The Age of Spectacle: Tom Dyckhoff and Oliver Wainwright

Does money alone make an icon? Tom Dyckhoff tells the story of the radical transformation of cities into places where vast sums are pumped into creating ‘iconic’ architecture on a scale that has never been seen before. What will be the consequences of this? Oliver Wainwright, architecture and design critic of The Guardian, asks the questions.

Tom Dyckhoff is architecture and design critic for BBC2's weekly arts magazine programme, The Culture Show. He was previously architecture critic of The Times. He wrote and presented a documentary on ugly buildings, I Love Carbuncles, and co-presented two series of Grand Designs: Trade Secrets, the spin-off series from the popular property show. His seven-part BBC2 series, Saving Britain's Past, examined Britain's obsession with heritage. He has written for The Guardian, the Sunday Telegraph, GQ, Arena, Blueprint, the V&A Magazine and Icon.

Oliver Wainwright is the architecture and design critic of The Guardian. He trained as an architect at the University of Cambridge and the Royal College of Art, and worked in a number of practices, including OMA in Rotterdam, muf in London, and the Architecture and Urbanism Unit of the Greater London Authority. He has written extensively on architecture and design for a wide range of international publications, from Building Design and the Architects' Journal, to Icon, Domus and Frieze. He has served as curatorial advisor to the Architecture Foundation and is a regular visiting critic and lecturer at a number of architecture schools, including Harvard, Yale and the Architectural Association.

Enjoy food and drink purchased from the Knowledge Centre Bar from 18.00 and after the event until the Bar closes at 22.00.