In Beyond the Frame Chris explores the relationship between architecture and film. Each piece explores a single subject: homes, sets, trains, ruins, visions of the future and more. Twenty four have been hosted by Interiors Journal and The Big Picture; some were also published in the latter's printed magazine.
Trehearne Architects donated their historic project archive to Chris, comprising thousands of aperture cards and dozens of rolls of 35mm film holding microfiche copies of plans and other material. It awaits indexing and scanning, whch require funding.
For Excuses and Half Truths, the blog of colourist and writer Rob Wickings, Chris analysed the seminal anime series Bubble Gum Crisis, in which an all-female vigilante group fight a corrupt corporation in the Japan of the future.
Chris wrote Brand X - about fictional brands in films - for The Big Picture. Each article adopts a different format: a flying car review for a car magazine, a stock market report using companies from science fiction films and a Wired-style interview with Eldon Tyrell from Blade Runner.
A two-part analysis (for Excuses and Half Truths again) of how the three Patlabor anime films say as much about the socio-political history of Japan since the war as they do about the future in which they are set.
A piece on World War Z for Little White Lies looked at the making of the movie and its meaning in relation to other apocalyptic films, many of which reflected the concerns of their own times.
This piece for Excuses and Half Truths assesses Miami Vice, Michael Mann's 2006 film version of the television crime series that made his name, and finds the important differences between the two.
For the London Festival of Architecture 2017, Aukett Swanke quoted from Chris's research on atriums (see below) for their display at the Royal Exchange showing how the firm's constituent practices have deployed and defined the feature over the last 40 years. (Photo: Agnese Sanvito).
The Barbican arts centre in the City of London has worked with Chris several times, including commissioning a walk to tie in with their craft season. Chris looked at the use of materials in buildings around the local area.
The Chief Magistrate of England & Wales commissioned Chris to write this pamphlet to mark the closure of Bow Street Magistrates' Court in 2006. Placing the legal and architectural history of the world-famous institution in its social and political context, it was exclusively available to guests at a commemorative reception. The building opened as the NoMad London hotel in 2021.
Chris’s submission to magCulture’s My Favourite Magazine project, in which creatives from around the world were canvassed on the meaning to them of a specific issue of a given periodical, was chosen for the finished publication. It was sold to help the recovery of art director Robert Newman.
Chris’s essay Opening Up The Square Mile: Fitzroy Robinson and the Atrium closes the Twentieth Century's peer-reviewed Journal 14 on commercial architecture in Britain. The piece explores the atrium buildings designed by the architectural practice Fitzroy's (now part of AukettSwanke) in the City of London from the 1970s, including Britain's first new building with the feature.