Twinly talented.

Sickening it is really. Ace New Zealand practice, Architecture Workshop, not only got lots of gongs last year--including a prize in our own ar+d awards--but it runs a pretty-much exemplary site at www.archwksp.co.nz. You could also try www.architectureworkshop.co.nz and you get the same result. They reckoned a shorter alternative version was a user-friendly idea. Quite right--and you can change the type size to suit the failings of your eyes. And it runs perfectly happily under Mozilla Firefox--the rather more secure alternative browser to Internet Explorer. And there is not a lot of irrelevant padding. Even the 'my thoughts' section (no they don't call it that), much beloved of architectural practices which fondly imagine that lots of 'deep' thinking will somehow improve numbers in the client list, even this is relatively cant-free--although there is an imaginative use of the hitherto unknown verb 'to image' which I take means to draw, depict or even design. Maybe their writer should take a look at www.adrianjames.co.uk for complete textual clarity and brevity. Too frequently simple and clear sites are vehicles for pretty ordinary architecture. That is absolutely not, I am happy to report, the case with the Architecture Workshop.

Sutherland Lyall brings in the New Year with some refreshing sites to help clear away the Yuletide cobwebs.