Here’s my pick of three things to do this week, from a Nicholas Hawksmoor exhibition from the Venice Biennale to the big Charles Correa exhibition at the RIBA and Clerkenwell Design Week next Tuesday.
STOP
What: Nicholas Hawksmoor: Methodical Imaginings
Where: Somerset House, London
When: Until September 1
Originally shown in the Venice Pavilion at last year’s Venice Architecture Biennale, this exhibition focuses on a series of important London churches designed by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor (c.1661–1736) during the early part of the eighteenth century. Curated by Mohsen Mostafavi and lensed by architectural photographer Helene Binet, the immaculate black and white photographs are shown alongside digitally fabricated resin models that celebrate the connections between Hawksmoor’s structures and the city of London.
LOOK
What: Charles Correa: India’s Greatest Architect
Where: RIBA, London
When: Until September 4
Designed by architect David Adjaye, this exhibition is a chance to learn about the works of ‘India’s greatest architect’ Charles Correa, whose work can be likened to that of Oscar Niemeyer in Brazil. Born in Hyderabad in 1930, Correa left India in 1949 to study under Buckminster Fuller at both the University of Michigan and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and to work in the Detroit office of Minoru Yamasaki. He returned to India in the mid-50s and set up his own practice in Mumbai in 1958. While his early work consisted of individual buildings, such as Mahatma Gandhi Memorial in Ahmedabad, he steadily moved towards problems of an urban nature, such as low-cost housing in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. His work has consistently adopted a relevant, low cost strategy that responds directly to the particular economic, social and climatic problems.
LISTEN
What: Clerkenwell Design Week
Where: Farmiloe Buildings, Clerkenwell and the surrounding areas, London
When: May 21-23
Next week, Clerkenwell is hosting a three-day independent design festival and trade show. Architects and designers will be opening their doors to visitors, design experts and critics will be in conversation in the historic Farmiloe building, while architecture collective Assemble will be providing over 200 low-cost chairs for well-earnt pit-stops, and Mobile Studio will be exhibiting a transparent acrylic maze. If it all gets too much there’s a Pimms lounge and a mobile London Transport Canteen as well.
What are you doing this weekend?
