More Comment – Page 367
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Opinion
Power slant
Your Power 40 (Special report May 14) contains some interesting perceptions of the powerful. The description of “the Chinese system of centralised control” stretches euphemism to its limits, praising the president of a state that sentenced to three years in prison the defence lawyer who assisted hundreds of displaced families ...
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Opinion
Foxell for leader
This year’s field for the RIBA presidency includes four serious candidates (Saxon, Pringle, Owen and Foxell), each of whom would be an asset to our profession and our art, but only one is an award-winning designer and a progressive small practitioner.Simon Foxell is also the man who has developed most ...
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Opinion
United silence
I am writing to ask you to correct the record on two articles you recently published (News February 20 and May 14).The first is Arb's policy on confidentiality. The board wanted a transparent policy and set up a working party of board members to formulate the policy. On first considering ...
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Opinion
Rouseing farewell
Ex-Cabe chief executive Jon Rouse had his leaving party this week, and the pathos created by a valedictory speech by beleaguered chairman Stuart Lipton was relieved by some humour when Rouse, now chief of the Housing Corporation, was presented with a book by Gropius on factory-built housing and one by ...
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Opinion
Motivating Cabe
Rouse’s successor at Cabe, Richard Simmons, could have an interesting time if he visits the US. The new head honcho shares his name with the US equivalent of Mr Motivator. The US Richard Simmons is a hugely camp aerobics impresario with a Leo Sayer bubble perm and a penchant for ...
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Opinion
Whipping Post
As Daniel Libeskind himself admitted during a lecture in London last year: “The New York Post doesn’t like me”. That is an understatement. A recent editorial in the Murdoch-owned tabloid pulled no punches, asserting: “Libeskind seems to be more concerned with shameless self-promotion than restoring New York’s skyline and commercial ...
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Opinion
No kidding
Huddersfield-based architect Mark Lee has an interesting sideline — designing colourful educational school books featuring cartoon characters known as the Kid Premiership. Lee, who is developing the business with his wife, Caroline, told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner about the origins of the idea. “I just got this idea in my ...
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Opinion
Hidden talents
Does architecture rock? Hell yeah. Boots had the pleasure of playing Simon Cowell in helping to choose bands for the Architecture Foundation’s Architecture Rocks party during Architecture Week. Only architect bands could apply. Step forward covers bands from Feilden Clegg Bradley and BDP — Paul Weller anyone? More leftfield was ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
It's not long before there's a conflict of interest, as I'm not in the least bit interested in what he's saying
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Opinion
Take the blame as well as the plaudits
If contemporary architecture came with a money-back guarantee, you would find my friend Cassie first in the queue for a refund. Cassie would normally be a cheerleader for all that is good about cutting-edge architecture. Wow factor, delight, call it what you may, Cassie (no architectural expert — she's an ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
We have to cut the session short, as it's karaoke night and we can't hear ourselves tank-think
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OpinionGeorge Ferguson
The RIBA president visited China last week leading a delegation of UK and US architects. The group, which included RIBA USA chairman Tim Clark and architect Angela Brady, visited Beijing and Zhengzhou to discuss the future of development in the country
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Opinion
Pringle matchless
In the race for the presidency, no other candidate can match Jack Pringle for breadth of experience across the RIBA spectrum. He has been prominent in issues that will dominate the next presidency, such as PFI, a fair deal for small practices, sustainability and education.
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Opinion
Charlie’s angle
Just a note to say how good your article on the Prince Charles 20th “anniversary” was (Special report May 28) — much better than some of the other stuff that’s been published on this subject recently.Just for the record, I’d like to reiterate two points that I made in the ...
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Opinion
New world vision
In the light of a report on race in architectural education, which found that many students from ethnic minorities feel alienated at architecture schools, you rightly (Editorial May 21) argue that one necessary step is to “introduce architecture courses that deal with architecture from places such as India, the Caribbean ...
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Opinion
The ruling elite
As a black student I have never experienced direct discrimination from individuals or even racist tendencies (BD May 21). What I do find, however, is that the architectural profession in general is elitist in its outlook. This is evident in the type of work that architects aspire to do (commercial ...
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Opinion
Ignored resource
Cabe's disappointing findings in its study of race are sobering. Why should a profession that celebrates originality, creativity and difference in its buildings and products be so poor at encouraging this richness in its people ?All professional services rely on people as their greatest and most valuable resource. It makes ...
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Opinion
Applauding Schosa
We write to clarify Archaos’s position regarding the declaration on education by the Standing Conference of Heads of Schools of Architecture (News and Editorial May 14).The current system of education has great failings, which will be exacerbated by tuition fees and the current professional situation. We welcome Schosa’s declaration as ...
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OpinionStone age methods
What do some architects find so attractive about gabions (News May 21)?Gabions plus wire cutters equal a heap of stones plus nasty sharp wires. Gabions plus rust equal a heap of stones plus a nasty rusty sharp wires.Gabions with small stones equal a home for small brown furry creatures with ...