"The Peach Blossom Land" was a Chinese fable written by poet Tao Yuanming in 421 CE about a fisherman's discovery of a hidden valley - an ethereal utopia where contented people lead an ideal existence in harmony with nature, unaware of the outside world for centuries. It is similar to the mystical and [...]

 
One early October weekend, I was checking the weather forecast on my iPad and it showed that Monday would be sunny. The symbol of the sun somehow triggered an urge in me to go to the seaside. I thought of visiting The Folkestone Triennial, but the photos of some contemporary art installations [...]

Hauser & Wirth Somerset

 
One day I receive an interesting newsletter from Architecture Foundation regarding a day trip to Somerset, visiting Hauser & Wirth and the nearby Drawing Matter. I had no idea that The 2014 Serpentine Pavilion designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radić had been relocated to Hauser & Wirth Somerset in [...]

Highgate's hidden gem – Omved gardens
 
Honestly, I am finding it harder to enjoy London these days, and it is partly due to the city being overcrowded. The worst time is June and July when tourists and school children from abroad flock over here – it is a nightmare. September used to be [...]

The stunning concrete architecture is designed by David Chipperfield architects
 
Two years ago, there was a major retrospective exhibition of Barbara Hepworth's work at Tate Britain, which I found fairly disappointing and felt it did not do justice to the great sculptor. Luckily, there are two museum/art gallery in the U.K. dedicated to [...]

 
 
This year's Serpentine pavilion is designed by Diébédo Francis Kéré, the Berlin-based African architect from Gando, Burkina Faso.
Inspired by the tree that serves as a central meeting point for life in his home town of Gando, Francis Kéré's design aims to connect its visitors to nature – and each other. The [...]

 
On the last day of V & A's Reveal Festival, I visited the museum hoping to see some performances, yet I saw a transformed new quarter which took me by surprise.
The £54.5 million project was designed by Stirling Prize-winning British architect Amanda Levete and her firm AL_A, providing an extra 6,400 square metres [...]

‘Metropolis' (1988) by Zaha Hadid at the entrance of the exhibition at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery

 
I have previously written about the late British Iraqi star architect Zaha Hadid (click here), and I showed little enthusiasm about her later works. However, I was a fan of her earlier paintings – the conceptual ones [...]

 
Ok, I am not a fan of Jeff Koons nor Damien Hirst, so what was I doing at Hirst's art gallery for Koons' Now exhibition? One reason: architecture. This month, Newport Street Gallery in Vauxhall was named as the winner of this year’s Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) Stirling Prize for [...]

Serpentine Pavilion by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)
 
This year, the 16th Serpentine Pavilion (10th Jun until 9th Oct 2016) is designed by Danish architectural studio BIG, or Bjarke Ingels Group. In addition to the main pavilion, four 25sqm summer houses inspired by the nearby 18th century Queen Caroline’s Temple are commissioned and built [...]