More Comment – Page 333
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Opinion
Olympic challenge
The International Olympic Committee has always recognised culture as an integral component of the Olympic movement. Those who see it purely in terms of sport sometimes forget this. Until 1948 there were Olympic medals for architecture, town planning, sculpture and other art forms.Interested in the connection between architects and the ...
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Opinion
London’s ripe for carbon testing
Cities now house half the world’s population. A century ago, it was one in seven. And the trend is set to continue, with the world’s major conurbations expanding at an unprecedented rate.
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Opinion
Soapbox: We need to get our houses in order
This week, Policy Exchange published a new report, Unaffordable Housing — Fables and Myths. It argues that, far from living in the kind of homes we aspire to, the British have some of the worst housing in Europe.
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OpinionWe are working on accessibility
I was sorry to read the report of Mat Fraser’s attack on architects for failing to make cities accessible for disabled people (News June 17). Of course all buildings are not yet accessible, but there is a willingness and understanding in the profession to make things better. Many of ...
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Opinion
The key to access
Mat Fraser is right when he says that architects are to blame for lack of access in London, but David Bonnett is also right when he says that architects design what clients require of them. There is no one answer. Architects often don’t understand what the needs of disabled people ...
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Opinion
Inclusive dispair
I agree, in part at least, with Mat Fraser’s comment on architects and their lack of disability awareness in the application of design solutions. My experience is that the majority of architects have not grasped the concept of inclusive design — for example, the segregation of toilets for the “normal” ...
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Opinion
Critical appraisal
Jeremy Paxman of University Challenge fame, not to mention a certain reputation for interrogation, provides a nice counterpoint to the raging crit debate (Campaign June 10) in his Daily Telegraph column.He writes: “I was accosted by an angry viewer the other day, who wanted to know why I was being ...
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Opinion
Core curriculum
Your article “Schools for Future scrutiny scrapped” (News June 10) created the misleading impression that the Department for Education & Skills was reducing its commitment to good design.The DfES is delivering an unprecedented amount of investment in schools — up from £683 million in 1996-7 to £5.5 billion in 2005-6 ...
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Opinion
Positive lead
With reference to your item regarding my presidency of the AA (News June 17), possibly the result of a bad mobile phone connection, “bossing” other schools was the opposite of my intended comment, which was to suggest the positive role model of the design studio system, and its essential relevance ...
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Opinion
Strong arm of Arb
Robin Vaughan’s letter spells out distinctly that Arb under his leadership is not concerned with the spirit of the 1997 Architects Act or the intentions of Parliament, but with interpreting it to allow Arb as extensive a power over the profession as the unfortunately ambiguous wording of the act can ...
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OpinionBathtime bricks
It was great to see the Caruso St John Brick House in BD (Works May 27), and Irina Davidovici’s valuable commentary.Was Caruso St John consciously remembering Giancarlo De Carlo’s magnificent and extraordinary sixties villa, Ca’ Romanino, in the decoration of its bathroom?
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Opinion
Roman ruination
Vetruvius’s mantra of “commodity, firmness and delight” has been so long established that to contradict it seems almost heretical. But that’s exactly what Architecture Foundation director Rowan Moore did at this week’s Elements of Architecture event at the Tate Modern. Moore labelled the ancient Roman’s insight as “the most boring ...
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Opinion
Climate control
On to Trafalgar Square, where London mayor Ken Livingstone held a glittering photo call this week to mark the launch of the London Climate Change Agency. The great and good of the GLA lined up with business leaders wearing their best caring smiles and waited to be snapped in front ...
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Opinion
Vic labours on
Ever since Brad Pitt announced his intention to turn his hand to architecture and help his old mate Frank Gehry design Hove’s King Alfred development, it seems the stars can’t get enough of buildings. Comedian Vic Reeves is working as a labourer on a construction site for a new performing ...
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Opinion
Nude urbanism
And finally to gorgeous George Ferguson, just back from an edifying junket, I mean conference, on new urbanism, on the US west coast. We always knew the RIBA president had a penchant for this stuff, but we are sorry to report his head has been fully turned. “New urbanism rocks,” ...
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Opinion
Out of the Gutter
Website The Gutter, which describes its writing as “ill-mannered commentary on the architectural arts”, really doesn’t like Daniel Libeskind’s Hyundai HQ in Seoul. Describing the building as a monstrosity and an “ugly dog”, it also shows a lack of respect for the great architect himself.“We always thought Danny Libeskind was ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
In order to save money, English Heritage bosses have stopped replacing retired workers with other retired workers
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Opinion
Walking a grey tightrope to inflexibility
You probably haven’t met Richard Hastilow. Let me introduce you. He is the chief executive of the RIBA, a bolt-upright former naval officer who doesn’t make a habit of shooting his mouth off unnecessarily. He also has the unenviable job, common to RIBA bosses, of playing politics with the Architects ...
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Opinion
Modern hero for the man on the street
The sense in which the modern movement in architecture can claim to be truly innovatory has been in dispute ever since the phrase itself, with all its political undertones, was invented.
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OpinionConcrete Boots
Chip off the block The rampant marketing campaign for Urban Splash and “super-famous” architect Will Alsop’s new apartments in the New Islington development in east Manchester continues apace. The apartments, called Chips because they look like, er, chips, are now for sale. The marketing campaign has attracted praise from none ...