Sitting in the drawing room of the Mexican Ambassador’s residence in Belgravia, along with a variety of critics, curators and other architects – having been invited to attend the launch of both Sordo Madaleno’s new monograph and recently established London studio – I thought I might not be alone in entertaining a benign curiosity about the context and circumstances of the event. In fact, I know I wasn’t alone, as one of my fellow attendees asked Javier Sordo Madaleno directly:“Why London?” In this critic’s view the UK is benighted by overregulation and the apparent freedom available to architects in other countries, in this case Mexico, makes the opening of a studio here a somewhat surprising choice. This is a flawed argument, freighted with assumptions, but one which nonetheless fails to undermine that fundamental question.

…