London Contemporary Architecture Map

High on Millennium fever, the 21st century architecture of London began with a big cultural bang, seeing major public projects like Norman Foster’s Great Court at the British Museum, Herzog & de Meuron’s Laban Dance Centre and Alsop & Störmer’s Peckham Library burst on to the scene. The confidence was mirrored on the skyline, with the jaunty arrival of the Gherkin - a startling form that unleashed a menagerie of ever stranger towers, each with their own nickname.

Oliver Wainwright is a writer and photographer based in London. He has been the architecture and design critic of the Guardian since 2012. He trained as an architect at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art, and worked in strategic planning at the Architecture and Urbanism Unit of the Greater London Authority and at a number of architecture practices, including OMA in Rotterdam and Muf in London. He has written extensively on architecture and design for a wide range of international publications, from Building Design and the Architects’ Journal, to Icon, Domus and Frieze and has won awards for his in-depth reporting on the housing crisis and the planning system. He has served as curatorial advisor to the Architecture Foundation and is a regular visiting critic and lecturer at a number of architecture schools internationally. His first book, Inside North Korea, was published by Taschen in 2018, and his photographs have been exhibited in Seoul, Moscow, London and New York.