Articles by James Wormald

Popping down to a high-street bank branch to pay in a cheque, get out some cash or even open an account are to-do list tasks of the past. With almost all financial services now available online and digital transactions taking more of the market share (up from 28% to 41% from 2019 to 2022), more and more retail branches are shutting up shop.

Hidden in plain sight, ceilings are often the final surface interior designers and architects think about, but the expansive plane of unobstructed plaster or concrete offers mar more creative freedom than we realize. Modern design rules demand that the ceiling is kept clean. Not with a telescopic mop attachment, but by stripping off the popcorn spray, wood-chip wallpaper, or plaster patterning that haunt my own memories of ceilings-past.

The most important rule for a kitchen backsplash to stand by is right there in the name. An imperative part of kitchen design, backsplashes are there to guard walls and unreachable undercabinet space from problematic stains, splashes, and spills. They also, however, represent a useful creative outlet for kitchen designers and interior architects.

Sunshine has been an integral part of life ever since the sun and the earth began their merry dance. The feel-good ambiance provided by natural light is a recurring theme in human culture, from popular music, fashion, and photography, to our most luxurious environments.

Falling in love is easy. When eyes meet tufting over a crowded showroom, the beauty of a sofa’s slender legs, soft fabric skin, and inviting curves are like a siren song, blinding you from the truth. Then, six-eight weeks after the night before, the bubble bursts.

I’ve written before about my preference for showers over baths in the sanitation stakes. An instant hit of hygiene therapy, they’re quicker, cleaner, more energy efficient, and use less water than their horizontal siblings.

The role of a school is to prepare children for life. But with life-changing faster than ever, schools need to change just as quickly. Recent additions to school curriculums reflect the complexities of modern life, with environmental crises, societal injustices, and the dangers of social media now major parts of the syllabus.

Better for sight, better for eyes, better for health, and better for moods, natural light is understandably the majority’s favored method of illumination, but it’s an uncontrollable resource. It can be increased with larger windows, open-plan interiors, and reflective or light-hued surfaces, but ultimately, when those cold winter nights draw in, the majority of our time is spent fumbling around in the dark.

When lockdowns first hit and retailers were forced to shut up shop, many took to the digital high street instead, with those investing hardest and quickest in their online personas invariably winning the battle for our bookmarks. As the world opened again, some kept both their physical and digital presence in a hybrid model, while others chose to remove themselves from bricks and mortar altogether.

Timber is a natural, renewable material, easy to fabricate, and with low-carbon emissions. As a construction material, however, when put under enough directional force along its grain, sawn timber is structurally unstable, so deemed unsuitable under higher loads. In comparison, the manufacture of cross-laminated timber (CLT) involves simply gluing multiple layers of timber together at right angles. By crossing the direction of the grains, CLT achieves a far higher level of structural rigidity along both axes. CLT boards start with a minimum of three layers but can be strengthened further with the addition of more. Simply put, due to the complex physics involved in the perpendicular lamination, the strength of CLT board is similar to that of reinforced concrete, and has proven performance under seismic forces.