More Comment – Page 326
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Opinion
Why architecture can sell London
London has some of the most iconic buildings and public sites in the world. Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Trafalgar Square are landmarks that have come to represent not just the capital, but Britain itself in the eyes of many visitors.
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Opinion
Shipwrecked?
There is more to the Little Britain yachting event, sponsored by BD, than just sailing. After a day on the waves it is always nice to relax over a light ale or two in the evening. But you have to be careful you don’t go too far or you might ...
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Opinion
Rock grateness
New indie hot shots The Mystery Jets, who released the single You Can’t Fool Me Dennis this week, have an architect among their ranks. Guitarist Henry Harrison is an architect and runs a designer fireplace outfit called The Platonic Fireplace Company. The NME describes their music as “a prog space ...
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Opinion
House proud
Open House Day is a lovely, brilliant thing that should never be taken for granted. The event is genuinely popular and for at least one day a year people across the capital take an interest in architecture. This year Boots visited James Stirling and James Gowan’s seminal 1950s flats on ...
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Opinion
Demolition man
Film director Ken Loach is a man with a mission. If he had unlimited funds he would demolish “all the post-war centres and out-of-town shopping malls” in England, he told the Guardian. He would then replace them with “town centres on a human scale”. Who would of thought class crusader ...
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Opinion
Pedalling ideas
Curious mental image #1: Richard Rogers pedalling furiously on his exercise bike while talking to BD on his mobile phone about national housing policy. The man is a legend.
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Opinion
No fixing it for Bob
Bob the Builder is not popular among BD readers. One reader wrote to us saying that he was “hopping mad” over a recent episode which portrayed an architect as “uncaring and unsympathetic”. So when we received a press release inviting us to promote a Bob the Builder Drive and Build ...
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OpinionJanet Stree-Pooter
This week’s diary is by Janet Stree-Pooter — social commentator, television personality and champion of all architecture that’s not boring.
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Opinion
Italy clips the wings of UK jet-set crew
Are we seeing the first signs of a concerted rebellion against the trend of “kerosene architecture”?
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Opinion
Ian Martin
Propose new architectural theory of Retardant Nebulism, and get in the new-look Guardian
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Opinion
Teach buildings, not Bauhaus
As you read this, tutors in architecture schools across the country will be honing their unit programmes in preparation for the new academic year.
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OpinionThrough on a nod
Piers Gough was in typically robust form in Brighton this week for the launch of the redesigned Frank Gehry scheme in Hove.
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OpinionMole in the camp
Politics reared its ugly head again when Brighton & Hove council chief executive Alan McCarthy told those assembled that all councillors had been banned from the launch event to avoid conflicts of interest on the planning decision.
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Opinion
Size is everything
John Barrow of HOK Sport is currently working on the new Wembley Stadium, the Arsenal Emirates football stadium and the new roof cover for Centre Court at Wimbledon.
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Opinion
Wide open spaces
The Guardian’s new columnist Simon Jenkins joined Richard Rogers to open the New London Architecture centre’s Civilising Spaces exhibition this week, where he suggested what architects really liked was “buildings with no people in them”.
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Opinion
Confronting the silent shame of neglect
So, several thousand buildings are to be protected in the event of war under an international convention.
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OpinionNew plan for Thames Gateway is overdue
Ten years since the Thames Gateway Planning Framework was published, “setting the framework for a sustained and sustainable programme of economic, social and environmental regeneration”, a new mind is being brought to bear on one of the biggest building challenges of our times.
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Opinion
Tombs’ tones
Is Architecture & Design Scotland chief executive Sebastian Tombs keeping busy enough? Tombs sent BD a poem this week reflecting on the connections between architecture and music.