Sam Jacob
"The beautiful buildings commission is just a front for the continuing attack on progressive ideas"
The historicism of the UK's Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission is no laughing matter, says Sam Jacob. More
"Will Alsop had the balls to think differently"
The late Will Alsop wasn't always right, nor was his work always great – but his wild imagination and generous spirit were much needed in British architecture, says Sam Jacob. More
"MIPIM is one big performance with the purpose of speaking cities into existence"
Is it possible to speak buildings into being? The exhibitors at annual property fair MIPIM may try, but they need to come up with far more extreme fictions, says Sam Jacob in his latest Opinion column. More
"The design of a passport might create new kinds of identity and citizenship"
Last week we launched an ideas competition calling for a redesign of the UK passport after Brexit. It offers the chance to radically rethink the contemporary idea of nation, says Sam Jacob in this Opinion column. More
"We could imagine nationhood as a design project"
Opinion: in the aftermath of the EU referendum, Britain has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redesign itself as a coherent, relevant and functioning nation for the 21st century, says Sam Jacob. More
"Vote Leave is a vote for a theme park instead of a country"
Opinion: commercialisation of the UK's architectural heritage helped lay the foundations for the false nostalgia that is proving such potent propaganda for Brexiteers, says Sam Jacob. More
"The copy in contemporary culture is both despised and feared"
Opinion: by walking out of Berlin's Neues Museum with an illicit 3D scan of the bust of Queen Nefertiti, a pair of artists has forced us to question whether conservation is an act of care or a radical form of repression, says Sam Jacob. More
"Toys have become small plastic tablets of moral code that we hand down to the next generation"
Opinion: toy makers have designed a disturbingly codified world for children that says more about adult self-loathing than how kids really want to play, says Sam Jacob. More
"What would you do with a piece of Thatcher memorabilia?"
Opinion: London auction house Christie's is auctioning off trinkets and clothing from the estate of Margaret Thatcher, one of the UK's most controversial prime ministers. Sam Jacob takes a closer look at some of the items on offer. More
"Chicago boldly imagines its own definition of what a biennial might be"
Opinion: the Chicago Architecture Biennial stands out from an avalanche of pointless events by doing things its own way, says Sam Jacob. But can it be sustained? More
"Eames has become a vaguely suggestive word applied to alchemise junk shop remnants"
Opinion: as London's Barbican gallery launches a major retrospective on Modernist designers Charles and Ray Eames, Sam Jacob wonders whether it matters that the Eames name has taken on a life of its own. More
"The destruction of the ancient city of Palmyra is an assault on human culture"
Opinion: by destroying ancient architecture, ISIS is waging an ideological war on cultural history – it is our responsibility to respond with yet more culture, says Sam Jacob. More
"Postmodernism's real qualities are mean and difficult, yet also psychedelically positive"
Pomo summer: could there be anything more ridiculous than the idea of a Postmodern revival? It depends what you mean by Postmodernism, says Sam Jacob, in his column for Dezeen's summer season on the controversial movement. More
"Kink and fetish has much to teach mainstream design culture"
Opinion: the world of kink and fetish is built around ideas of power, control and gender – not that different to our relationships with everyday objects, says Sam Jacob. More
"The Garden Bridge is a magic bullet for a certain idea of the contemporary British city"
Opinion: the now-defunct architecture firm FAT proposed a green bridge for London's River Thames in the 1990s as a form of social criticism. Now life is imitating art with Thomas Heatherwick's Garden Bridge, FAT co-founder Sam Jacob feels an apology is necessary. More
"Cities that score well barely qualify as cities"
Opinion: increasingly popular lists that judge cities on "liveability" and "quality of life" are dangerous for the future development of our metropoles, says Sam Jacob. More
"Experience a version of history without the homework"
Opinion: Dubrovnik, with its Game of Thrones-buoyed tourism industry, is a historical drag act that exposes conflicting tensions between history, reconstruction and modernity, says Sam Jacob. More
"Marketing, architecture and development can be an incredibly powerful combination"
Opinion: show flats for residential developments don't just tell us about a developer's dream demographic – they have the potential to turn a sales fantasy into part of the city's built fabric, says Sam Jacob. More
"We've got 99 problems but architecture ain't one"
Opinion: a campaign to protect London's skyline and the UK government's first review into the state of architecture both point to the same thing: Britain's approach to building is broken, says Sam Jacob. More
"National Parks are synthesised products of urbanisation"
Opinion: in this latest column Sam Jacob asks whether air fresheners boasting scents from the UK's National Parks are "surreal and distasteful" or a logical extension of the countryside as a product of modern urban life. More