More Comment – Page 308
-
-
Opinion
Broken rules mean harm to industry
I would like to correct BD’s news story “Murphy upset over best coming second” (News July 7).
-
Opinion
But client is happy
The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland-approved selection process was not a design competition, it was a combined quality and price process, with 70% score awarded to quality (of which only part was for design) and 30% score for price.
-
Opinion
Exam stress
I’ve now reviewed the examination record sheet for part I and part II that a candidate from our office was given after her interview for UK accreditation with Arb (“Arb group to review foreign accreditation”, News June 30).
-
Opinion
Answer is simple
Charles Edwards (Letters July 7) asks why, as someone who lacks qualifications recognised by Arb, he must undertake its examination when his German colleague with a qualification recognised under the Architects’ Directive does not . The answer is straightforward.
-
Opinion
President Prasad
The coverage over the third (BNP) candidate for the RIBA presidency has drowned out any debate between the two front runners, Valerie Owen and Sunand Prasad.
-
Opinion
Poptastic planner
Philip Watson explains how his full grant subsidised his fledgling music career (Letters July 7).
-
Opinion
Virtual verdicts
Software solutions have emerged to help architects test their facades against revised Part L. BDP’s Chris Yates takes a look ‘under the bonnet’
-
Opinion
I was there at non-riot meeting
I read your article “Phillips-induced riot fails to materialise” (News June 30) with interest. Far from being absent from the council meeting, I attended all the business items and presented three finance papers, including the 2005 annual accounts which show record turnover and profits under my stewardship as hon treasurer ...
-
Opinion
Rural elitists
Our policy director, Nicholas Boles, finds the CPRE’s attack on Policy Exchange (News June 30) unwarranted. As its report shows, just 11% of England is urbanised, our houses are old, expensive and small, and people are increasingly being made to live in flats — points Policy Exchange has been making ...
-
Opinion
Sheffield fledgling
I was disappointed to learn that the head of architecture at Sheffield University believes that “...there is no real connection between architecture and rock music” (Soapbox June 23). I studied at Sheffield from 1983 to 1990 and can recall no fewer than three bands led by architecture students that regularly ...
-
Opinion
Dublin rats
While studying architectural technology in Bolton Street (now Dublin School of Architecture at DIT) in the early seventies, two of my classmates, Gerry Cott and Pete Cusask, teamed up with Sir Bob to form the Boomtown Rats. I never knew what Geldof actually studied — he was just there!I ...
-
Opinion
Arb exam unfair
Further to George Oldham’s letter about the “pointless exam” (June 16), I must say that I concur with his comments and the efforts of the Arb reform group.As an illustration of the absurdity, I am working with a German designer (nice chap), who by virtue of coming from an EU ...
-
Opinion
Quality cast
Michael Hickey’s letter (June 30) about a legitimate name for high-quality aggregate precast concrete has got the generic name wrong. “Cast masonry” is a name I invented in the mid-nineties and have been spreading through the industry ever since. It arose in a conversation with Philip Dowson and Richard ...
-
Opinion
Welsh win would send wrong message
There will be several eyebrows raised this week over the inclusion, for the third year running, of a road on the shortlist for the prime minister’s better public building award.
-
Opinion
So what are we going to do now?
Architects are middle-class people who build for middle-class people. The notion of architecture as a fully independent endeavor mirrors the rise of the middle class, becoming a way in which this rising class could represent itself, make itself real.
-
Opinion
Tub Haagendas
When we say ‘we’, of course we mean ‘I’. But we must say ‘we’ occasionally to please the tax people. Bleeagh!
-
Opinion
Ian Martin
I need a new ‘-opolis' to seem really smart, and apparently ‘supercalifragilisticexpilalipolis' has already been taken
-
Opinion
Blame government, not the planners
Few architects have a kind word to say about planners, but do they really deserve to be blamed for undermining UK competitiveness and sending big business on its way?