Building Design

About Building Design

Building Design — universally known as BD — is Britain's leading online platform for architectural news, analysis and commentary. For 44 years it was also a weekly print magazine: launched in 1970 as a gossipy, news-driven tabloid rival to the more staid architectural press, it was delivered free to almost every registered architect in the country, and became essential reading for the profession. In 2014 its publisher ended the print edition and BD became a digital-only publication; today bdonline.co.uk continues its mission as the news service of record for British architecture.

BD's history mirrors the transformation of architectural publishing in the digital age: from a free-circulation weekly built on recruitment advertising, through a controversial switch to a paid subscription model in 2010, to its reinvention as an online intelligence service for architects. Along the way it has launched some of British architecture's most talked-about institutions — including the Carbuncle Cup, the prize for the UK's worst new building. Below is a detailed profile of the publication: its founding, its editors, its business model, its campaigns and its digital present.

History and Founding

Building Design was launched in 1970 by the publisher Morgan-Grampian as a weekly magazine for architects and the construction industry. It was conceived as a gossipy, news-driven rival to the more staid Architects' Journal — then a weekly — and its monthly sister publication, the Architectural Review. Where the Architectural Press titles were glossy and establishment-minded, BD was a tabloid newspaper: newsy, gossipy and informal, with a business model based largely on recruitment advertising.

The formula worked. Based on free circulation and a rising jobs market, BD was, in the words of its former editor Paul Finch, "near-revolutionary in its approach to the world of architectural publishing as represented at the time by Architectural Press". Through the 1980s the tabloid-style weekly prospered, becoming the paper that architects actually read each week — the first with the profession's news, gossip, appointments and projects.

The Free-Circulation Years

For four decades BD's defining feature was its distribution: it went out free to the best part of 30,000 registered architects across the UK. This gave it an unrivalled reach within the profession — it was, as one commentator put it, read and respected by just about everyone in UK architecture. The free model was sustained by recruitment advertising, as architectural practices competed for staff in the boom years and filled BD's pages with job advertisements.

The magazine's newsroom culture matched its tabloid format: fast, competitive and irreverent, with a nose for the stories — the feuds, the sackings, the controversial planning decisions — that the profession talked about. BD broke news about the business of architecture as well as its buildings, covering practice, procurement, regulation and the economics of the profession alongside design.

Editors

Among BD's most influential editors was Paul Finch, who edited the magazine for 11 years and went on to become editorial director of the rival Architects' Journal, as well as a leading figure in British architectural life — chair of the Design Council's Cabe and a prominent commentator on the profession. Amanda Baillieu was editor in 2009 when BD announced its move to a paid-for model, telling Dezeen that "the web, and particularly the blogging community, have changed things" and that "the old business model is over".

BD's editors cultivated the magazine's distinctive voice: punchy, opinionated and deeply connected to the profession it served. Its columnists and critics — including the freelance architecture critic Peter Wilson, who wrote perceptively about the title's fate — gave the magazine an intellectual edge to match its newsroom energy.

The End of Free Distribution

In September 2010 BD ended 40 years of free distribution to architects and became a paid-subscription title. The decision was driven by the collapse of the old business model: the internet — and particularly the blogging community and online job advertising — had eroded the recruitment advertising revenues on which the free weekly depended, while the economic downturn had devastated the construction industry. Pagination shrank as advertising disappeared, and the proprietors concluded that free distribution was no longer sustainable.

The move was controversial. Critics argued that asking architects — whose own businesses were under sudden and excessive financial pressure — to pay for a title they had received free for 40 years was unlikely to succeed, and that subscription revenues could never compensate for the almost total disappearance of advertising income. The decision, one commentator wrote, "was always going to end in tears".

Print Comes to an End

In February 2014 the publisher United Business Media announced that it would cease publication of BD's print edition within weeks, in order to focus solely on online output — together with BD stablemates Building and Property Week. The formerly free magazine, sent to registered UK architects each week, became an online-only publication 44 years after it was launched. The move left the Architects' Journal as the UK's only weekly architecture magazine in print.

Paul Finch, writing in his AJ column, called the news "saddening", noting that "journalism and publishing thrive in a competitive environment" and that the decision was "not, therefore, an occasion for gloating". BD described early reports of the closure as speculation and initially refused to comment, but the print edition duly ended and the title continued online.

BD Online

Today Building Design is a digital-only publication based in London, operating through bdonline.co.uk as a leading online platform for architectural news, analysis and commentary. The website publishes daily news about the profession — appointments, projects, planning decisions, competitions and policy — alongside longer analysis, opinion and features. It remains essential reading for architects who want to know what is happening in the business of British architecture.

The digital BD has retained the title's historic strengths: speed, insider knowledge and a willingness to tackle the profession's uncomfortable subjects. Its paywalled content model reflects the economics of specialist digital publishing, with subscriptions aimed at practices and professionals who rely on its intelligence.

The Carbuncle Cup

BD's most famous creation is the Carbuncle Cup, the annual prize for the UK's worst new building — architecture's answer to the Turner Prize's evil twin. The cup, named after Prince Charles's celebrated description of a proposed National Gallery extension as a "monstrous carbuncle", invites readers to nominate the most dismal new buildings of the year, with a shortlist and winner announced amid considerable media coverage.

Past shortlists have included a shopping centre that replaced an iconic Brutalist car park and a controversial tower beside the River Thames. The Carbuncle Cup has become a national institution in its own right, generating debate about the quality of Britain's built environment far beyond the architectural profession — and embodying BD's mischievous, populist spirit.

Campaigns and Initiatives

Beyond the Carbuncle Cup, BD has run a series of campaigns and editorial initiatives celebrating the best of architecture. To mark its 50th birthday in 2020, the magazine published "50 Wonders" — leading architects nominating their favourite buildings, from the Lingotto Factory in Turin and the Pompidou Centre in Paris to Walter Segal's Walters Way housing in Lewisham and Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House in Illinois. The series captured the affection in which the title is held across the profession.

Throughout its history BD has campaigned on the issues that matter to architects: the quality of public procurement, the teaching of architecture, the planning system and the business conditions in which practices operate. Its news agenda has always been set by the profession's real concerns rather than the art world's fashions.

Editorial Focus

BD's editorial focus is the practice and business of architecture in Britain: who is building what, who is hiring and firing, which competitions are being won, what the government is planning, and how the profession is faring. Its coverage spans projects, practice management, regulation, education and the construction industry, with analysis and commentary aimed squarely at working architects.

This distinguishes BD from its rivals: where the Architectural Review pursues international criticism and theory, BD has always been the profession's newspaper — the title architects turn to for intelligence about their own industry. Its online incarnation continues that mission in a digital format.

Legacy

Building Design's 44 years in print left an indelible mark on British architectural culture. It proved that a trade title could be lively, irreverent and widely read; it gave the profession a forum for its news, gossip and arguments; and through the Carbuncle Cup it created one of the few architectural prizes the general public has heard of. Its transition to digital-only publishing in 2014 was one of the defining moments in the transformation of the British architectural press.

As bdonline.co.uk, BD continues to serve the architects who once received it free through their letterboxes — now through their screens. Its official website is bdonline.co.uk.