Journal

Notes on architecture, living and design

Essays you can sit and read — what we are thinking about, and why it shapes the way we build.

The Second Life of a Warehouse: Notes from The Canvas Hotel

Reusing a 19th-century structure is rarely cheaper than starting again — so why do it? A honest account of the trade-offs behind our El Born hotel.

Software is faster, but speed is not always the point. What a pencil forces you to decide that a mouse lets you postpone.

The lowest-carbon building is often the one already standing. A look at the arithmetic that changed how we brief a renovation.

Some finishes get better with a decade of use. Others just look tired. Here is how we choose which is which before a single sample arrives.

Households change shape faster than houses do. Practical moves that let one home hold several different lives without a rebuild.

Function is not the enemy of beauty — it is the reason a home keeps working for decades. Five moves that pay you back every day.

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