Saturday 4 October 2025
£35. Students and online tickets are free

Every building has something to say. Virtually everything created by human hands is ultimately a reflection of the circumstances in which it was created. By looking at a building through the lens of the era in which it was designed and built, one can have a greater understanding of the practical and aesthetic decisions made by the architect; but similarly, a closer look at the built environment can reveal a great deal about the society and the individuals that created it. Like all art forms, architecture provides a fantastic resource for interpreting and understanding the past, and when this way of seeing the human-made world (which the art historian Michael Baxandall termed ‘the period eye’) is turned to the architectural output of our own age, it can illuminate our own attitudes, preoccupations, fashions, economic and social conditions, politics and much more.

This one-day symposium, held in the extraordinary restored 13th century tithe barn at Messums West (the longest thatched building in the country), invites us to pause and look harder at contemporary architecture and ask the question, ‘what do the buildings that we encounter every day tell us about the world we live in?’. In talks and panel discussions, architects, designers, architectural historians and critics, will explore the buildings of modern Britain.

A link to access the talk will be emailed to those booking an online ticket before the event.