More Comment – Page 331
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OpinionCan we resist an icon Olympics?
The contest to design venues for 2012 must be intellectually curious as well as commercially competitive. Koolhaas, Chipperfield and Zaera Polo have set the pace
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Opinion
2012 race is the golden opportunity
It already seems a world away, but the euphoria of last week’s decision to hand London the right to host the 2012 Olympics, will resonate through architecture in this country and beyond for the next decade.
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OpinionConcrete Boots
Pushy femaleMeeting UIA presidential candidate Louise Cox, Boots was keen to confirm reports that the feisty Australian was the only woman ever to have been thrown off a building site for swearing. “It’s not true,” she says disappointingly, before saving the day by adding: “But I was nearly pushed off ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
Activists dressed as millworkers will lobby to protect historic houses, having left their children at home dosed with laudanum
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OpinionNow let the young compete in 2012
The Olympics are a fantastic opportunity for architecture. The benefits to young athletes were specifically mentioned in the bid — but what about the emerging generation of young architects?
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Opinion
Level playing field
It is disturbing to read in BD of suggestions that deals are already being done between Stuart Lipton and the London Development Agency for building Olympic homes (News July 1 and July 8).
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Opinion
Lost cause
I felt that I was witnessing an architectural crit circa 1970 at the Cabe public design review of Levitt Bernstein’s NEV theatre in Shrewsbury at the Royal College of Surgeons (News Analysis July 8).
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OpinionA bigger idea
I admire the way Adam Caruso nailed the current unsustainable “ideas deficit” in his essay (Analysis June 17).
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Opinion
A commonsense solution to PFI debacle
When officials from Gordon Brown’s office attended a recent RIBA seminar on possible reforms to the Private Finance Initiative, they were reported to be rather pleased not to find the assembled architects pouting, shrugging and generally in a nasty sulk about life.
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Opinion
Why Cullinan should take the Gold Medal
Every year, as the deadline for nominations for the RIBA Royal Gold Medal looms, many of us begin to think of likely contenders. There are a number, both in Britain and beyond, but we believe it should this time go to Edward Cullinan.
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Opinion
Petulant parade
The usual crowd of architects made their way to Bristol last week for the RIBA conference, eschewing the delights of Live 8, Wimbledon and the rugby. But observers were left wondering how to describe architects en masse. Terry Farrell came to the rescue. The correct collective noun is, apparently, a ...
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Opinion
Ever reddy
As his presidency draws to a close, a plausible reason is offered as to why George Ferguson wears red trousers. According to eastern thinking, the human body has several chakras — energy points that start in the head and end in the crotch. You can accentuate or play them down ...
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Opinion
Turkish delight
Ferguson has had a busy week. Straight after the RIBA conference, he flew out to Istanbul for the Union of International Architects conference. He was on the phone to Boots, in full flow about a scheme in Bristol, when suddenly there was a pause followed by the exclamation: “Zaha!” Boots ...
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Opinion
Water torture
Janet Street-Porter is still going on about the problems with her David Adjaye-designed house. In last week’s Independent on Sunday, she described him as “someone I dream of regularly ritually disembowelling or forcing to go through a nasty form of torture before mopping up the storm water in my living ...
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Opinion
No non sense
HOK Sport architect Rod Sheard was transformed into an “international celebrity” this week, according to website Channel News Asia. Sheard, a member of the victorious London 2012 bid team, courted controversy by arguing that the Stade de France was not suited to athletics. But the resulting media storm did not ...
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Opinion
Back-pedal feat
Boots recently received perhaps the most bizarre press release in living memory. Sent by design watchdog Architecture & Design Scotland, the memo revealed that 55-year-old chief executive Sebastian Tombs had cycled from Edinburgh to Glasgow — backwards. Guided by shouts from his 18-year-old daughter, Rowena, Tombs had covered 58 miles ...