More Comment – Page 370
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OpinionRab Bennetts
Rab Bennetts was part of the RIBA team reviewing the institute's competitions process. We asked him what the problems were and what should be done
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Opinion
Time to stand up for the suburbs
Your article "The 'burbs bite back" (April 30), which reinforces the subject of my postgraduate studies, brings to light the importance of addressing suburbia as a housing condition in opposition to the predominant focus of the architectural profession in the urban domain or the bespoke house in the countryside.If we ...
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Opinion
Shard stance
Shard developer James Sellar was reported as saying that Cabe “had an agenda to make a stand for Cabe Space” in criticising plans for the public space around the Shard (News April 30). Cabe’s comments have been consistent since the scheme was first reviewed in 2000 – three years before ...
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Opinion
Serving the rich
I was interested to see Nec Teymur’s response to Charles Jencks’s plea for a moral stance by architects (Letters May 7). The fact of the matter is that architectural practice seems devoid of any kind of moral imperative. As Teymur points out, architects go where the money is, whether it ...
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Opinion
Say no to samey
While I quite agree with Robert Booth and David Lock (Editorial and News April 30) that we must pursue specificity not global sameyness, I must point out that he was not "the original masterplanner of Milton Keynes". This was, of course, the Llewelyn-Davies team, myself included.Lessons from Milton Keynes (when ...
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Opinion
A sound solution
Following your article “Heavenly sounds” (Solutions May 7) and the piece on Arup Acoustics’ Sound lab (Technical March 26), which both highlight the potential use of sound in architectural spaces, we thought that you might be interested in our experience.As architectural sound designers, our company Liminal, has carried out a ...
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Opinion
Doolan: a sad loss
Andrew Doolan’s death (News April 30) has certainly robbed Scottish culture and the architectural fraternity of one of its most gifted practitioners.A millionaire and largely self-taught, here was someone who dreamed and then built what he dreamed. No doubt it was not as simple as that, but to those of ...
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Opinion
In praise of resin
I was mortified to read of a fly getting caught in James Soane’s floor (Solutions April 30), but I must put the record straight. I love my resin floor, which was laid onto a standard 50-year-old screed, about six months ago. It not only looks gorgeous, but it is very ...
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Opinion
Derry sorry
I note from your piece (News April 30) that the Playhouse, Artillery Street, Derry, has relocated to Derby (twice), which will come as quite a shock to all concerned. An interesting piece of relocation restoration indeed. Derry is a small city in Northern Ireland: you might have heard of it, ...
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Opinion
Bum rap
Archigram legend Peter Cook amused himself and his audience at the RIAS annual conference on Friday with his Carry On-style humour. Talking about his recent “friendly alien” art gallery in Graz, Austria, Cook preferred to call it a “naughty animal”.“In my naughtier moments, I call it a bum on a ...
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Opinion
Slap of honour
Cook also provided one of the event's more farcical moments when he met self-confessed flavour of the month Shih-fu Peng. The winner of the Egyptian museum competition sidled up to the Bartlett professor to shake his hand. Unfortunately, Cook evidently had no idea who the younger man was. "That's Shih-fu ...
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Opinion
Late again
The Scottish, meanwhile, had a nagging feeling of déjà vu.Like the Parliament building, Holyrood architect Benedetta Tagliabue also overran massively on her presentation to the conference. Oh, the irony.She was also overheard the previous evening, objecting to meeting a member of the RIAS at 8am the following day. “Is 8.30 ...
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Opinion
Given the slip
Architect Niall McLaughlin has secured new work of an unusual and rather unwelcome kind. A banana-mad minicab driver has taken to parking directly outside McLaughlin’s London office. Unfortunately, the late-night cabbie deposits a potentially dangerous pile of banana skins on the street, leaving public-spirited McLaughlin to deal with it each ...
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Opinion
Theatre of dreams
Director of Netherlands-based practice S333, Chris Moller, certainly has a way with words. Discussing plans to regenerate Oldham, reported in last week’s First Look, the New Zealander was asked to describe his design for the new Oldham Coliseum theatre.“The theatre is in the sky, so to speak,” he said. ...
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Opinion
Scratched out
Wondering about the ones that got away in our Power 40? Most disappointing for our Edinburgh contributor Malcolm Fraser will be the exclusion of reggae great Lee "Scratch" Perry. Malcolm reckons he proves "it's not things that matter, not notes or walls, but the space between them, the emptiness that ...
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Opinion
One world? No thanks
Architecture has reached a new level of political potency in the UK, but it takes a tussle between two foreigners this week to reveal it.
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OpinionJonathan Ball
The co-founder of the Eden project has come up with what he hopes will be another world-class visitor attraction for Cornwall. But this time there'll be no legal wrangles he says
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Opinion
We must be master of all trades
Oh, come on Claire Barton and others (News Analysis April 23), have you not heard of the Universal Man? You need to understand that as an architect, you do have to be good at everything.To suggest anything else is simply to go along with today’s acceptance of mediocrity, where everyone ...
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Opinion
Egan's angels
Punchy journalism may force you to simplify the debate about the Egan Review (BD April 23). But it might be more helpful if the profession allowed itself time for careful deconstruction of generic skill vs core competence, to wonder whether they are really so different and exclusive.Here's a story to ...