The 1,500th issue of the AR looks back at its vast archive, examining the gaps where the climate crisis should have been covered
AR April 2023
Today’s editorial team is part of a lineage that stretches back more than a century, and leaves in its tracks towers of magazines – pages full of stories that pushed boundaries and imagined worlds anew. Editing involves distilling ideas from a vast landscape of information, selecting words, arguments and images. Inevitably, more material falls to the cutting room floor than makes it into the ever-growing archive. What did not make the cut? What was deemed unimportant? What did the AR get wrong?
Now that 1,499 issues have rolled off the presses, we find ourselves in a radically different context. The world is hurtling towards ecological disaster, and as we, the current AR editors, reflect on both the archive we are continuing to grow and the duty of an architecture magazine today, the 1,500th issue is an opportunity to revisit and critically reassess pieces from the AR’s history through an ecological lens. With the privilege of hindsight, we hope to reveal what our blind spots might be today.
1,500th issue
Keynote: Architecture criticism against the climate clock, Jeremy Till
Looking back at AR February 1971: Reputations: James Maude Richards, Jessica Kelly
Looking back at AR Manplan issues (1969-1970): Manifesto for the planet, Stephen Parnell
Looking back at AR February 1936: Issue revisit: Empire timber, Neal Shasore
Looking back at AR March 1950: Death to the skyscraper, Martha Dillon
Looking back at AR May 1952: In the hothouse, Sam Johnson-Schlee
Looking back at AR May 1999: City portrait: Curitiba, Joseli Macedo
Looking back at AR October 1962: Outrage: The fallacy of the sustainable airport, Cath Slessor
Looking back at AR July 1934: Picture essay: Just stop oil painting, AR Editors
Looking back at AR February 1954: Colonia Constructs, Tomà Berlanda
Looking back at AR April 2014: Modern maintenance, Tanvi Jain
Looking back at AR October 1950: Time for trees, Sufi Boise
Looking back at AR June 1976: Sana'a under threat, AR editors
Looking back at AR November 2003: Revisit: BedZED, ZEDfactory, London, United Kingdom, Steve Webb and Paul Downie
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