Best of 2024: Building Design’s most incisive features and in-depth analysis

Architecture is shaped by big ideas and the pressing need to address the key challenges of our time. Throughout 2024, BD brought readers in-depth features and investigative analysis, exploring the forces, trends, and debates that define the built environment today.

This year, we uncovered the extraordinary stories behind some of the world’s most ambitious architectural projects. Daniel Gayne reported from Barcelona on the completion of La Sagrada Família, examining how architects and craftspeople are bringing Gaudí’s vision to life more than a century after it began. Meanwhile, our exploration of Notre Dame’s restoration revealed how historical preservation meets contemporary ingenuity in one of the most significant rebuilding efforts of recent times.

Closer to home, we tackled some of the profession’s most pressing challenges. Tom Lowe investigated whether an oversupply of architects is driving down fees in an already competitive market, delving into the structural issues that lie behind short-term economic fluctuations. In London, he examined the latest plans for a new wave of skyscrapers in the City, questioning how many of these ambitious proposals will overcome economic and planning hurdles to reshape the capital’s skyline.

Our features also probed architecture’s social value, with Mary Richardson spotlighting Beyond the Box, a social enterprise challenging inequities in procurement and championing diversity in the sector. This theme of accountability and impact ran throughout the year, with stories that interrogated how architecture can better serve communities and adapt to an evolving world.

Below, we’ve curated some of BD’s most incisive features from 2024, offering thought-provoking analysis and investigative reporting. These pieces reflect the big questions shaping architecture today, providing insights from a wide range of voices and perspectives.

Take a moment to explore these highlights and revisit the key debates of the past year.

Is an oversupply of architects driving down fees?

A rocky few years in development markets and a recent downturn in construction have left architecture practices competing for dwindling work. But do longer-term structural issues underlie this situation? Tom Lowe reports.

Is the City set for a new tower boom?

At least 18 major schemes are planned for a small area around Bishopsgate, including some of the tallest buildings in the capital. But how many will actually get built? Tom Lowe talks to some of the biggest players in the City’s commercial sector about what lies behind the latest cycle of development and what might hold it back.

‘We hope to be a good neighbour’: how the new Liverpool Street station team is rethinking London’s most controversial project

A week after Herzog & de Meuron’s divisive proposals were dropped, Tom Lowe spoke to Network Rail and the scheme’s new architect Acme about their £1bn redesign of the listed station’s proposed overhaul, and what exactly has happened to development partner Sellar.

Not in my Brick Lane: Truman Brewery’s uphill struggle to win support for development plans

The last time the East End land owner tried to bring change to the iconic London thoroughfare, it was met by fierce resistance. With even more ambitious plans now lodged with the council, what are the odds of them winning the locals over? Alex Funk went to find ou.

It’s M&S’s Oxford Street neighbour – and it’s being refurbished, not demolished

The former House of Fraser store is just half a mile from the M&S flagship which the retailer controversially wants to knock down and rebuild. Thomas Lane meets the team to find out how they are making the refurbishment work.