Blueprint is an architecture

Architecture

Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 and design magazine that has been published in the UK

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 on a monthly basis since 1983.

It offers a mix of criticism, news and feature writing on design and architecture, directed at professionals and non-professionals alike.

'Blueprint takes architecture and design as its starting point and brings these thing into sharp focus via context, comment and analysis. Architecture and design do not exist in a vacuum.’

- Johnny Tucker, Blueprint Editor

The magazine takes a parallel approach to the different design disciplines, reflecting a belief that fashion, product, furniture and architectural design can share ideas. Its website is built around a daily-updated discussion blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

 and monthly editorial newsletter.

The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

 newspaper in December 2006 described Blueprint as a 'design and architecture bible'.

History

Blueprint was first published in October 1983 by Peter Murray

Peter Murray (architect)

Peter Gerald Stewart Murray is a British architect and journalist who has made a career in architectural communications and surface design....

. It was launched and funded by major UK design world figures including Terence Conran

Terence Conran

Sir Terence Orby Conran, FCSD, is an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer.-Early life and education:Terence Conran was born in Kingston upon Thames, the son of Christina Mabel and South African-born Gerard Rupert Conran, a businessman who owned a rubber importation company in East...

, Marcello Minale, Brian Tattersfield, and Richard Rogers

Richard Rogers

Richard George Rogers, Baron Rogers of Riverside CH Kt FRIBA FCSD is a British architect noted for his modernist and functionalist designs....

.

In 1983, Murray noticed a hole in the market for an inspirational magazine that presented lavish images and a critical analysis of the industry. He enlisted Sunday Times architecture critic Deyan Sudjic

Deyan Sudjic

Deyan Sudjic is director of the Design Museum, London, England.Before moving to his post at the Design Museum, he contributed to Schoolkids OZ, was the design and architecture critic for The Observer, the Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at Kingston University and Co-Chair of the...

 as editor, who in turn recruited a team of young, astute writers including Jonathan Glancey

Jonathan Glancey

Jonathan Glancey is an architectural critic and writer who is the architecture and design editor at The Guardian, a position he has held since 1997. He previously held the same post at The Independent. He also has been involved with the architecture magazines Building Design, Architectural Review,...

, James Woudhuysen, Rowan Moore

Rowan Moore

Rowan Moore is an architecture critic. He is the brother of the journalist and newspaper editor Charles Moore. He trained as an architect at Cambridge, but, having gone into practice, turned to journalism. He has been editor of the architecture journal Blueprint, and has written for the Evening...

, Martin Pawley, and Rick Poynor

Rick Poynor

Rick Poynor is a British writer on design, graphic design, typography and visual culture. He began as a general visual arts journalist, working on Blueprint magazine in London. After founding Eye magazine , which he edited from 1990 to 1997, he focused increasingly on visual communication...

. Sudjic continued to edit Blueprint until 1994.

Blueprint's subsequent contributors have included philosopher Edward Harcourt, novelist JG Ballard, cultural critic James Heartfield

James Heartfield

James Heartfield is a British journalist who writes and lectures on economic regeneration. Heartfield is director of the think-tank Audacity.org, and a former member and theoretician of the Revolutionary Communist Party....

 and art critic Matthew Collings

Matthew Collings

-Life and career:In one of his books on art, Collings states that, in his early teenage years, he ran away to Canada. This act was preceded by a period of hanging around in a house in Oakley Street, Chelsea, whose residents included members of various rock bands including Mighty Baby and Family...

. It has been edited by Sudjic, (who, since 2006, has been director of the London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 Design Museum

Design Museum

Design Museum is a museum by the River Thames near Tower Bridge in central London, England. The museum covers product, industrial, graphic, fashion and architectural design. It was founded in 1989 and claims to be the first museum of modern design...

), architect and critic Rowan Moore

Rowan Moore

Rowan Moore is an architecture critic. He is the brother of the journalist and newspaper editor Charles Moore. He trained as an architect at Cambridge, but, having gone into practice, turned to journalism. He has been editor of the architecture journal Blueprint, and has written for the Evening...

, Marcus Field and Grant Gibson.

The editor since 2004 has been architecture and design journalist Vicky Richardson

Vicky Richardson

Vicky Richardson is an architecture and design journalist. She is currently the editor of leading architecture and design magazine Blueprint.Having studied fine art at Central St Martins and Chelsea School of Art and Design, she went on to gain a BA in architecture at the University of Westminster...

, who is on the boards of the Architecture Centre Network and the Campaign for Drawing, and is a member of London Mayor Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson

Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is a British journalist and Conservative Party politician, who has been the elected Mayor of London since 2008...

's Cultural Strategy Group.

In October 2006 the redesign of Blueprint was launched. Patrick Myles and Kieran Gardner were the lead designers behind the relaunch. Tim Abrahams also contributed to the re-design.

Patrick Myles's professional connection with Blueprint stems back to the early Nineties at Wordsearch, a design consultancy run by Peter Murray.