Four Walls

Do we always use light in the most enlightened ways when designing our homes and offices? And does feeling safely illuminated mean that we have lost the ability to be comfortable in the dark?

Do we always use light in the most enlightened ways when designing our homes and offices? And does feeling safely illuminated mean that we have lost the ability to be comfortable in the dark?

How we stamp our identity on a place and the ways in which people from different cultures adapt their homes in Britain to suit their own needs.

Hot-desking, air-conditioning and badly designed furniture - how much control should we have over the places we work? Does a room with a view open up a vista of possibilities or a wealth of distractions?

How should our cities evolve - as playgrounds, public dwelling-places or shopping malls?

How well designed are public squares, restaurants and pubs.

Courtyards, cloisters and roof terraces - the charms of private domains.

Camper vans and hotel rooms - the charms and the drawbacks of the peripatetic home.

The stress of garish designs, the tranquillity of good acoustics, and the importance of the Calm Corner at home.

Bollards, bus shelters, benches and bins - are we up to date with our choices of furniture for outdoor spaces?

How have architects and designers created centres of live entertainment - from ancient Rome's Colosseum to the Royal Court Theatre today?

How are our places of education built and designed, and do we need antiquity or modernity to create our own learning curve?

The architectural and psychological problems of building, working and living underground - from the horrors of dungeons, crypts and cellars to the delights of modern-day earth-sheltered housing.