More Comment – Page 371
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Opinion
Social awareness
I am delighted that the social aspects of housing design (April 30) featured so prominently and so soon after the previous debate on John Prescott’s National Centre for Sustainable Communities. But Cabe’s Alex Ely and suburban masterplanner Roger Evans need to widen their sights to include the greenfield/brownfield debate, not ...
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Opinion
Stand up comrade
It was an interesting coincidence that on the back of the page featuring Charles Jencks's letter about terrorism and architects (Letters April 23), there was an advert for Barbour Index featuring "comrade" Lenin and Russians.The corollary is that, architects – with all their good intentions and valuable function as the ...
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Opinion
Philly friends
It is strange to read the statement that the legacy of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown has been, “to remove any idea of the social or political relevance of architecture...” (Letters April 8). Let me tell you about Chad (Charter High School for Architecture & Design) in Philadelphia – ...
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Opinion
Mysterious girl
It is good to see that the Landscape Design Trust has celebrated Peter Shepheard’s full and varied career with a new monograph (Culture April 30). Shepheard was a beacon of the values behind an architecture of the “everyday” and the role of the generalist.In today’s world of paradox that has ...
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Opinion
Table talk 1
Tony Aspinall (Letters April 23) may be assured he is not the only architect who holds his views on Alsop’s “Table for Toronto”. The sheer bad-mannered arrogance displayed by this building leaves me breathless and wondering what sort of planning authority would subject its fellow citizens to such antisocial gimmickry.
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Opinion
Table talk 2
Re Alsop’s “flying tabletop” (News April 16), I understand RIBA president George Ferguson believes a key challenge for architects is to have a “visually educated public” – or have I got it the wrong way round?
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Opinion
So macho
Sarah Wigglesworth’s experience of machismo (In Practice April 23), I am happy to say, is not universal. In 40 years, I have been fortunate enough to meet courtesy in most situations, including on site. As the student working with me keeps pointing out, how other people treat one depends largely ...
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Opinion
We’re motoring
And so the baby’s head was wetted. BD’s relaunch party in London on Tuesday saw Davids Chipperfield and Adjaye chatting with RIBA presidents past, present, and perhaps future in the form of Paul Hyett, George Ferguson and Richard Saxon. Bob Allies and Graham Morrison were among those who praised the ...
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Opinion
Taking his queue
Since when did the deputy prime minister have to queue for anything? Since he became an RIBA honorary fellow this week. John Prescott arrived at Portland Place in a Mercedes, but proved he was a true man of the people when he stood in line for his honorary scroll with ...
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Opinion
Fitting honour?
Another interesting fellowship went to Fergus Muir, the civil servant responsible for architecture at the Department for Culture, Media & Sport. According to RIBA chief executive Richard Hastilow, one of the reasons Muir won the award was for “helping in the reconstruction of Iraq”. Um…
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Opinion
A little discipline
Staying with the military theme, RIBA president George Ferguson opened the ceremony, sharing the stage with Hastilow, a former senior Royal Navy officer. Ferguson said the fellowships would be “awarded by discipline. I don’t mean military discipline. There is not a lot of that here, except for…” the president then ...
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Opinion
Sick of saving
Janet Street-Porter has got her teeth into building conservation. She let rip in a Sunday newspaper about how the building conservation industry, which nets millions of pounds in fees for architects, makes her “sick”. “If there is one thing that makes me reach for the sickbag it is the British ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
From Selfridges to the Smirkin' Gherkin, Charles paved the way for the 'blob standard'
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Opinion
Living in a time bomb?
Relations between Islington Council and the tenants of its Packington Estate would not normally make huge news in BD. But this week, things are different.
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Opinion
Peter Rees
The opening of the Swiss Re tower this week confirms the City's shift from boring post-war office blocks to bold new design. The Corporation of London's chief planner is excited
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Opinion
Go back to school to solve skills gap
I couldn't agree with Robert Booth more (Editorial April 23) that Prescott's and "Egan's dreams will come to nothing without [the] core skills" of the best architects and the many other professionals who need to be involved in the huge sustainable communities programme.The purpose of the national centre, in whatever ...
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Opinion
Men suffer, too
Having read “Fear and loathing in the boy zone” (In Practice April 23), I feel moved to write to reassure Sarah Wigglesworth that the very same problems she has experienced working as an architect on site, in terms of bullying, intimidation, criticism of our work, refusal to take instructions, procrastination, ...
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Opinion
Playing the system
I knew the press would find it difficult to report accurately on the exit of AA chairman Mohsen Mostafavi, but Will Hurst’s report is misleading. The article makes it look as if he is going because he is not wanted by the school or because he has not done a ...
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Opinion
Unhelpful tactics
The group I chair will, no doubt, receive, from Arb board members who have made anonymous comments to BD (News April 23), the courtesy of a private reply to a private letter. What they (and your readers, since BD omitted it from the story) may not have known is that ...
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Opinion
Lifting the lid
I refer to the article concerning the Guy Pound court case (News April 23). I acted as expert witness, and the points raised fail to even scratch the surface of what proved to be an extremely complicated and protracted case lasting more than a year in court. The case raised ...