More Comment – Page 370
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Opinion
Sleeping beauties
I wonder if this note of clarification might help to convey the more positive sentiments that perhaps were not fully expressed in my article (Peer Pressure May 14).The Royal Lancaster Hotel badly needs the makeover that it is beginning to get under Eric Parry’s guidance. True, the limitations of the ...
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OpinionAll shook up
What a shame Frank Gehry’s site agent got all the MIT drawings in such a muddle (News May 14).
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Opinion
Call the doctor
Architecture student and Dr Who fan Jake Theunissen has built a life-size Tardis in his back garden. The 28-year-old, who lives near Wrexham, built the plywood tribute to the Time Lord after downloading plans from the Internet. The model Tardis, which does not travel through time and is no bigger ...
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Opinion
Into the lions’ den
A public inquiry being held in a zoo? Wilkinson Eyre Architects’ scheme for a visitor centre at the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol is being challenged by local residents on road safety grounds, and, apparently, nearby Bristol Zoo really is the most convenient location for the two-day hearing.The other explanation, ...
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Opinion
Bob’s your uncle
British Foreign Office buildings in Baghdad are all called Bob, it was revealed this week. In language reminiscent of the classic TV sitcom Dad’s Army, a London civil servant told BD that Bob stands for British Office Baghdad, and there are four such facilities, distinguished simply by the addition of ...
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Opinion
Trophy architect
Frank Gehry got a less than glowing reception last week when he unveiled his new designs for an ice hockey world cup trophy. The Canadian-born architect is a massive ice hockey fan, and the commission must have been a dream come true. But the press did not like it one ...
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Opinion
Home from home
Opposition to the government’s plans to build 200,000 homes in the South-east has a new social strata of shock troops. The posh activists, including billionaire venture capitalist Ben Goldsmith, son of the legendary tycoon James, and Lady Tracy, Marchioness of Worcester, have formed the Manuka club to fight Prescott’s plan. ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
Every architecture critic in the world is gathered. It's like the Teddy Bears' Picnic, with the same sewn-in expressions
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Opinion
The daft declaration
"The Delft Declaration" has the ring of an announcement designed to reverberate through history. But the portentous-sounding communication from the heads of architecture schools is far from that.
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OpinionRab Bennetts
Rab Bennetts was part of the RIBA team reviewing the institute's competitions process. We asked him what the problems were and what should be done
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Opinion
Time to stand up for the suburbs
Your article "The 'burbs bite back" (April 30), which reinforces the subject of my postgraduate studies, brings to light the importance of addressing suburbia as a housing condition in opposition to the predominant focus of the architectural profession in the urban domain or the bespoke house in the countryside.If we ...
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Opinion
Shard stance
Shard developer James Sellar was reported as saying that Cabe “had an agenda to make a stand for Cabe Space” in criticising plans for the public space around the Shard (News April 30). Cabe’s comments have been consistent since the scheme was first reviewed in 2000 – three years before ...
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Opinion
Serving the rich
I was interested to see Nec Teymur’s response to Charles Jencks’s plea for a moral stance by architects (Letters May 7). The fact of the matter is that architectural practice seems devoid of any kind of moral imperative. As Teymur points out, architects go where the money is, whether it ...
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Opinion
Say no to samey
While I quite agree with Robert Booth and David Lock (Editorial and News April 30) that we must pursue specificity not global sameyness, I must point out that he was not "the original masterplanner of Milton Keynes". This was, of course, the Llewelyn-Davies team, myself included.Lessons from Milton Keynes (when ...
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Opinion
A sound solution
Following your article “Heavenly sounds” (Solutions May 7) and the piece on Arup Acoustics’ Sound lab (Technical March 26), which both highlight the potential use of sound in architectural spaces, we thought that you might be interested in our experience.As architectural sound designers, our company Liminal, has carried out a ...
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Opinion
Doolan: a sad loss
Andrew Doolan’s death (News April 30) has certainly robbed Scottish culture and the architectural fraternity of one of its most gifted practitioners.A millionaire and largely self-taught, here was someone who dreamed and then built what he dreamed. No doubt it was not as simple as that, but to those of ...
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Opinion
In praise of resin
I was mortified to read of a fly getting caught in James Soane’s floor (Solutions April 30), but I must put the record straight. I love my resin floor, which was laid onto a standard 50-year-old screed, about six months ago. It not only looks gorgeous, but it is very ...
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Opinion
Derry sorry
I note from your piece (News April 30) that the Playhouse, Artillery Street, Derry, has relocated to Derby (twice), which will come as quite a shock to all concerned. An interesting piece of relocation restoration indeed. Derry is a small city in Northern Ireland: you might have heard of it, ...
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Opinion
Bum rap
Archigram legend Peter Cook amused himself and his audience at the RIAS annual conference on Friday with his Carry On-style humour. Talking about his recent “friendly alien” art gallery in Graz, Austria, Cook preferred to call it a “naughty animal”.“In my naughtier moments, I call it a bum on a ...
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Opinion
Slap of honour
Cook also provided one of the event's more farcical moments when he met self-confessed flavour of the month Shih-fu Peng. The winner of the Egyptian museum competition sidled up to the Bartlett professor to shake his hand. Unfortunately, Cook evidently had no idea who the younger man was. "That's Shih-fu ...