Tony Watkins

Travel Articles

Vulnerable Vernacular

When a Westerner appeared for breakfast dressed in a traditional Chinese blue suit, the Chengdu locals were totally mystified. Why should anyone want to look just like millions of other Chinese?

Where the sun rises

Kyoto

Great Japanese Calligraphy seems to be so casual and off-hand as to be almost careless. True greatness presents a trap for the unwary. It makes the almost impossible seem both simple and easy. Truly great design transcends aparent discipline so completely that it seems to be almost without discipline. The path to perfection begins with the realisation that to truly know is to realise how little you know.

Public, Private and Prague

Arcades, Telc

Privatising the "commonwealth" of New Zealand can be compared to the selling of the commons in England. Both have brought about such fundamental changes in the structure of society that their full significance to both architecture and urban design has not been recognised.

One of the deep structures of city form is the relationship between public space and private space. When that relationship changes everything else changes.

Optimistic City

Bamboo scaffolding at Aberdeen

Everyone who wants their city to have a future should take a long look at Hong Kong, the optimistic city.

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Tony Watkins

~ Vernacular Design