New designs on London
For an older generation of architects, the architectural leftovers of postwar Brutalism embody the absolute nadir of the welfare state. But for younger architects the aggressive concrete forms are a welcome antidote to the saccharine Disney-inspired structures of today. Central to the debate are the Robin Hood Gardens, a sprawling East London housing complex designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in the 1960s. The British government wants to demolish the complex, surrounded by a ring of forbidding concrete walls, with a large courtyard centred on a big mound of grass inside. Conservationists disagree.

Irish tongue, endangered species
Irish, often called Gaelic, is one of thousands of “endangered languages” worldwide. Though it is Ireland’s official tongue, there are only about 30,000 fluent speakers left, down from 250,000 when the country was founded in 1922.

Irish schools teach the language as a core subject, but outside a few enclaves in western Ireland, it is rare for families to speak it at home.

“There’s the gap between being able to speak Irish and actually speaking it on a daily basis,” said Brian

O’Conchubhair, an assistant professor of Irish studies at the University of Notre Dame who grew up learning Irish in school. “It’s very hard to find it in the cities; it’s like a hidden culture.”

Irish is expected to survive at least through this century, but half of the world’s almost 7,000 remaining languages may disappear by 2100, experts say. Last month, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) launched an online atlas of endangered languages, labelling more than 2,400 at risk of extinction.

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