OK, more is more.

I bang on about the virtues of simplicity for architectural practice websites, less is more, that sort of stuff. Not that I won't continue to do exactly that. But right now I have the website of fashionably Hoxton-based practice Douglas and King (at www.douglasandking.com) stretched all the way across a couple of big widescreen monitors listening to enigmatic rumbles, a mixture of the growl of that death star in Doom 1 with a hint of gurgling water plus randomly released steam--and thinking up what other visual and aural effects they could incorporate. I can slide and scroll the whole site this way and that, moving illustrated boxes around in case they obscure something I've missed, and feeling just incredibly cheerful. You can change the size of type--but not in the conventional way. You can even let the site access your camera and microphone, though you wonder where that might lead. OK, these are standard Flash things. But look. As a means of getting signed up with lots of suits for shopping centre projects in Vilnius and Sutton Goldfield, this is a non-starter. As a mad, rambling, slightly austere, dreamlike pleasure it's the dog's bollocks. Two things. One: these guys have a special talent for the slightly surreal. Two: try to hook up a second screen to get the full benefit. And give me a moment before the next item. I can't bear to close this down.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

As the nights draw in, Sutherland Lyall snuggles up and loses himself in cyberspace.