Below is a small selection of the articles (currently some 350) on architecture, art, design, lighting and landscape design I have written to date for publications such as The New York Times, The Independent, Architectural Record and Domus.

The 18 new “supertrees” in Singapore’s Bay South garden are gigantic trellises for exotic plants, but they also double as exhaust tubes and supports for sustainable infrastructure. The brightly colored concrete and steel structures rise at varying heights up to 164 feet, and support some 200 plant species including orchids, neoregelias, and bougainvilleas. Eleven of the towers will support photovoltaic cells and rainwater harvesting technology, while also venting warm air from the underground cooling system of adjacent conservatories. A 420-foot-long aerial walkway [...]

Growing up in Africa, the emotional effect of light left a strong impression on Barbara Hediger. “My brother and I grew up in Africa, and as you well know, the light in Africa is very special, at all times of the day,” says the Belgian lighting designer. Also helping to nurture the young Hediger’s interest in light were her parents, both teachers, and keen photographers. The Hediger family travelled widely, and through photography her mother and father gave her, she [...]

Looking like an outsized piece of elaborately folded paper, the new Bella Sky Hotel just outside the Danish capital Copenhagen stands out on the horizon—just what Danish architectural firm 3XN and the hotel client Comwell wanted. Sandwiched between green open spaces and Ørestad, a new city development extending southeast from the capital, the hotel is “out in a big nowhere land,” says Kim Herforth Nielsen, 3XN founder and principal architect, “so it has to be more expressive. We had to [...]

Entitled Brassaï: The Soul of Paris, a major retrospective of Hungarian photographer, sculptor and painter, Brassaï (1899-1984), at the Hayward Gallery represented a large chunk of the one previously held at the Pompidou Centre. Since Brassaï really came into his own when he turned to photography, the Hayward Gallery presented over 280 photographs of his Paris by Night and Paris by Day collection as well as works from the surrealist review Minotaure and his suite of graffiti series. Small fetish [...]

I pressed my nose up to the small, round window and peered into the darkened room beyond. Something peculiar seemed to be happening. The jaded kiosk attendant standing by my side managed only a thin smile. She had seen it all before. Looking closer I realised that an animated version of a Jules Verne story was playing on a screen. Naive, black and white images danced across it, painting the meagre audience with a flickering, silvery sheen. Leaning on Montmartre’s southern [...]

For almost two decades, visual artist Stephen Hennessy has fashioned spectacular custom light fittings for civic, commercial and residential interiors in his home town of Melbourne. Ranging from freestanding sculptural works to monumental chandeliers of technical ingenuity, Hennessy’s fixtures grace the walls, floors and ceilings of some of Melbourne’s most prominent buildings, such as the Museum of Immigration and Hellenic Archaeology, the Shrine of Remembrance and Port Melbourne Public Library. Other works shine in Adelaide and Sydney. Hennessy’s move into [...]

(Extract) A belief in Feng Shui and great shadows are just two things that have helped lighting designer Michael Rohde of German firm L-Plan to become one of the industry’s leading lights. Winner of this year’s GE Edison Award for Residential Design, Rohde has been illuminating buildings and places in Germany and the US since the late Nineties. Over the years, L-Plan has worked on the lighting masterplan for the Siemensstadt district of Berlin (1999) and the Post Tower in [...]

A pioneer of independent lighting design in France, Roger Narboni’s work over the past quarter of a century has combined an energy-conscious approach to optimizing town lighting with a passion for designing visually appealing lighting treatments for buildings and places. Walk around a French town or city and you are quite likely to come across a lightscape designed by Narboni. Working with another well-known lighting designer, Louis Clair, Narboni designed the exterior colour-changing lighting of Notre Dame in Paris and [...]

“In theatre you have to think about maybe twenty five looks,” explains Koert Vermeulen. “In architecture maybe only one, but that one has to be the best.” And over the past six years, the Belgian lighting designer has been honing his skills to create exemplary architectural lighting works, in partnership with the other co-founder of ACT Architecture, Bruno Demeester. Whereas Vermeulen learnt his trade through hands-on experience in theatre and event lighting, Demeester took a different path. He studied architecture. [...]