More Comment – Page 279
-
OpinionMaking a point
Chetwood Associates’ tree-like installation, Urban Oasis, seems to have taken on a life of its own.
-
Opinion
Ominous slip
The lavish press launch of Zaha Hadid’s Opus building almost took a disastrous turn at the Lanesborough Hotel on Tuesday.
-
OpinionCzech mate
The campaign against Future Systems’ proposed Prague Library got personal last week after a Czech magazine quoted Jan Kaplicky’s helpful remark that he was not homosexual, Jewish, English or rich, but just a Slav from undeveloped Eastern Europe.
-
Opinion
Winding down
Star speaker Will Alsop was in a playful mood at Friday’s All Planned Out conference at the Building Centre.
-
OpinionSpaced out
Another housing report, the Williams Report (BD May 18), comes from more very worthy practitioners hoping that good design will triumph in the mass housing market to put the sea of mediocrity firmly into the past.
-
Opinion
Pie in the sky
Your photograph of the infamous three 14-storey slab blocks in sixties Everton (“A century of housing” May 18) brought back many memories.
-
Opinion
Trend setter
The illustration to your note on Airey houses is actually of a Seco timber-framed temporary bungalow. Although designed for a 15-year life, many examples remain, well-loved by their inhabitants and consistently defended by them against demolition.
-
Opinion
Valuable legacy
Your front page last week was the clearest reminder of the importance of Colin St John Wilson’s written and built legacy of a caring and reasoned architecture in a profession increasingly complicit in its own emasculation as a serious and humanising cultural force.
-
Opinion
Poverty track
Your leader correctly points out that the Practice Question (May 20) “offers some sound observations and useful suggestions,” but the poverty of most architects relative to doctors and solicitors is far from new.
-
OpinionWe must prepare for a post-green world
Architecture should take a tip from the fashion industry and push the next big thing before eco-fatigue sets in, says Ian Martin
-
OpinionKitchens inflame passions too
This week’s white paper on planning is well- intentioned but has not been fully thought through
-
OpinionMore than just an architect
As we grapple with today’s demands, the breadth of interests that made Sandy Wilson are all the more valuable
-
OpinionA tip, Mr Armitt: time is running out
At last the ODA has a chairman, an authoritative one at that. Now can we get on with delivery?
-
OpinionA new recipe for social housing
Tim Williams, chair of the Housing Corporation’s commission into social housing at the Thames Gateway, tells BD how he hopes his report can bring about a revolution in the quality of UK housing design
-
OpinionQuality is the missing ingredient in the housing mix
David Levitt says the housing sector’s tick-boxing culture needs to change before architects can make a difference
-
OpinionSocial housing’s ambivalent legacy
The canon of supposedly great social housing includes many schemes that people put forward as their most hated buildings
-
OpinionA Century of housing
Much of the failure of multistorey housing is blamed on architects as well as the technical systems that allowed these new estates to be built cheaply and fast.
-
OpinionHigh-quality design must be at the heart of social housing if it is to be truly successful
Our homes affect every aspect of our lives: our health, our wealth, our happiness.