David Knight

Other Plans #2: Juniper Hill A ‘squatted’ hamlet encircling a public house.

Other Plans #2 explores a squatted settlement on former common land in Oxfordshire, where the houses cluster around the public house. knightdavid.substack.com/p/other-plan...

On Colin Ward Celebrating the anarchist thinker and 'propagandist' in a text originally delivered at the Garden Museum, London, in 2014.

An old text this time (2014!) celebrating Colin Ward, originally written to be delivered at the Garden Museum in London. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

A Sanctuary: New Writing & Artwork Inspired by Victor B. Neuburg and the Vine Press A beautiful, extremely limited edition, zine-style publication of academic research, poetry & artwork inspired by the 1920s poet, publisher...

@oldweirdalbion.bsky.social is bringing the Steyning-based Vine Press back to life and fundraising via sales of this wonderful anthology about the world of the Vine Press, Victor Neuburg and Vera Pragnell: oldweirdalbion.bigcartel.com/product/a-sa...

A tribute to Robert Venturi on the centenary of his birth. His work continues to inspire me and I recently wrote an essay exploring his use of mirrors, doubling and copies. Here is the sublime Trubek House, a complex, awkward and difficult little object, but also beautiful and perfectly realised.

Blackwater Side Podcast Episode · Fire Draw Near · 20/06/2025 · 52m

absolutely exquisite episode of @firedrawnear.bsky.social this time - Blackwater Side podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/f...

The Spring Line | David Knight | Substack The Spring Line is a collection of illustrated writings by David Knight. It mixes fiction and non-fiction to explore the built environment and how it is made. Click to read The Spring Line, by David K...

In the past month or so I have been trying to write more on the built environment, here: open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Other Plans #1: Laine A piece of town defined by agriculture

OTHER PLANS is an occasional series of short essays on alternative methods or tactics of planning. I’ve been collecting these for 15 years and am now writing them up. The first is about Brighton’s North Laine, structured by its origins as an agricultural landscape. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Haress. Acid Horse Festival 2025. The Barge, Honey Street, Wiltshire

“I don’t feel like I want to go louder. I feel like I want to go deeper and broader, rather than projecting out. It’s like you want to get right into the ground and the shape of the hills...”

#Haress Interviewed

buff.ly/q70xXns

My most recent short essay on the Spring Line is about the urgent need to conserve buildings which speak of Britain's history of self-build and plotland development.
knightdavid.substack.com/p/handmade-h...

Why we should urgently be acting to protect, conserve and documenting our remaining plotland dwellings and their close cousins open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Mean Building Cultural hegemony at the birth of British statutory planning

I have tidied up and refocussed a lost fragment of my phd as a short(er) piece about the politics of early planning, and its complex power structures and elitisms. It is called Mean Building. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Low Culture Podcast: Ghost Stories Of An Antiquary, by M.R. James | The Quietus Crumpets and sherry dear subscriber? Would you like to pull your chair closer to the roaring log fire? Are you comfortable with your slippered feet up on that pouffe? Well, in that case John and Luke ...

This brilliant @thequietus.com conversation on M. R. James explores his influence and connections, and @luketurner.bsky.social comes up with the excellent phrase ‘dolmen for goalposts’ when discussing the risks of tweeness in folk nostalgia. thequietus.com/subscriber-a...

Excellent review of a magical record, Shirley Collins’ ‘southern journey’ through the music of Sussex recorded before her southern journey into the US to record folk song with Alan Lomax. Remarkable, potent stuff.

Bungalow Town (an extract) The text that follows purports to be an edited extract from the journal of Sussex local historian Edward Moderlove (1888-1956), dated May 1921.

‘I moved past them, window to window, carriage to carriage, such that I had the curious sensation of standing motionless on a platform with the train steadily departing, the mysterious lives of its diverse passengers glimpsed only for a moment as they passed.’ open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

DEEDS An essay exploring alternative and opportunistic land practices, resurrecting historical models such as Whiteway Colony, Ruigoord and Beaulieu Rails as precedents for action in the present.

I wrote, a little while ago, about alternative land practices from history. DEEDS is up now on my substack, thank you Clare Cumberlidge for the original commission. open.substack.com/pub/knightda...

Bad results and carbon intensive results too.

Liquid horticulture!

Lovely review by @luketurner.bsky.social of Ken Worpole’s new collection of essays. @littletollerbooks.bsky.social

Vanity Fair article snippet against Welcome To Twin Peaks sign spot location

What a fantastic article from Mike Hogan with @vanityfair.com for the 35th Anniversary of #TwinPeaks. I spoke with Mike during the Real Twin Peaks 2025 event. His article is a wonderful look back and turns a spotlight on friends who love the show as much as I do. www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/st...

Plotlands with David Knight: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E3 Architect David Knight talks about the makeshift communities called 'plotlands', the anarchist writer Colin Ward who championed them and the way they inspire placemaking today.

…the previous episode, featuring @drdavidknight.bsky.social on plotlands and their champion, anarchist writer Colin Ward, is also a fascinating listen

open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...

The New English Landscape with Ken Worpole: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E4 The influential writer and social historian talks about his life and his new book, Brightening from the East: Essays on Landscape and Memory

“Landscape is a combination of the human world and the natural world and therefore people are very important in it” hard recommend for the great Ken Worpole on the @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social podcast…

open.substack.com/pub/uncannyl...

Listening to you and Ken now @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social - so good that these two chats have followed each other!

Plotlands with David Knight: Uncanny Landscapes podcast S2E3 Architect David Knight talks about the makeshift communities called 'plotlands', the anarchist writer Colin Ward who championed them and the way they inspire placemaking today.

An interview with me by Justin Hopper @oldweirdalbion.bsky.social on his brilliant Uncanny Landscapes podcast - plotlands, obscure planning history, everyday anarchism and place fiction.

Bravo @drtombolton.bsky.social on #RichardDawson’s new masterpiece: ‘it is increasingly apparent that human connection… is the only thing that matters, & also the hardest. Dawson’s music propels us into its deep meanings, & shows us that the places we fail to examine are where we will find meaning’

the books look structural.

What should the Grenfell memorial look like? History has some answers | Neal Shasore Whatever stands in the tower’s footprint should be inspired by the community – and remind us that such a tragedy must never happen again, says heritage advocate Neal Shasore

What should the Grenfell memorial look like? History has some answers | Neal Shasore

Västerortskyrkan (1956), Vällingby, Stockholm - Carl Nyrén & Bertil Engstrand

Writers, musicians, actors & other creators strongly oppose upending copyright law to favour AI companies, as suggested in the UK's AI Opportunities Action Plan.

As Kate Mosse says, seeking economic growth "cannot be on the basis of theft of our work".

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

It feels like spotting potholes may be the one thing the UK’s got covered. Bloody hell.

‘Mainlined into UK’s veins’: Labour announces huge public rollout of AI Plans to make UK world leader in AI sector include opening access to NHS and other public data

Where are these words 'unleashed' and "mainlined" coming from?
It's times like this all that time spent watching Cronenberg and Black Mirror kicks in, so just no. The poverty & desperation of this bullshit initiative at such a dangerous juncture is breathtaking.

www.theguardian.com/politics/202...