The Architectural Review

Contents

The Architectural Review is a long-established British architectural magazine founded in 1896 that has chronicled built environment debates, urbanism, conservation, and design criticism. It has engaged with architects, planners, critics, institutions, and exhibitions across Europe, North America, and Asia, shaping discourse alongside publications such as Architectural Digest, Domus (magazine), Architectural Record, and Dezeen. The Review has intersected with major cultural moments tied to figures and organizations including Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Renzo Piano, Louis Kahn, Mies van der Rohe, Rem Koolhaas, and institutions such as the Royal Institute of British Architects, Victoria and Albert Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Serpentine Galleries.

History

The magazine originated in late-Victorian London and developed through interactions with movements and moments such as the Arts and Crafts movement, the Modern Movement, Postmodernism, and debates around Urban Renewal, preservation episodes involving English Heritage, the National Trust, and international conservation projects like UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Early twentieth-century editors engaged with exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, commissions by patrons like Sir John Soane, and debates provoked by works by August Perret, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Victor Horta, Hector Guimard, and Gerrit Rietveld. Mid-century coverage navigated reconstruction after the Second World War, reconstruction plans focused on cities such as London, Rotterdam, Warsaw, and Manchester, and dialogues with planners from CIAM and critics tied to Architectural Review (other publications). In late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries the magazine responded to projects including High Line (New York City), Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Millennium Dome, and debates around sustainability promoted by actors like IPCC and World Green Building Council.

Editorially the magazine blends criticism, theory, and practice, publishing essays, project reviews, manifestos, and photo-essays about buildings and urban installations by offices such as OMA, Foster + Partners, Herzog & de Meuron, SOM (Skidmore, Owings & Merrill), BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), Snøhetta, Santiago Calatrava Architects and Engineers, and Maya Lin. Regular sections juxtapose coverage of exhibitions at venues like Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, Louvre, and Guggenheim Museum with analysis of infrastructure schemes such as Crossrail, HS2, La Défense, and Battery Park City. The Review has published dialogues involving academics and practitioners from institutions including Architectural Association School of Architecture, Bartlett School of Architecture, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Harvard Graduate School of Design, and ETH Zurich.

Over decades contributors have included critics, theorists, and architects such as Nikolaus Pevsner, Jane Jacobs, Ada Louise Huxtable, Kenneth Frampton, Manfredo Tafuri, Paul Goldberger, Olga Polizzi, Iain Sinclair, Anthony Vidler, Charles Jencks, Rowan Moore, Jonathan Glancey, Ada Lovelace (indirect) and photographers linked to architectural reportage like Julius Shulman, Ezra Stoller, Robert Polidori, and Hélène Binet. Long-running columns and commissions have engaged with competitions such as Pritzker Architecture Prize, RIBA Stirling Prize, Mies van der Rohe Award, Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and regional awards administered by bodies like European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. The Review has also featured roundtables with figures associated with practices RCR Arquitectes, David Chipperfield Architects, Caruso St John, Patrik Schumacher, and critics from outlets like The Guardian, The New York Times, and Financial Times.

The magazine has been associated with commentary on major prizes and competitions, interrogating outcomes of the Pritzker Prize decisions, the Stirling Prize shortlistings by Royal Institute of British Architects, and the juries of the Mies van der Rohe Award. It has run its own lists and curated features that highlight emerging offices from regions including Scandinavia, Japan, China, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa while critically appraising initiatives by funding bodies such as the Arts Council England and philanthropic projects from foundations like Guggenheim Foundation and Knight Foundation.

The Review has influenced professional and public discussion on projects ranging from civic developments in Birmingham and Liverpool to landmark commissions such as Sydney Opera House and Sainsbury Wing at the National Gallery, London. It has provoked controversy in disputes over redevelopment schemes involving developers like Related Companies, policymakers tied to Greater London Authority, and conservationists connected to ICOMOS. Scholarly reception appears in citations in journals linked to MIT Press, Yale University Press, Routledge, Bloomsbury Publishing, and case studies at universities such as University College London and University of Cambridge.

Published from London with international distribution, the magazine circulates in markets across United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, China, India, and Australia. It is stocked by retailers such as WHSmith and distributed through subscription services and digital platforms similar to JSTOR and aggregators used by libraries at institutions including British Library and Library of Congress. Editorial operations have engaged freelance writers, editors, and designers based in cultural capitals including New York City, Paris, Berlin, Milan, Barcelona, Tokyo, and Beijing.

Category:Architecture magazines