Owen Hopkins

Writings

I have written widely on architecture for publications such as The Independent, CNN, Dezeen, domus, Icon, The Architectural Review, Blueprint, Architecture Today, RIBA Journal, The Architects’ Newspaper, topos, The Architects’ Journal, Building Design, Apollo, The Burlington Magazine, Architectural Research Quarterly, Footprint, The Journal of Architecture, Architectural Histories, RA Magazine, Crafts, C20 Magazine, The Herald, Spitalfields Life, Sculpture Journal, Mohawk Maker Quarterly, A Magazine, The London Column, and the Oxonian Review. A number of my unpublished writings can be found on my blog and on my Medium profile.

2023

‘Foreword’ in Dominic Bradbury, Chris Dyson Architects: Heritage and Modernity (Lund Humphries, 2023), buy

Christopher Wren London Map (Blue Crow Media, 2023), buy

‘Global issues in your local urban room’, RIBA Journal, (April 2023), 50–1

2022

‘My Place: Castle Howard, Yorkshire’, Here & Now, (15 August 2022), read

‘Architecture and the Global South’, in Buildings Across Time: An Introduction to World Architecture, 6th Edition, eds. Michael Fazio, Marian Moffett and Lawrence Wodehouse, (McGraw-Hill Education, 2022)

Review: Architectural Drawings: Hidden Masterpieces from Sir John Soane’s Museum by Frances Sands (Batsford, 2022), SAVE Britain’s Heritage Newsletter, (Summer 2022), 47

‘There and Back Again: Council Housing, Right to Buy and the Politics of Architectural Pluralism’, Footprint, Vol. 15 No. 2 (2022): The Architecture of Populism: Media, Politics and Impact, read

‘Deconstructivist architecture “challenges the very values of harmony, unity and stability”, Dezeen, (3 May 2022), read

‘Multiform and the Legacies of Post-Modernism’, Jencks Foundation website (February 2022), read

‘The art of architecture: A review of Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Living with Architecture as Art: The Peter W. May Collection of Architectural Drawings, Models, and Artefacts. London: Ad Ilissvm, 2021’, Architectural Histories, 10, (1), (2022), read

‘The fragmentary exhibition: tactics towards making architecture visible’ in Paul Coldwell and Ruth M. Morgan (eds.), Picturing the Invisible: Exploring interdisciplinary synergies from the arts and the sciences (UCL Press, 2022), 135–59, read

‘No. 1 Poultry’, contribution to ‘90 Years of the Building Centre’ project, (Spring 2022), read

‘Making a manifesto’, Crafts, 292, (January/February 2022), 90–91

2021

‘Thompson Center renovation aiming for lowest common denominator of apparently good taste’, Dezeen, (24 December 2021), read

‘Obituary: Richard Rogers’, The Architects’ Journal, (19 December 2021), read

‘A Future in Flux’, Icon, 206, (Winter 2021), 76–83

Postmodern London Map (Blue Crow Media, 2021), buy

Group interview: ‘There is nothing more unnatural than architecture’, in Michaela Nettell (ed.), Less a building: Interactions with the London Zoo Aviary, (Passengers, 2021)

‘On my bookshelf: The Haçienda How Not to Run a Club by Peter Hook’, Museums Journal, May/June 2021, 55

‘… the museum in lockdown: The protean museum’, Architectural Research Quarterly, 24 (4), 387–391, read

Interview: ‘Culture in the Time of Pandemics’, KooZA/rch issue on ‘De-Activated City’, (13 May 2021), read

‘The Downing Street briefing room reveals this government’s deep insecurities’, Dezeen, (26 April 2021), read

Exhibition introduction for Colour Memories organised by the Museum of Architecture (April 2021), visit

Interview in Yen Kien Hang, Curating A–Z (Sendpoints, 2021)

Nicholas Hawksmoor London Map (Blue Crow Media, 2021), buy

‘Crimes Against Design: Playgrounds’, Icon, 203, (Spring 2021), 15

‘Multiform is the architectural manifestation of our present moment’, Dezeen, (25 February 2021), read

‘Taking Joy Seriously: An Interview with Artist and Designer Camille Walala’, Multiform: Architecture in an Age of Transition, Architectural Design, volume 91, Issue 1, (John Wiley & Sons, Jan/Feb 2021), 84–91

‘What is Multiform?’, Multiform: Architecture in an Age of Transition, Architectural Design, volume 91, Issue 1, (John Wiley & Sons, Jan/Feb 2021), 6–11

2020

‘Civic Service: A school theatre by Jonathan Tuckey Design lends urban order to the campus’, Architecture Today, 310, (November 2020), 34–39

‘The left “fetishises council housing with the same conviction as the right fetishises traditional styles”’, Dezeen, (12 November 2020), read

‘Deceptively bold: Feilden Fowles’ Fratry building at Carlisle Cathedral’, The Architects’ Journal, (15 October 2020), read

‘Maverick programming’, Looking Forward (Sir John Soane’s Museum Annual Review 2019/20), 18–27

‘Crimes Against Design: Zoom’, Icon, 201, (Autumn 2020), 18

‘The AA has reinvented itself before and is capable of doing so again’, Dezeen, (22 July 2020), read

‘Many London museums will struggle to re-open in July’, OnLondon, (27 June 2020), read

‘Rather than attempt to reconcile museums’ contradictions, we should start again’, Dezeen, (13 May 2020), read

‘Witherford Watson Mann’s Brickfields small business centre’, The Architects’ Journal, (28 February 2020), read

2019

‘Technologies changing architecture, and the world, for good or ill’, RIBA Journal, read

‘Extinction Rebellion: A sculpture comes back to life’, C20 Magazine, issue 3, (2019), 36–37

Contributor to Manmade Wonders of the World, (Dorling Kindersley, 2019)

‘What big tech and digital designers can learn from analogue and retro design’, Icon, 198, (December 2019), read

‘Drawing Critically’ in John Marx, études: The Poetry of Dreams + Other Fragments, (ORO Editions, 2020), 50–52

Review: ‘Moving to Mars: Design for the Red Planet’, Blueprint, 367, (December 2019), 202–03

‘Exhibiting Architecture: Between the Profession and the Public’, Laura Iloniemi ed., The Identity of the Architect: Culture & Communication, Architectural Design, Volume 89, Issue 6, (John Wiley & Sons, Nov/Dec 2019), 68–73

‘Dezeen's guide to high-tech architecture’, Dezeen, (4 November 2019), read

Review: Drawing on Architecture: The Object of Lines, 1970–1990 by Jordan Kauffman (MIT Press: 2018), The Journal of Architecture, 24:5, (2019), 722–26, read

‘Charles Jencks’ provocation and ever-enquiring spirit has never been more important’, Dezeen, (17 October 2019), read

‘Facial recognition is a fundamental threat to society’, Dezeen, (9 October 2019), read

‘RIBA Stirling Prize 2019: The Weston by Feilden Fowles’, The Architects’ Journal, (2 October 2019), read

Review: ‘BIG at the Danish Architecture Centre’, Icon, 196, (October 2019), 130–31

‘Hidden Lights: Sir John Soane’s Piranesis’, Art in Print, vol. 9, no. 3, (September – October 2019), 11–13

‘The top 10 Apple Macs from the Macintosh 512k to the Mac Pro’, Dezeen, (20 July 2019), read

‘The crisis of “public good” in architecture’, domus, (1 July 2019), read

Review: ‘Michael Rakowitz’, Icon, 194, (August 2019), 119–20

‘Jony Ive’s legacy as the most important designer of the last two decades is assured’, Dezeen, (28 June 2019), read

‘The house seen from below’, in Paul Coldwell, Picturing the invisible. The house seen from below, (Research at Camberwell, Chelsea, Wimbledon Colleges of Arts, 2019), 4–8

‘Civic presence: Hounslow Civic Centre by Sheppard Robson’, The Architects’ Journal, (30 May 2019), read

‘The internet is broken and technology alone won’t be enough to fix it’, Dezeen, (30 April 2019), read

‘Houses of revelation’, Icon, 191, (May 2019), 107–16

‘Curated diary’, Blueprint, 363, (April 2019), 48–49

‘Brexit is an opportunity for architects to take back control’, Dezeen, (15 March 2019), read

‘A British preservationist considers: How do you keep a building alive?’, The Architects’ Newspaper, (19 February 2019), read

‘Soon the smartphone will no longer be our primary digital device’, Dezeen, (30 January 2019), read

‘The Values of Colour’, Saturated Space, (14 Jan 2019), read

2018

‘Post-digital architecture will be rough, provisional and crafted by robots’, Dezeen, (12 December 2018), read

Review: Shadow-Makers: A Cultural History of Shadows in Architecture by Stephen Kite (Bloomsbury, 2017), The Burlington Magazine, vol. 160, no. 1389, (December 2018), 1074–75

‘The Forensic Effect’, Icon, 187, (January 2019), 22–24

‘Outgoing and retiring: RCKa’s Hortsley housing scheme for PegasusLife’, The Architects’ Journal, (12 November 2018), read

‘Dezeen's guide to Bauhaus architecture and design’, Dezeen, (1 November 2018), read

‘Sign of the times: The revival of postmodernism is more than next-generation nostalgia’, Icon, 184, (October 2018), 116–24

‘Your views: what Owen Hatherley missed about the estate where I live’, The Architectural Review, online, (22 August 2018), read

‘Museums need to focus less on collecting headlines’, Dezeen, (20 July 2018), read

‘Rome in the British Architectural Imagination’, in Marco Iuliano and Gabriella Musto (eds.), Eternal City. Rome in the Photographs Collection of the Royal Institute of British Architects, (Skira, 2018), 35–44

‘A tale of two towers’, an essay written for the exhibition Balfron Tower: Archiving Fragments by the artist James Lander at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, 6–28 June 2018, read

‘Brutalism revisited’ in Collected Volumes: The story of 81–87 Weston Street, (Park Lane Press, 2018), 27–37

‘Why postmodern architecture is making a comeback’, CNN, (8 May 2018), read

‘Buildings are the most concrete clue to how tech giants are reshaping the world’, Dezeen, (23 April 2018), read

‘Shared Memories of a Possible Future: An Interview with Umbrellium’s Usman Haque’, Architecture and Freedom: Searching for Agency in a Changing World, Architectural Design, Volume 88, Issue 3, (John Wiley & Sons, 2018), 120–27

‘Cultivating Spaces to Take Risks: An Interview with the Royal Academy of Arts’ Kate Goodwin’, Architecture and Freedom: Searching for Agency in a Changing World, Architectural Design, Volume 88, Issue 3, (John Wiley & Sons, 2018), 110–19

‘Architecture and the Paradox of Freedom’, Architecture and Freedom: Searching for Agency in a Changing World, Architectural Design, Volume 88, Issue 3, (John Wiley & Sons, 2018), 6–15

‘Níall McLaughlin’s buildings for Jesus College, Cambridge’, The Architects’ Journal, (11 January 2018), read

‘Architects must resist the undirected march of augmented reality’, topos, no. 101, (2018), 10–11

2017

‘Introduction’ in Jeffrey Milstein, LANY: Aerial Photographs of Los Angeles and New York, (Thames and Hudson, 2017), read

‘“A constant interplay of feeling and reason”: Thoughts on Sensing Architecture’, in Owen Hopkins (ed.), Sensing Architecture, (Royal Academy Digital, 2017), 6–15, read

‘A golden age of architectural drawing awaits’, Dezeen, (21 June 2017), read

Review: ‘The Japanese House’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIX, no. 1371, (June 2017), 492

‘Modern master: Villa Savoye/Our Lady of Lourdes’, C20 Magazine, issue 1, (2017), 44

‘Gentrification may be Brutalism's best hope’, Building Design, (12 May 2017), read

‘Bare necessities: shedkm’s stripped-back Croydon offices’, The Architects’ Journal, (10 May 2017), read

‘Flat share: Rehearsal Rooms housing by Newground Architects’, The Architects’ Journal, (13 April 2017), read

Review: After the Fire: London Churches in the Age of Wren, Hooke, Hawksmoor and Gibbs by Angelo Hornak, (Pimpernell Press, 2016), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIX, no. 1369, (April 2017), 323–24

‘Marc Quinn in conversation with Owen Hopkins’, Marc Quinn: Drawn From Life (Sir John Soane’s Museum, 2017), 62–70

‘Rise and Fall’, RA Magazine, no. 134 (Spring 2017), 74–75

‘Building study: Arts and Crafts redux by Napier Clarke’, The Architects’ Journal, (15 March 2017), read

‘Augmented reality heralds the abolition of architectural practice as we know it’, Dezeen, (31 January 2017), read

Review: Charles Robert Cockerell, Architect in Time: Reflections Around Anachronistic Drawings, by Anne Bordeleau, (Routledge, 2016), Sculpture Journal, vol. 25, issue 3, (Jan 2016), 441–5

Style: In Defence of… The Baroque (Machine Books, 2017), buy

2016

‘Beauty Today, Gone Tomorrow’, Mohawk Maker Quarterly, issue 10, ‘Beauty’, (October 2016)

‘A journey through Ted Hollamby’s Brandon Estate’, A Magazine, issue 5, (Autumn 2016), 42–47

Review: Space, Hope and Brutalism: English Architecture, 1945–75 by Elain Harwood, (Yale University Press, 2015), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLVIII, no. 1362, (September 2016), 745

‘Venice Biennale 2016: AJ bloggers report’, The Architects’ Journal, (25 May 2106), read

‘What is Britain's greatest maverick building?’, The Architects’ Journal, (13 April 2016), read

‘Reputations: Nicholas Hawksmoor’, The Architectural Review, vol. CXXIX, no. 1430, (April 2016), 44–5

‘Caruso St John – Heong Gallery, Downing College’, The Architects’ Journal, vol. 243, no. 7, (10 March 2016), read

‘Building of the Month: 1 Poultry, City of London’, The Twentieth Century Society website, (2 March 2016), read

‘Hawksmoor and the city’, The London Column, (17 February 2016), read

‘British architecture needs mavericks more than ever, says Royal Academy curator’, Dezeen, (8 February 2016), read

‘The architectural genius of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’, The Herald, (31 January 2016), read

‘Mavericks who hit new heights’, The Independent, RADAR magazine, (16 January 2016), 4

2015

‘The Crypt at Christ Church Spitalfields by Dow Jones Architects’, The Architects’ Journal, vol. 242, no. 24, (18 December 2015), 44–45, read

‘Contemplating Christ Church, Spitalfields’, Spitalfields Life, online, (9 December 2015), read

Review: ‘Palladian design’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLVII, no. 1353, (December 2015), 867–68 

‘Why is ethics such an important issue for architects?’, The Architectural Review, online, (25 November 2015), read

‘Grand Masters’, RA Magazine, no. 129, (Winter 2015), 68

‘Despite Schumacher’s fight for autonomy, he is developing the tools to further social progress’, The Architectural Review, online, (26 October 2015), read

‘Architecture and freedom – a contested connection’, Building Design, online, (17 September 2015), read

Review: ‘History is Now; All of This Belongs to You’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLVII, no. 1348, (July 2015), 494–95

‘How to tackle the housing crisis – four architects’ visions’, Building Design, online, (9 April 2015), read

‘Them and us’ (Classic book: Life in the English Country House by Mark Girouard), C20 Magazine, issue 1, (2015), 51

2014

Review: ‘The Photography of Edwin Smith’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLVI, no. 1341, (December 2014), 837–38

‘Reimagining Mayfair’, The Architects’ Journal, vol. 240, no. 18, (14 November 2014), 30–47

‘Give us a bell: Anthony Eyton RA at Eleven Spitalfields’, RA Magazine, no. 125, (Winter 2014), 41

‘Re-incarnations of Nicholas Hawksmoor’, The Architects’ Journal, (31 October 2014), read

‘The Balfron Tower ‘pop-up’ puts Brutalism back in the spotlight’, Apollo, online, 2 October 2014, read

‘Review: “Ordinary Beauty: The Photography of Edwin Smith” at RIBA’, Apollo, online, 30 September 2014, read

‘The Dezeen guide to Brutalist architecture’, Dezeen, (10 September 2014), read

Review: The Building of England: How the history of England has shaped our buildings by Simon Thurley, (William Collins, 2013), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLVI, no. 1338, (September 2014), 607

‘The model architect: touring Sir John Soane’s Museum’, Apollo, online, 17 June 2014, read

‘Icons or Eyesores?’, RA Magazine, no. 122, (Spring 2014), 68

Review: Mies by Detlef Mertins, (Phaidon, 2014), RA Magazine, no. 122, (Spring 2014), 32

2013

Review: Kent: West and the Weald by John Newman, (Yale University Press, 2012), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLV, no. 1325, (August 2013), 560–61

2012

Review: Rethinking the Baroque. Edited by Helen Hills, (Ashgate Publishing, 2011), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIV, no. 1317, (December 2012), 852–53

‘Urban Renaissance Travelogue’, review of A New Kind of Bleak: Journeys Through Urban Britain by Owen Hatherley, (Verso, 2012), The Oxonian Review, issue 20.3, (4 November 2012)

Review: François Blondel: Architecture, Erudition, and the Scientific Revolution by Anthony Gerbino, (Routledge, 2010), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIV, no. 1309, (April 2012), 278–79

‘Hawksmoor and the Gothic’ in Ayla Lepine and Laura Cleaver (eds.), Gothic Legacies: Four Centuries of Tradition and Innovation in Art and Architecture, (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012)

2011

Review: The Temple Church in London: History, Architecture, Art. Edited by Robin Griffiths-Jones and David Park, (Boydell Press, 2010), The Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIII, no. 1304, (November 2011), 745–46

Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915–1935, (October 2011), Royal Academy of Arts Learning Department

Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy, Munkácsi, (July 2011), Royal Academy of Arts Education Department