Ken Worpole

Ken Worpole is a writer on architecture, landscape, planning, design, and social history. He was a founder-member of openDemocracy, and is a senior professor at The Cities Institute, London Metropolitan University. His many books include Modern Hospice Design: The Architecture of Palliative Care (Routledge, 2009); Contemporary Library Architecture: a planning and design guide (Routledge, April 2013); and 350 Miles: An Essex Journey, with photographer Jason Orton (2005, still available at £7.95). His website is here

Living on water: welcome to a shedboatshed world

The choice of Simon Starling as the winner of Britains premier visual arts award, the Turner Prize, was a triumph for ideas, if not aesthetics. Starlings signature installation,

By Ken Worpole

/ 14 Dec 2005

Saraband: from Dalarna to Dallas, and back

Some years ago the Italian writer Claudio Magris gave a lecture in London about art and (un)happiness, drawing attention to the paradox whereby artists often portray the tragedy of

By Ken Worpole

/ 15 Nov 2005

The worlds first environmental blogger

Ken Worpoles writing on openDemocracy includes: Stockholm Woodland Cemetery (January 2003) Essex shores, Essex lives (September 2003) Death in the Luxembourg gardens (October 2003) There is nothing, then there

By Ken Worpole

/ 29 Aug 2005

There is nothing, then there is something, then there is nothing again

If I could choose only one book on the planet, it would be this book, said Dr Iona Heath, a Camden GP for nearly thirty years, flourishing a copy of

By Ken Worpole

/ 5 May 2005

A problem with drink?

Over the past year the Ecology & Place theme of openDemocracy.net has given much attention to the food people eat, the rituals which attend its preparation and consumption, its

By Ken Worpole

/ 29 Dec 2003

The afterlife of bodies: a reply to Tiffany Jenkins

Tiffany Jenkinss defence of the right of western museums to retain human remains excavated from former colonial territories lacks any kind of historical or cultural perspective, or indeed any

By Ken Worpole

/ 11 Dec 2003

Death in the Luxembourg Gardens

Death is never far from the surface in many cities. The familiar streets and buildings have too frequently in the past witnessed violent religious programmes, political insurrections and their brutal

By Ken Worpole

/ 8 Oct 2003

Essex shores, Essex lives

In recent years it has been hard to find someone with a kind word to say about Essex, that obdurate county to the east of London. It has become the

By Ken Worpole

/ 24 Sep 2003

Landscapes and farewells

Landscape is of little value but as it hints or expresses the thoughts of man. "Harvest Moon", by Samuel Palmer (1805-1881) In the past few months at openDemocracy

By Ken Worpole

/ 9 Jan 2003

Landscape and identity in a globalised world

The attachment to landscape is part of the identity of every individual and every culture. The familiar streets, squares, parks, canals, fields and hills of childhood are an integral part

By Roger Scruton and Ken Worpole

/ 4 Jun 2002

How you travel is who you are

The world, it seems, is constantly on the move. People routinely travel more, and farther, than in any previous era in history, and huge material and social infrastructures are needed

By Ken Worpole

/ 8 Nov 2001

After planning: movement within settlement

The aesthetics of planning We hope that we have opened up the debate over planning a debate that has been either prematurely closed or strategically avoided by those charged with

By Roger Scruton and Ken Worpole

/ 24 Oct 2001