
We are very sad to hear that architecture critic and author Martin Pawley has passed away after a long illness. Pawley was a unique voice in architecture who contributed to a wide range of publications throughout his career, including Blueprint and The Architects’ Journal, as well as editing Building Design and World Architecture. In February, Blueprint published a review written by Professor Peter Cook of The Strange Death of Architectural Criticism: Martin Pawley Collected Writings (Black Dog Publishing). As a co-founder of Archigram and long-term friend and sparring partner to Pawley, Cook gave an inspiring and very personal account of the writer’s talents and attitude to architecture. The review is reproduced below as a tribute.
David Jenkins, in his introduction to this book, honours Martin Pawley’s technique as a writer, pointing out that his style can range from Hunter S Thompson to that of the Daily Telegraph. This may be true in terms of manner, but it cannot conceal a special characteristic that seeps through the whole collection, namely that combination of seriousness and a certain elegance of argument that few of the current swarm of architectural writers seem able to emulate.
Pawley often presents the background to his reports in a steady, almost pedantic way, so that in a 1987 piece on the Piccadilly Line train‚ we are reminded that, ‘in the case of the 1973 Tube Stock a car length of 17.8m was finally arrived at’. A 1991 piece on Stansted Airport relates the Foster structure to the fact that ‘laser-levelled floor plates of 25,000m2 are not unusual, and 50,000m2 is not unknown’. Yet his pedantry soon reveals itself to be that of an enthusiast. Pawley is never a mere bystander.
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By art world conventions, Riflemaker is completely unsuitable as a gallery. Yet, its founders Tot Taylor and Virginia Damtsa have been astounded at the success they have had showing art in a space that they openly admit is ‘a shed, covered in filth and dust’. Since opening in 2004, the former gun shop on Beak Street, has been a runaway success as an art space, to the extent that the last seven private views have been closed down by the police. More than 1,200 people turned up for the opening of Julie Verhoeven’s show in autumn 2007 and around 4,000 for the Indica, over the four nights it was open.
On November 21, the Pompidou Centre opened its doors to the public for a 40th anniversary of the work of Richard Rogers, designed by his son Ab, Peter Kelly sat in on a touching conversation about their relationship and designing together for the first time.
We urge you to go and see Julian Perry’s exhibition A Common Treasury at