Libeskind’s China boycott a ‘stunt’, says van Egeraat

Speaking in Belfast last month, Libeskind had called on the British profession to think twice about working in the country, revealing that he would not work there or in any other “totalitarian regime”.

But Van Egeraat, who is masterplanning the £2.7 billion redevelopment of east London’s Canning Town, dismissed Libeskind’s stance as simplistic and unhelpful.

The row over working in China was rekindled this week following riots in Tibet and an upcoming lecture series on ethical practice organised by the British branch of Architecture Sans Frontieres.

“I think its pretty easy and general to suddenly point the finger at one country,” Van Egeraat told BD.

“I could say the same thing about Russia, or France, or anywhere. To try and ideologise architecture is totally wrong. You completely overestimate its power. Architecture can be used to promote an ideology — you need to be aware of that — but it doesn’t make the architect or the stone and brick bad.

“To suddenly say, almost as a promotional stunt, ‘I won’t work in China’ — well, he should have done it earlier.”

Nabeel Hamdi, a former UN development adviser who was due to open the Architecture Sans Frontieres lecture series in London on Tuesday, agreed that refusing to work in specific countries was not the right solution.

“It’s not a black and white thing, good guys and bad guys,” he said. “That’s so old fashioned. Where do you stop?”

But he added that there should be more, not less, ideology in architecture.

“The debate is about doing what we need to do to change attitudes and minds. The practical way of doing that is, where possible, to engage people in designing their own environment and through that, to give them a voice and beginning to change things.”