More Comment – Page 346
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Opinion
Ian Martin
I look forward to a remake of The Wild One, with Johnny and his gang on a trail of latte-fuelled rudeness through Godalming
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Opinion
Plunging to new depths
In your edition of February 4, I read, and not without despair, that: Hadid’s aquatics centre has “a roof inspired by the flow of water”; Sauerbruch Hutton’s Frankfurt office was “inspired by the natural world”; and Chris Wilkinson’s King’s Dock project was based on “my mobile phone”.Is this the ...
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Opinion
Model potential
Andy Feculak’s letter (February 11) regarding the unsustainability of PRP’s Summit House was based on the incorrect assumption that it would be detached. The example on show at the Sustainable Communities Summit was an end-of-terrace designed to be adaptable to different sites. In a three-storey terraced layout, a typical density ...
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Opinion
What policy?
In response to Robert Booth’s piece on new urbanism (Editorial February 4), I hate to disappoint your readership. If the UK is to adopt a “US-style urban policy”, then welcome to the desert. The US has no urban policy.
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Opinion
Stay composed
How fitting that the RIBA has been inspired to commission music to mark the presentation of the Gold Medal to Frei Otto (Culture February 11). The pre-eminent former Gold Medallist Le Corbusier commissioned Edgar Varese to compose a piece for his Philips Pavilion at the 1958 World Fair in Brussels. ...
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Opinion
Just for the Record
Thank you for publishing the Architectural Heritage Society of Scotland’s concerns regarding refurbishment of Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Daily Record building (News February 11). It is in everyone’s interest to see it back in use, but that doesn't mean accepting something insensitive. Part of the proposal involved the insertion of a ...
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Opinion
LPS is a danger
BD first notified me about problems on the Packington Estate in July 2003 after Islington council warned tenants of the urgent need to remove all gas cookers on safety grounds. The HSE pointed to the fragile nature of the buildings in a risk assessment in September 2003.I was appointed by ...
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Opinion
Missing role model
Your article featuring 12 of the best women architects (Role models February 11) was a good idea, and having worked with Lynne Sullivan at ECD, I agree with her inclusion.However, any such list should include Diana Jowsey at YRM: I doubt whether there are many who know more about healthcare ...
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Opinion
Politicking won’t get Bath Spa built
When it comes to the world’s worst adverts, the Bath Spa project must rank pretty high for the damage it continues to do to the construction industry’s image and two of its bigger players — the architect Grimshaw and the contractor Mowlem.
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Opinion
Massaging egos
I refer to Patrick Lynch’s Soapbox article. He is right that narcissistic egoism drives much contemporary practice.
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Opinion
Straight talking
Patrick Lynch seems to be happier stringing together fancy-sounding, but meaningless sentences than in developing a coherent argument.
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Opinion
Not so sustainable
The designs shown for PRP’s affordable house (News Analysis January 28) seem strangely to miss the point.
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Opinion
Collapse hysteria
I would be the last person to deny Sam Webb a re-run of his 15 minutes of fame at the Ronan Point inquiry.
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Opinion
Arbs blinkers
Deon du Plessis’s fury cannot be uncommon for foreign architecture students seeking qualification in the UK (News February 4).
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Opinion
The dark side
Both Robert Booth’s conversation with Charles Jencks about Philip Johnson (News Analysis February 4) and Andrew Saint’s obituary piece in the Guardian show that many in the architectural world, dazzled by the glamour of the “famous”, might not have been aware of their “other side”. They both suggest that beneath ...
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Opinion
No more architects
Never mind the campaign for more women in architecture, I’m right behind the campaign for fewer architects in architecture.
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Opinion
A dogs life
The “bow wow” factor (Concrete Boots February 4)? What about Lubetkin’s startling originality of roaring, snarling, shrieking architecture? Or Stewart Brand’s “months of glory, years of shame”?There seem to be some who can’t resist the urge to “cock their leg” up against the urban fabric.Martin Valatin, Wiltshire
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Opinion
Totally absorbing
Long & Kentish is a partnership with one male and one female partner. At times, the female partner has been the only female architect in the office. During other (and, as it happens, longer) periods, the male partner was the only man.