More Comment – Page 369
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Opinion
Money bags
International superstar architect Frank Gehry is not short of a bob or two. An obvious statement perhaps, but proof came this week when it emerged that Gehry took six months to cash his $60,000 Pritzker Prize cheque in 1989. Gehry said it led to a friendship with Jay Pritzker, who ...
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Opinion
Other dimension
From one international superstar architect on a different planet to another. Daniel Libeskind waxes lyrical about his Danish Jewish Museum in a description of the scheme on his website. One particularly impenetrable sentence reads: “One of its internal planes, Exodus, is here turned to an urban space in which water ...
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Opinion
Square bashing
Eva Jiricna joined the chorus of criticism of the new Paternoster Square this week. Branding the scheme “just rubbish”, Jiricna didn’t mince her words. She added: “It has got external promise, which disappears when you get inside. It’s deep, badly lit and uninteresting.”
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OpinionDeciphering the code
Championed by the Prince of Wales, are design codes our salvation or defeat? An expansion of Northampton by Edaw will be an early test, writes Ellis Woodman; while Will Alsop and Paul Murrain argue the broader case
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Opinion
Minority support
You arrive at university to take the first step to an exciting career as an architect. But you feel alone because there is no one else with your background. You find it harder than most to make ends meet. You discover that you are four times less likely than the ...
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Opinion
South Bank icons
We are shocked to learn that Michael Lynch, chief executive of the South Bank Centre, feels that both the Hayward Gallery and the Queen Elizabeth Hall could be replaced "with something much more effective" (News April 23). Most people assume that the Hayward Gallery and the QEH are listed as ...
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Opinion
Delft long overdue
I believe the Delft Declaration is long overdue (News and Editorial May 14). It is significant that Schosa chose Delft for the launch of this manifesto as the TU Delft has a long tradition of teaching carried out by the profession itself. Indeed, following a brief visit to the new ...
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Opinion
Missing the point
I fear Alexander Thompson may have missed the point (Letters May 7). It is the profession that is demanding universities change tack and teach the basic skills of practice, not the students. I completely agree that university is the place for stretching the mind and I am happy to learn ...
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Opinion
Safety in numbers
Your article “Architects ‘blithe’ on safety” (News May 14) quotes a RIBA statement I do not recognise. The Health & Safety Executive and practice department at the RIBA are in talks to increase the clarity of guidance to designers. Most of the issues flow from specification of materials, coupled with ...
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Opinion
Power crazy?
I get to the special report (BD May 14) — Zaha Hadid in the top five? — and wonder what exactly is going on. What is a "power broker"? Who are these judges, and what is this bizarre mix of businessmen, politicians, contractors, a retailer, a footballer and some living ...
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Opinion
Sleeping beauties
I wonder if this note of clarification might help to convey the more positive sentiments that perhaps were not fully expressed in my article (Peer Pressure May 14).The Royal Lancaster Hotel badly needs the makeover that it is beginning to get under Eric Parry’s guidance. True, the limitations of the ...
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OpinionAll shook up
What a shame Frank Gehry’s site agent got all the MIT drawings in such a muddle (News May 14).
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Opinion
Call the doctor
Architecture student and Dr Who fan Jake Theunissen has built a life-size Tardis in his back garden. The 28-year-old, who lives near Wrexham, built the plywood tribute to the Time Lord after downloading plans from the Internet. The model Tardis, which does not travel through time and is no bigger ...
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Opinion
Into the lions’ den
A public inquiry being held in a zoo? Wilkinson Eyre Architects’ scheme for a visitor centre at the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol is being challenged by local residents on road safety grounds, and, apparently, nearby Bristol Zoo really is the most convenient location for the two-day hearing.The other explanation, ...
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Opinion
Bob’s your uncle
British Foreign Office buildings in Baghdad are all called Bob, it was revealed this week. In language reminiscent of the classic TV sitcom Dad’s Army, a London civil servant told BD that Bob stands for British Office Baghdad, and there are four such facilities, distinguished simply by the addition of ...
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Opinion
Trophy architect
Frank Gehry got a less than glowing reception last week when he unveiled his new designs for an ice hockey world cup trophy. The Canadian-born architect is a massive ice hockey fan, and the commission must have been a dream come true. But the press did not like it one ...
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Opinion
Home from home
Opposition to the government’s plans to build 200,000 homes in the South-east has a new social strata of shock troops. The posh activists, including billionaire venture capitalist Ben Goldsmith, son of the legendary tycoon James, and Lady Tracy, Marchioness of Worcester, have formed the Manuka club to fight Prescott’s plan. ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
Every architecture critic in the world is gathered. It's like the Teddy Bears' Picnic, with the same sewn-in expressions
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Opinion
The daft declaration
"The Delft Declaration" has the ring of an announcement designed to reverberate through history. But the portentous-sounding communication from the heads of architecture schools is far from that.