Samuel Beckett’s second published novel, Murphy, opens with the eponymous protagonist having tied himself naked and with seven scarves to his rocking chair, swinging back and forth in the dark of his room. With this ritual Beckett’s well read, intellectual character retreats from everyday reality, relieves his body to set his mind free: ‘for it was not until his body is appeased that he could come alive in his mind’.2... Read more

The carefully argued text by William Mann, who served as supervising architect for Witherford Watson Mann Architects, is conceived as a meticulous historical reading of the Whitechapel complex. The text characterises the attitude of the designers, who clearly immersed themselves in the history of the construction and the institution in order to contribute a new layer with a full knowledge of the facts. T... Read more

The following text is part of a contribution to the catalogue of the 10th International Architecture Exhibition at the 2006 Venice Biennale of Architecture, titled Cities, Architecture and Society, and was written while the architects were working on several vast projects within historic city centres. The article was illustrated by project images of Leopold De Wael Square in Antwerp... Read more