Rowan Moore

Architecture Critic, Observer
Views my own

[Eamonn Canniffe @eamonncanniffe]

There’s something about today’s incessant coverage of the pedestrianisation of THAT Oxford Street which is really - how can I put this delicately? - provincial.

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

Delight, disgust and exposed concrete: 50 years of the National Theatre

The brutalist building on London’s South Bank divided opinion when it was built half a century ago. Now researchers have uncovered the precision and craft that went into its construction

✍️ @RowanMoore
https://t.co/9sACkd81wc

[Dave Hill @DaveHill]

I'm wishing the Oxford Street transformation project well. Launched in earnest today, its biggest tests lie on the road ahead: https://t.co/2Ueu5ybCMY #london @LDN_pressoffice @newwestend @LondonAssembly

[Rowan Moore @RowanMoore]

yes, definitely much more to say

[Philip Oldfield @SustainableTall]

@notanastronomer Rowan Moore wrote a piece, but I still think there’s some great stories out there

https://t.co/whNfcpbfbO

[Philip Oldfield @SustainableTall]

@notanastronomer Rowan Moore wrote a piece, but I still think there’s some great stories out there

https://t.co/whNfcpbfbO

[C20 Society @C20Society]

EVENT: Millennium Architecture lecture
📆 Thu 29 Oct 2026, 6:30-7:45pm
📍 Cowcross Street Gallery, EC1M + Online
🎫 Book tickets: https://t.co/l5i1EvHNYo

Our Autumn Lecture Series on 21st Century Architecture continues this week, with leading critic Rowan Moore providing an overview on Millennium Architecture.

Think Tate Modern, the Eden Project, the Wales Millennium Centre, the Lowry, or National Centre for Popular Music. These breath-taking feats of design and engineering provided new public spaces, vantage points and emblems for our country. But how have the landmarks of the new millennium stood the test of time?

We’ll explore the vision and commitment behind their creation, the intense media coverage and public debate that followed, and discuss their burgeoning legacy a quarter of a century on.

• @RowanMoore is architecture critic of @ObserverUK and was named Critic of the Year at the UK press awards. He is the author of Slow Burn City: London in the Twenty-First Century (2016, Picador) and Property: The myth that built the world (2023, Faber&Faber).

• The event is chaired by Laura Mark @architecture critic, former Architect's Journal editor and current Head of Casework at C20.

[Rowan Moore @RowanMoore]

@TheEdwardHowell @thetimes Amazing how you criticise the government for raising taxes and not increasing spending in the same sentence

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

I am genuinely astonished that, after Donald Trump has spent the past two years stripping Ukraine of virtually all Congressionally-approved aid, threatening Ukraine, fawning over Putin and bending over backwards to please him in every conceivable way, blaming Ukraine for being invaded, hurling vicious, absurd insults, blackmail, and torrents of lies at it, twisting its arm to force it into capitulation, humiliating it with his antics, making it a scapegoat for his own failures and incompetence in the eyes of voters, and now openly and definitively entering into direct collusion with the Kremlin and siding with it in exchange for promised corrupt “business opportunities” for himself, his family, and his inner circle -- there are still people who have the nerve search with a magnifying glass for ways in which Zelensky failed to kiss Trump's ass enthusiastically enough to explain why he has been treating Ukraine this way.

[C20 Society @C20Society]

🚨BREAKING NEWS: We're absolutely delighted that Lambeth Council Cabinet members have just voted to save Central Hill Estate and Cressingham Gardens from a planned demolition. This follows a near 15 year-long battle led by residents and the @SaveCressingham and @savecentralhill campaigns, with four separate judicial reviews and an independent inquiry.

The Council found a comprehensive redevelopment of the two 1960s estates to no longer be financially viable and have instead promised an approach that will 'maintain existing homes, return empty properties to use and deliver genuinely affordable homes while respecting the borough’s architectural heritage.' The surprising development follows a change in control at the Council after the May local elections, with the Green Party winning the most seats.

The council was previously taking forward their Estate Renewal Programme through the development company Homes for Lambeth. The 2022 Kerslake Review recommended closing down the company and the programme was brought back in-house under direct council control.

The pair of post-war social housing schemes have been C20's Risk List since 2017 and 2021 respectively, and were the subject of several unsuccessful listing applications by the Society as far back as 2016.

The Society's Director, Catherine Croft, commented:

"We are overjoyed that good sense has finally prevailed. Both estates show post-war social housing at its most humane and sensitive; understated yet intelligently detailed and making the most of beautiful, verdant sites.

While the work of Camden architect Neave Brown has long been celebrated and recognised with numerous listing designations and conservation areas, the work of Ted Hollamby and his team at Lambeth (including Rosemary Stjernstedt, Roger Westman, and Charles Attwood) has been bafflingly overlooked.

Not only are these buildings of great historic interest, but they are much loved, practical homes which could serve as exemplar for today’s housing crisis. They now need to be appropriately upgraded and cared for, so they can continue to can continue to serve and bring pleasure to future generations."

[edwin heathcote @edwinheathcote]

Sad story this. Adam Khan is such a good architect. And tried hard in an impossible sector.

[Philip Oldfield @SustainableTall]

Some good social housing inspo here, from @RowanMoore

https://t.co/zuEu648MWW

[Sarah Gaventa @sgaventa]

It's so important is to employ talented architects to create social housing - like Mary Duggan. Instead of allowing minimum viable product with no ambition or soul.

[London Assembly @LondonAssembly]

#AssemblyTransport Chair @CarolineRussell on the sofa @BBCBreakfast this morning discussing the report 'Who’s driving the future of autonomous transport in London?’

[tim abrahams @timabrahams]

I think it is probably the first time someone has won the Stirling Prize whilst studying for a part-time MA in Anthropology. My interview with very wonderful Mary Duggan, architect of Lion Green Road. Link below.

[Rowan Moore @RowanMoore]

Sights you rarely see #stirlingprize

[Peter barber @PpeterPeter]

i hope this succeeds … thankyou for trying to save Donnybrook

[Philip Oldfield @SustainableTall]

Would you just look at these beautiful timber blinds in this social housing in Navarra, Spain

In a warming world, shading should be on ALL housing!

The architects are Taller Basico and MRM Arquitectos. Blinds by Saxun Solar

[The Observer @ObserverUK]

Chromatic Architecture celebrates the beauty of colourful buildings

Adam Nathaniel Furman and Kate Mazade’s book explains how colour has elevated and enlivened architecture for thousands of years

✍️ @RowanMoore
https://t.co/Tr4Yb8aWQ4

[Sean Griffiths 💙 @_seangriffiths]

https://t.co/7VNEzBjBLK
Nice article in the Architect's Journal about Arts Collective, a project I worked on in Northampton.

[Rowan Moore @RowanMoore]

@Dannythefink @mrianleslie There were the Manchester United fans who went to see their team play Santiago in Spain and ended up in Chile