David Kohn

Thank you for your support A big thank you to everyone who supported my marathon fundraising effort for @maggiescentres . Delighted to say, we exceeded my £3000 goal. Many of you said what a great cause the charity is and I can also let you know that they’ve been brilliant in supporting their runners. Thank you to my family and friends for being there too. By the end of 42km, my mind was fairly stripped back to essentials. One can’t help feeling a flood of gratitude for London, its openness and spirit. I ran a 3hr 52min race that is my 3rd best time. Which now means I’ll have to do another one! #nostopping

Amazing to have had the opportunity to speak with Rose Wylie about her work for @flashartvolumes “Opacity” is the subject of the third issue of Flash Art Volumes that launched this week at the @isaloniofficial . Guest editor Luis Ortega Govela asserts, “Opacity is not concealment. It is resistance — a refusal to be entirely legible”. I visited Rose at her extraordinary cottage in rural Kent. Typically full of paintings, it had been emptied for two major shows @royalacademy in London and @davidzwirner Paris. We talked about how she makes her paintings from small pieces she has accumulated over years and her fascination with early Renaissance composition. Many thanks to @luisortegag for the invitation and to creative director Alessio @avventuroso for steering the project. Thanks too to 📸 @zorasicher for sharing the first photo of Rose and me in her studio.

One Week To Go: Please Help me Raise £3000 for Maggie’s On Sunday 26th I will be running the London Marathon to raise funds for the charity @maggiescentres . Maggie’s will be well known to many of you because of the beautiful buildings they commission to provide places to support those living with cancer and their families. This support is free and Maggie’s receives no funding other than through charitable donations. As of today, friends have already pledged £2785 and I have a further £215 to raise before race day! Many thanks to those who have already given. To those thinking of contributing, every pledge makes a difference, no matter how large or small, and will spur me on to the finish line! Please visit my sponsorship webpage #linkinbio

‘Stages,’ our practice’s first monograph, launched in Milan Last month, @spazioprojects bookstore in Milan hosted a launch of our monograph, ‘Stages.’ Many thanks to Mariana Siracusa for hosting, Federico Tranfa @pasquinitranfa for the introduction and discussion and all those who joined us including friends and family: @f.laera @colombaleddi @massimocurziarchitetto @angelolunati @moretto.paolo @studiobinocle @d_cassina @filippo_cattapan A short film about the opening is on SPAZIO’s YouTube channel #linkinbio ’Stages’ takes the form of twelve books that look at the studio’s past 19 years production from a range of perspectives. Edited by @moritz.kung , designed by @armandmevis and published by @buchhandlungwaltherfranzkoenig , essays by Lydia Yee, @elliswoodman and @william_whyte_oxford are complimented by new photographs by @maxcreasy and an artwork by @fionabannerakathevanitypress . Available at SPAZIO and all good bookshops. The publication is currently shortlisted in the Editorial Design section of @creativereview ’s 2026 Annual Awards. 📸 @luca__bosco #davidkohnarchitects

Happy Christmas and all best wishes for 2026 Signing off on an epic year with a big thank you to an amazing team. High spirits and hard work made it all possible. This photograph was taken in October in front of our new offices before the refurbishment started. Come and visit us in the new year at 11 Pratt Mews, London NW1 0AD. #davidkohnarchitects #byebye2025 #hello2026

Flower Bank I, II & III now on show @hyphastudios Thank you @_samjacob @recessed.space and @ioa.angewandte for the invitation to contribute to the exhibition ’The Bank of England in Ruins,’ currently on show at Hypha Studios at No.1 Poultry, the James Stirling postmodern masterpiece. The themes of the exhibition are in part architectural: The ways in which John Soane @soanemuseum and James Stirling shared interests in history, ruins, fragments and reassembly. The exhibition is also about the relationship of architecture to both cultural and economic value. Architecture as a function of economics on one hand. On the other hand, how architectural images - buildings, fragments, history etc - have been used to legitimise the abstract idea of ‘money’. The design language of banks, for example. Or the ways in which architectural references are used on bank notes. The curator’s invitation was to work with one of several selected image of Soane’s Bank of England in ruins. My contribution, Flower Bank I, II and III use a fragment of the banking hall dome as a repeated element in a decorative pattern. Something substantial, destroyed, appropriated and made decorative. The other contributors are: Aslı Çiçek, Bamidele Awoyemi, CAN, DRDH, Drawing Architecture Studio, Fala, Hugh Strange, Jamie Foubert, Joseph Zeal Henry, Kuehn Malvezzi, Madelon Vriesendorp, Maria Lisogorskaya, Mary Duggan, MBL architects, MOS, Muoto, Nigel Coates, Paradigma Ariadné, Paul Anderson, Peter Wilson, Pier Paolo Tamborelli, Piovenefab, Point Supreme, Sam Chermayeff, Sean Griffiths, Sergison Bates, Shahed Saleem, Space Popular, Supervoid Open: 12th December - 17th January 2025, Thursday - Sunday, 12 - 6pm #davidkohnarchitects #flowerbank #bankofenglandinruins #JamesStirling #JohnSoane

Congratulations @izat.arundell winners of @riba #houseoftheyear2025! Congratulations Eilidh Izat @eibhneas and Jack Arundell @j.ep.a of architecture practice @izat.arundell on winning the 2025 @riba House of the Year for Caochan na Creige in the Outer Hebrides. It was an absolute privilege to be chair of this year’s jury and such a pleasure to see their surprised faces on @channel4 @granddesignstv this week as Kevin McCloud gave them the news. With my jury colleagues @livia.wangliwei , @gillambert @amaliaskoufoglou and RIBA Awards Manager Stephanie Johnson we traveled the length of the country in July visiting all the shortlisted houses. The journey to the Outer Hebrides was the longest but worth the effort. Once on the islands and driving to Caochan na Creige we passed many examples of houses that were in our view unsympathetic to their context - oversized, built of inappropriate materials, without any awareness of vernacular traditions. The choice of Caochan na Creige for the award was unanimous as we felt it showed a way forward for building locally that was contemporary, crafted of materials immediately available, and luxurious in its relationship to the surrounding landscape whilst also being modest in size. The architects had also built the project themselves and one could only admire their determination and collaborative mindset. The issues raised regarding responsibility to the environment, to vernacular traditions and local economies could equally apply across the UK and further afield. Caochan na Creige is both a personal triumph for a young practice and a provocation that should inspire many. I am also delighted that Channel 4 broadcast the House of the Year series again, having stopped for two years, ensuring debates about architecture reach as wide a public audience as possible. First 📸 @richardgaston #houseoftheyear #riba #davidkohnarchitects

One spine, twelve books, endless beginnings. DAVID KOHN ARCHITECTS: STAGES is the first comprehensive monograph on the London-based studio @officedka , bringing together the first eighteen years of practice. Twelve autonomous books — varying in size, scope and subject matter — are held together by a spiral binding, which allows the reader to enter the studio’s story from any point. Each book (chapter) offers a distinct perspective on David Kohn Architects’ work, pairing commissioned essays with a bespoke visual language by @armandmevis . STAGES, @davidkohnarch Editor @moritz.kung Design @armandmevis Publisher @buchhandlungwaltherfranzkoenig Binding Voetelink, Mark Binderij, Kilsdonk Printing, lithography and book photography by robstolk® amsterdam #robstolk •⁠ •⁠ #stages #davidkohnarchitects #eyeondesign #printisnotdead #amsterdambased #printedmatter #offsetprinting

Community-building On Wednesday evening, we launched “David Kohn Architects: Stages” @aabookshop . I was joined by the artist and collaborator @fionabannerthevanitypress , essay contributor @elliswoodman and our editor @moritz.kung to discuss the publication followed by questions from the audience. Thoughts that followed: given the nature of our work and our presentation of it, this is not a conventional monograph. It is rather an account of a practice that is highly collaborative and sees this as a strength. We could call it an ‘omnigraph.’ What I learned through making the book, and through the ​treatment of Moritz and the graphic designer @armandmevis , is that our design process can be applied equally to architectural history and our own work: a mining of fragments to compose new wholes. That an interest in collaboration is community-building: our collaborators become long-term allies, working together on projects of different types, scales and in different places. Our first projects with Moritz Küng and Fiona Banner were an exhibition and installation both in 2012 whilst Ellis Woodman has written about our work since 2008. This is one dimension of the future for architects: collaboration experts. The book is available at #linkinbio #collaboration #thefutureofcollaboration #communitybuilding

‘Stages’ successfully launched! 🚀 Many thanks to all who came to the launch of ‘David Kohn Architects: Stages’ at the AA Bookshop yesterday evening. Great turn out and questions to the panel of @fionabannerakathevanitypress @moritz.kung @elliswoodman and @davidkohnarch , introduced by Ingrid Schroder @aadirectorscuts Comprising twelve autonomous books, the ring bound publication allows the reader to begin the story at any point. Each book brings a different perspective on the work of the studio, with specially commissioned essays alongside unique design by @armandmevis . The varying widths of the publications combined with lavish fold outs mean the content is constantly being reframed by other perspectives, much like the nature of contemporary architectural practice. Published by @buchhandlungwaltherfranzkoenig , now available to buy from all good (architecture) bookshops, and the best of them all, the @aabookshop

New lecture recording online now: @davidkohnarch @Bozar @aplusarchitectureinbelgium David gave a public lecture in the Victor Horta-designed Henry le Boeuf Hall at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels on 22.09.25. Introducing the event, artistic director of @aplusarchitectureinbelgium , @amaryllis_jacobs_ said: “ For David Kohn, architecture protects the openness of decision making, ensuring diverse voices contribute to the outcome. He emphasises that today’s challenge is to navigate tensions and create work that is both exceptional and solution oriented. In a world in constant flux, architecture must be self-aware and adaptable. Yet he believes sustainable design inevitably requires lightness and some humour.” David introduced five ideas that motivate the studio and how they are materialised in five projects. This included our work in Belgium being the recently completed Hasselt Beguinage with @bovenbouw.architectuur and the ongoing @smakgent museum expansion with @noaarchitecten and @cicek_asli Watch the video on YouTube #linkinbio

BOOK LAUNCH TOMORROW, 6pm 19.11.25, @AAbookshop Really looking forward to unveiling our first monograph, “DAVID KOHN ARCHITECTS: STAGES.” Edited by @moritz.kung , designed by @armandmevis , published by @buchhandlungwaltherfranzkoenig , it covers the first 18 years of the studio’s work. It has been a real labour of love, realised over three years. Looking forward to it being out in the world. #stages #davidkohnarchitects