from catastropheIn May 2024, Microsoft revealed that its emissions have risen by a third since 2020, a far cry from the year‑on‑year reductions it had planned. Since the company has invested extensively in renewable energy, new emissions are only partly from energy use.

Mar 24, 2024 | architectsjournal.co.uk | Martha Dillon |Alan Gordon

At first glance, US real estate firm Opendoor offers a pretty good deal. People looking to sell their home can upload their address, basic details and some photos to the website. It scours the information, cross-references market data and makes an offer. If the offer is accepted, the seller is sped through the transaction process, chain and broker-free. Once sold, Opendoor makes some renovations and resells the home at a profit: a speedy ‘flip’ that cuts through the normally slow real estate system.

Feb 29, 2024 | architectural-review.com | Martha Dillon |Reuben Brown

The RAAC crisis is not a question of bad design, but an inevitable symptom of political efforts to abandon public buildings and landOne of the squat, orange buildings of Roding Valley High School (RVHS) in Essex, UK, closed suddenly in August 2023, leaving the school short of 18 classrooms, all catering facilities and some offices. By October, school management had installed some temporary buildings, but still had not decided what to do with the original.

Sep 21, 2023 | architectural-review.com | Martha Dillon |Florence Wright

VC investment in ‘proptech’ accelerates, rather than tackles, the problems of an ailing property sectorVenture capitalists (VCs) like to make grandiose claims about changing the world. Twitter account ‘VCBrags’, for example, chronicles investors boasting of discovering public transport, revolutionising biotech straight out of college and inventing the colour purple. It reveals a braggadocio‑plagued and hyper‑competitive culture – one whose latest target is property.