We’re having sex inside Moby Dick! The wild architectural world of Japan’s love hotels
From cruise ships to UFOs, from King Kong to a giant whale, half the sex in Japan may take place in its dazzlingly imaginative love hotels. But have some become just too seedy? Our writer checks in
April 2025
Book of the day
The Alienation Effect by Owen Hatherley review – meet the brutalists
Cosmic metros, UFO circus tops and a 3,000C sun gun: the mesmerising architecture of Tashkent
North Yorkshire’s film-star stately home set to earn its keep by hosting paying guests
The alternatives
‘It shapes the whole experience’: what happens when you build a city from wood?
‘Ours was inspired by the Empire State Building!’ The chaotic brilliance of the UK’s biggest self-build town
Notebook
Even if you’re not a person of faith, there are reasons to see Antoni Gaudí as a saint
Rowan Moore
Ageing cities
The radical plan for a futuristic age-friendly neighbourhood in Manchester
Vatican puts ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudí on path to sainthood
‘Cities trigger our imagination’: why a walk in town can be just as good for you as a stroll in the countryside
‘It’s unjust’: charity fights to save UK’s at-risk modern buildings
Other lives
Lewis Braithwaite obituary
‘Something to be proud of’: how an Irish town got a sewage makeover – and stopped discharging its waste into the sea
‘Cathedral of crap’: is this the world’s most beautiful sewage treatment plant?
Other lives
John McNeill obituary
A tower topped with a pangolin! The Oxford university building inspired by Tolkien … and the pandemic
March 2025
March design news: Maurzio Cattelan goes Greek, art teapots and house paint that changes colour
For whom the bell tolls: hunt for missing piece of Shrewsbury’s industrial history
How the architect who made modern Brisbane shaped the city’s 2032 Olympics stadium plans
Gold leaf and Gatsby: Brussels lays claim to birth of art deco with year of celebrations
