In 1978, China's urban population was 18%; today it is 65%. In 1978 there were 193 Chinese cities; today there are around 650. Thanks @spectator #Chinesewhispers @CindyXiaodanYu for a thoroughly enjoyable chat about cities, development & progress in China. spectator.co.uk/podcast/hist…

TOMORROW'S DEBATE The future of architecture starts with saying “no”. says OMA’s Reinier de Graaf. He now moves on to “why”. Host: Austin Williams, RIBA Presidential candidate. You don’t have to have read his latest book to join in. 15 June 7-8:30pm eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

TOMORROW Provocative. Uncompromising. Graaf critiques architects’ "pointless obsessions" Reinier de Graaf talks to Austin Williams You don’t have to have read it to join in the conversation. 15 June at 7pm Register for this online & free debate: eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

RT @HenMazzig: @DefendOurJuries “Without intent.” Here’s the video. Just how stupid do you think the British public is? t.co/WO32bc…

Architecture has lost the plot. "American architectural education is deeply f***ed" says Reinier de Graaf of OMA. It begs the question, why only America? Reinier de Graaf with Austin Williams 15 June, 7pm, Online eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

Somebody had to say it. @RIBA #RIBA @KingstonSchArt @KingstonUni Voting: 15th - 26th June architectsjournal.co.uk/news…

The BBC Has Ruled. Brexit Damaged The Economy. No Further Debate Required. The BBC's editorial complaints unit has decided that the negative economic impact of Brexit is now a settled fact. Not a contested judgement. Not one side of a live debate. A fact, in the same category as man-made climate change, requiring no balancing view. The ruling followed a Radio 4 Today programme segment featuring Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England, alongside Liam Byrne and Sir John Gieve, both long-standing advocates of closer EU alignment. All three agreed Brexit had damaged growth. The presenter, Katya Adler, did not challenge the premise or introduce a dissenting voice. A complaint followed. The ECU's response is the revealing part. It acknowledged the segment failed to "acknowledge the alternative case" for pursuing opportunities outside the EU rather than realignment with it. That part of the complaint was upheld. But the central complaint, that three pro-EU voices agreeing with each other on air is not balance, was dismissed. The reasoning given was that this reflected "the consensus among economists" and there was no "significant body of economic opinion" on the other side. This is worth pausing on. The BBC is not claiming it found balance. It is claiming balance was unnecessary because one side of the argument does not meaningfully exist. The institution that is legally required to be impartial has ruled itself the arbiter of which questions are still open and which are closed, and Brexit has just been moved into the closed file. The economics itself does not support the certainty on display. The headline figure driving much of this narrative, an 8 per cent hit to GDP since 2016, comes from an NBER paper built on a "synthetic control" model that constructs a hypothetical non-Brexit Britain from a basket of comparator countries. The largest weighting in that basket, over 60 per cent, is the United States, a country currently riding an AI investment boom and a separate fiscal stimulus. The model also weights Estonia and Greece more heavily than France or Germany. On a straightforward per capita basis against France and Germany, the actual comparators, Britain's performance since 2016 sits roughly in line with both. An 8 per cent gap simply isn't visible. This is a model producing a number that then gets reported as "the consensus," which the BBC then cites as the reason no alternative view is required. That loop, model produces number, number becomes consensus, consensus becomes fact, fact requires no balance, is the mechanism. It does not require a conspiracy. It requires an institution that has decided which conclusions are respectable and which are not, and which then treats its own prior decision as evidence. The same posture has been on display all week. A government department can decide its diversity targets are lawful without seeking legal advice to check. A police force can decide a book about dismantling "inner white supremacy" is leadership training. A broadcaster can decide an economic question is closed and that deciding so does not breach its own impartiality rules. In each case, the institution marks its own homework, and the mark is always a pass. None of this requires Brexit to have been a triumph. Britain's economy has genuine problems, most of them unrelated to single market membership. But a state broadcaster, funded by compulsory licence fee under threat of prosecution, has now formally placed one of the most consequential political decisions in modern British history beyond the reach of its own impartiality obligations. Reform's Lee Anderson called it being "blinkered by groupthink." The more precise description is an institution that has stopped being able to tell the difference between its own assumptions and the facts. "The BBC is not claiming it found balance. It is claiming balance was unnecessary because one side of the argument does not meaningfully exist."

Manifestos matter. This is one of the interesting ones. Written by Reinier de Graaf, partner at OMA You don’t have to have read it to join in the conversation. ONLINE: 15 June at 7pm Hosted by @Future_Cities Register: eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

#Hockney would be proud.

While everyone recognises Trump to be a lunatic, no-one seems to notice that Labour are even more bonkers: "Towel rails will only be allowed to operate for six hours a day... and tumble driers will be banned" share.google/bF0lAiPIU0EUCBt…

So. Can AI do this? I think not. instagram.com/reel/DYuAqc0Sj…

For architects, urbanists & critical thinkers. A rare evening with Reinier de Graaf Hosted by Future Cities Project’s director, Austin Williams ONLINE 15 June 7pm – 8:30pm Register: eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

30 years after Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone", his esssay about social disengagement in America, we now have, 'Singing Alone'; the same phenomenon with Chinese characteristics. c/o Zheng Xu

Hockney was peerless. Almost in the mold of the renaissance masters, his life and art were somehow fused into one riotous celebration of freedom. He was daring in a more conservative society, and then almost conservative in contemporary society. I will never forget the works which defined his later life, nor the title of the book “Spring Cannot Be Cancelled” which was both a middle finger to Covid lockdowns and a spiritual demonstration of the faith that life will always be reborn. It is remarkable that he is, so far as I can tell, the only person to have made a genuine and non-cynical contribution to visual art in a digital medium. Perhaps this is less a sign of his willingness to innovate than an indication that the joie de vivre which defined his art would flower in any medium. It ought to be a source of enormous shame to us that he felt forced to live abroad to find the freedom to live and create, and yet I still feel proud of being British to think that we can call such a master one of our sons.

Clear your diary. Architecture made interesting. Reinier de Graaf on Architecture Against Architecture in conversation with RIBA Presidential candidate, Austin Williams 15 June 7pm Register: eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

Architecture has lost the plot. "American architectural education is deeply f***ed" says Reinier de Graaf of OMA. It begs the question, why only America? Reinier de Graaf with Austin Williams @Future_Cities 15 June, 7pm, Online eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

Peter Hitchens gloriously pushing back against the idea that 5-year-olds shouldn't be made to learn poetry by heart.

One of the world’s most influential architects that you have possibly never heard of. Listen to Reinier de Graaf controversial examination of the industry and its impact on the world 15 June 7pm Host: RIBA Presidential candidate, Austin Williams eventbrite.co.uk/e/bookshop-…

This is excellent. Even this first edition of the Andrew Neill Report, which seems simply to be setting out the principles of the podcast, is more insightful on global issues than anything else being broadcast. First class. A must-listen.

I hope that this is well worth a read. Moreover, I hope that it sparks a constructively critical reassessment of what Architecture is about; and who and what it is for. architectsjournal.co.uk/news…

Just in case this gets missed; in case we forget what the mainstream 'climate change' explanation of the LA fires was at the time, we now find that it was, in fact, a straightforward case of arson. Well worth reading. @thetimes #climate