Writing and research

Robert writes internationally about architecture, cities, heritage and cultural travel. He is the architecture critic for the London Evening Standard.

He has previously been editor of Building Design and the architecture critic for two other daily newspapers The Australian and the Australian Financial Review. He has written for design, art and travel magazines around the world as well as for national bodies such as Historic England.

"Passionate, original…he writes with powerful eloquence.”

Neil Ascherson – author

Robert is the author of essays and books including The Destruction of Memory: Architecture at War (2006/2015) and is a member of (ICOMOS), the body that advises UNESCO on world heritage. He has qualifications in architecture, planning, urban design and journalism, and experience in both news and features. 

For Robert Bevan, it is all about having a strong sense of place; this is what connects his work as a writer, architectural historian and consultant. He can critique a city’s newest architecture, research its history, reveal its symbolic meaning or set out its appeal to today’s cultural traveller.

Among the many other titles Robert has written for are: Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, Observer magazineSydney Morning Herald, The EconomistArt NewspaperArchitectural Review, and Wallpaper*/Wallpaper* City Guides.

Articles

More articles

All
  • All
  • Architecture
  • Cultural Travel
  • Heritage
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Minaretphobia

Racism is behind the fight against building minarets in the West.
Frida

Frida Escobedo

The Mexican’s Serpentine Pavilion
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Hepworth & Turner

Chipperfield's architectural double act. The Hepworth is a fine follow up to Berlin's Neues Museum.
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Terror and the city

After the Paris attacks: Does modernism lead to terrorism.
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Rotterdam

How the Dutch port is reinventing its images using architecture
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World Heritage Convention at 40

Is the world heritage convention having a midlife crisis? Published as: World Heritage at 40: success or mess? in THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 240, November 2012
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Art in the office

Durbach Block's creative HQ for Melbourne fashion maven and art patron Naomi Milgrom.
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Bath’s return to source

England's spa city is rediscovering its original purpose.
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Common Ground

An essay on Islamophobia and the stand-off between heritage and the  avant-garde commissioned for a critical reader accompanying the 2012 Venice Biennale.
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Group Hygge

Copenhagen for the design traveller.
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A tale of two towers

London's towers compared for the launch of the Architects' Journal Skyline campaign
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WOHA

Singapore finest. WOHA profiled in The Australian's Wish magazine. (more…)
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Marseille

Vogue Living on the 2013 European Capital of Culture.
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Is art worth a life?

The story behind the film. For The Times of London
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Cycling Copenhagen

How Denmark's capital made the sustainable stylish. From The Australian's Wish supplement
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Cairo the victorious

The city's ancient centre is as fascinating as the pyramids at its edge.
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Iconoclasm as genocide warning

Attacks on buildings conveying cultural identity can be a warning of incipient ethnic cleansing or genocide. (more…)
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Lyon heart

Lyon has many wonders but a few blunders too.
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Venice Biennale 2012

Architecture's new mood. For The Australian newspaper.
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Walking Wales

How to convince an Australian that Britain has beaches worth a look.
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BIG profile

Denmark's hottest architectural export profiled in the Evening Standard.
Brooklyn

Brooklyn’s design scene

America's fourth largest city has become the hipster heart of art and design.
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Tasmania’s cheekiest devil

MONA is part of the reinvention of Tasmania as a cultural and foodie destination. The Observer Magazine.
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Target Heritage

From Mali to Bangladesh and beyond, ideology is making a target of cultural heritage.
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Heritage and human rights

Why it is vital to link the two. Op Ed for the Evening Standard.
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Bushfire House

You dont have to build concrete bunkers to balance risk and fire safety.
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House for Essex

First look inside Grayson Perry and FAT's fantasia.
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Heritage Journalism

Journalism about historic architecture and places and issues relating to material culture, including looting and provenance and human rights, is a consistent element of Robert Bevan's heritage advocacy.
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Spanish netherlands

Cruz y Ortiz's remodelling of the Rijksmuseum has many qualities but has it solved the museum's basic problems?
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New intelligence

Architecture in the post parametric age for Intelligent Life