More Comment – Page 342
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Opinion
Chamber musings
A lot of empty blustering from George Ferguson regarding ethics, but he does not say what the RIBA would do if one of its members designed a concentration camp or torture chamber. I suspect that, as when it has happened in the past, nothing. Never mind, George, have another Mipim ...
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Opinion
Picking up the tab
How fortunate that the government, if not two of your contributors (“Is it ethically OK…” March 4), recognises the dangers of secondary or passive smoking.
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OpinionSheer arrogance
For too long now, I have read the pages of the architectural press and smiled at the arrogance of the so-called “trophy architects” who fill the pages. While the architecture varies from average to brilliant, the sheer arrogance rankles, to say the least.
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Opinion
Soapbox: Nurture students, not drive them away
I am on my soapbox to have a go at those unscrupulous, lazy practices that fail to respect the needs of their student staff.
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OpinionConcrete Boots
The GodfatherIs Graham Morrison turning into the Godfather of architecture? The signs are there: the soft but persuasive voice and the vice-like grip on the biggest and best jobs. So it should have been no surprise to see one half of the stratospherically successful Allies & Morrison thanked by Ed ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
The cladding is derived from a custard apple. The stuff inside is not important so is mostly rhubarb
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Opinion
Audit office finds a use for design
How would you feel if your client sliced £2.6 million off the budget of your £33.5 million job after you had already saved £800,000? Apart from a feeling of deja vu, you are likely to fret about the impact on design quality.
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OpinionVisionaries or mad scientists?
These men believe they have the formula to save the planet — a brave new architecture where science takes the lead. Zoë Blackler investigates
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Opinion
Ethics is a matter for all consciences
Sheila Mullon (Letters March 11) makes the ridiculous assumption that ethics are of no concern to the RIBA, based on my reluctance to be drawn on some unspecific examples. The ethics of practice should be taken extremely seriously. We have our own long-established code of conduct and have contributed to ...
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Opinion
Roll over Rousseau
Hanna Arhendt’s perceptive “banality of evil” is worth reflecting on in all spheres of life. We may be architects, but we are human, well most of us, and therefore not infallible. However, the concept of some form of moral consensus seems to have been left behind in the 20th century.After ...
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OpinionJust for the rich?
Linking the live-work building type, with the Sustainable Communities Plan, one could have been forgiven for thinking that the two schemes presented by Ellis Woodman (Works March 4 & 11) might have contained elements that would find wider application, but instead we were shown two architectural examples of the most ...
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Opinion
Seeking substance
Matthew Barac’s Soapbox column (March 11) echoes comments made by Laura Illoniemi the week before. Both are, in essence, lamenting contemporary architecture’s obsession with image and iconography, at the expense of substance and ideology. I find it a pity that the recent Design Indaba held in Cape Town was found ...
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Opinion
Opaque process
I was intrigued by two not quite juxtaposed articles in BD March 4. One, by Steve Bee (Comment), advocated the irrefutably good practice of “ensuring that the creation of new places follows a transparent process”. The other, by Will Hurst, on the proposed Station Plaza development in Hastings (News) provides ...
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OpinionLeaf it out
Please stop it. First dRMM with Kingsdale School at Dulwich. Then Will Alsop with his nursery at Harlesden. And now the managed workspace by McDowell & Benedetti in North Yorkshire (Solutions March 11).Wonderful, boundary-pushing architecture, I am sure, but will you stop putting trees under roofs. Trees are complex living ...
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Opinion
Science getting lost in aesthetics focus
In our society scientific endeavour is becoming dangerously unfashionable. University departments are being closed and fewer students are choosing science-based subjects at school. We are in an age of ambiguity where expressing ideas, however easily reached, is more saleable than the hard graft involved in acquiring knowledge and establishing certainties.
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Opinion
Concrete Boots
Cannes kerfuffleThe chaos caused by 17,000 jolly property professionals upping sticks to Cannes for the annual Mipim shebang is legendary, but this year things went one step further. One nameless delegate carelessly abandoned their CBRE-branded conference bag in the middle of Nice airport, causing some rather half-hearted attempts at evacuation ...
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OpinionTalkbox: Julian Tollast
Poacher-turned-gamekeeper Julian Tollast has joined developer Quintain as head of design development after 17 years rising through the ranks at Farrell & Partners.
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OpinionI was a Mipim virgin
Sandwiched between a mobile phone convention and the annual porn festival, the timing seemed ideal for the 16th Mipim property fair, set in spectacular Cannes, writes Alistair Brand. The event, calling itself Europe’s largest and most successful property conference and exhibition, attracts investors, local authorities, developers, agents, architects and, ...