Articles by Phineas Harper

Architects should finally acknowledge that the profession is no longer a guaranteed route to prosperity and unionise, writes Phineas Harper. We’ve all met them: architecture graduates up to their eyeballs in debt, paying two thirds of their income in rent, and effectively earning less than minimum wage but who still identify as “middle class”. Why,

The post “Why do so many architects think they are more privileged than they really are?” appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects need to rethink their part in Britain’s dysfunctional relationship with laundry, writes Phineas Harper. A tangle of tubes, ducts, and electrical appliances hanging in moist air around a sodden cotton T-shirt is the undisputed highlight of Island, a new exhibition at the Design Museum. Created by design researcher-in-residence Mariana Janowicz and feminist architecture collective Edit,

The post “Britain’s architects should refuse to let moralising snobbery define their approach to laundry” appeared first on Dezeen.

In the face of climate change, Britain’s lawned parks should be replaced with urban forests to help control city temperatures and keep green spaces green during hot summers, writes Phineas Harper. Successive heatwaves have turned England’s formerly green and pleasant land into an arid patchwork of yellow and brown. As the UK government declares droughts

The post “Grassy parks are no longer viable in the face of global heating” appeared first on Dezeen.

Rather than spending £20 million to refurbish its headquarters, RIBA should make its spaces freely available for others to host engaging architectural programmes, says Phineas Harper. Barely a week goes by without hearing an architect complaining about the RIBA. Griping over the 184-year-old Royal Institute of British Architects has become the background noise of life in

The post “RIBA upgrading Portland Place is an expensive solution to the wrong problem” appeared first on Dezeen.

Extinction Rebellion’s bamboo protest towers that blocked national newspaper printing presses recall the sustainable motives of high-tech architecture and should win the Stirling Prize, argues Phineas Harper. Last week, under the cover of darkness, a construction team, dressed all in black, set to work in Hertfordshire near London. Within minutes they had erected two bamboo and

The post “Extinction Rebellion’s tensegrity structures have rekindled the spirit of early high-tech” appeared first on Dezeen.

A draft order by Donald Trump to make all new federal buildings classical is the latest example of how traditional architecture is used to disguise racist agendas, says Phineas Harper. Who could have predicted that a president famed for his eponymous sub-Miesian skyscrapers would come out as a classicist? Yet this week, news broke of

The post “Traditional architecture has frequently been leveraged to support violent political agendas” appeared first on Dezeen.

The leading parties manifestos contain bold pledges that will change Britain’s cities for generations, says Phineas Harper. He takes a look at the architecture and housing policies ahead of the UK’s general election. Not for generations have the British faced such a profound political crossroads as the choice they must make on 12 December. Of the

The post “Whoever wins the general election will bring radical change for better, or worse” appeared first on Dezeen.