Insights

The souk was never just a market. It was the original mixed-use model, long before urban planners invented the term “mixed-use”. This iteration of the 7-minute residential souk, a proposition for Jeddah, takes that logic further...

We are focusing on what we consider to be one of the most resolved and contextually intelligent buildings in the Middle East. SOM’s Four Seasons Hotel Bahrain Bay is widely recognised for its presence on the skyline – set on its own island, it acts as a clear architectural marker within Bahrain Bay...

The souk was the original Arabian urban organiser: a shaded network of encounter with most urban functions in proximity. It defined how communities lived and interacted for centuries...

Nicholas has been looking at the work of Craig Ellwood – one of the most refined voices of postwar California modernism, and an architect whose work continues to feel assuredly relevant...

The civic courtyard is one of the oldest urban instruments we have. Long before mixed-use was a planning category, it was simply how people lived: an (often shaded) shared space...

Some of the best climate solutions were devised centuries ago: courtyards, shaded streets, fountains at the centre of a square. Builders in Saudi Arabia had no air conditioning, only observation and time...

We’re pleased to announce that Nicholas Bonaventure, Managing Director of nicholas, has been elected as the RIBA Country Representative for Bahrain within the RIBA Gulf Chapter...

There are buildings which touch their location lightly and inhabit it with grace. The Bahrain National Theatre in Manama, by Architecture-Studio and Atkins, belongs precisely to this category...

Cities have always carried the traces of those who came them before us. Today, in an era of rapid urbanisation, a return to the local language of architecture becomes a conscious choice...

Geoffrey Bawa was designing sustainable architecture decades before it became popular...

Well-planned communities are vibrant communities.‍ For urban life to form, it requires a centre to form around – and our streets should be crucibles for community life...

Nicholas is recording comments about buildings which have shaped his architectural thinking...