More Opinion – Page 341
-
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 ...
-
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 ...
-
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.
-
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 ...
-
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.
-
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, ...
-
OpinionEmbassy light
Designing an embassy should be a dream commission, but it appears as fraught with difficulties as it is loaded with promise, writes Robert Booth. That was the impression given by an intriguing open ideas contest run by the Czech ambassador to London, which BD was invited to help judge. Scores ...
-
Opinion
Ian Martin
Correctly predict ‘Budget Boost For Regeneration’. You’ve been Quangoed comes in at 12-1, then Go to Pub and Hair of Dog
-
Opinion
Now we need to build on 50/50 success
We got there. International Women’s Day on Tuesday saw BPTW Partnership from London become the 250th practice to sign up to our 50/50 Charter for more women in architecture.
-
Opinion
African food for thought lacks bite
Summertime in Cape Town is like one of those celebrity-spotting slots on Channel 5, and the recent calendar highlight for the industry A-list was the Design Indaba.
-
OpinionConcrete Boots
Journo gristDeputy prime minister John Prescott has a fairly well-established warm-up routine he uses at press conferences these days. It involves taking a journalist to task about a particular story that upset him and then broadly criticising all journalism. Maybe it is a ploy to get the journalists in line ...
-
Opinion
Ian Martin
Sitting in a Stalinist multi-level bachelor pad with shagpile carpet and a piranha pool is my client, ‘Comrade Orange’
-
Opinion
Following the herd on ethics
Well done for raising the temperature of moral debate (News Analysis March 4). If professional magazines don’t do it, these difficult issues will go unexamined.
-
Opinion
A different tune
It is OK to design for an oppressive regime as long as one does not play the lead fiddle to the tune of oppression.
-
Opinion
Loose morals
Your article on ethics exposes the utter lack of a moral imperative in architecture.
-
Opinion
Chemical reaction
So Mairi Levitt and Robert Adam would willingly design a germ warfare experimentation centre for the British government because they both believe it has strict regulation on such things and would act ethically.
-
Opinion
Animal alarm
I was astonished that not one of your panellists would reject a commission to design a government-backed animal research centre.
-
Opinion
Lead the way
Architects should lead their clients and insist that all buildings use renewable energies, doing away with unsustainable materials and dinosaur construction techniques that use massive amounts of embedded energies and reliance on fossil fuels.
-
Opinion
Royal philosophy
For probably the first time in my life, I agree with something Prince Charles has said.
-
Opinion
Wrong direction
Where did Arup’s project architect derive the symbology for the bus station at Vauxhall (Works February 25)?