More Opinion – Page 356
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Opinion
Ignoring clinical experts unhealthy
As healthcare planning adviser to the competing Renaissance team on the Barts/Royal London Hospital project, it would be inappropriate for RKW Healthcare Strategists to comment on the specifics of the controversial Skanska/HOK design which the Trust initially selected (News August 27). What does concern us is the suggestion that the ...
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Opinion
Health matters
I read the August 27 Leader “Predators step into Royal London ring” with great interest. Having done some assessment work on the design scheme, I have to say this bid has a very complicated brief.There is no basis for saying the design by one consortia is better than the other. ...
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OpinionHarsh but true
While sympathetic, I am not sure I entirely agree with David Hebblethwaite about Channel 4’s Trouble at Ground Zero programme (Letters September 10). Pitting the faux naive “idealist” Libeskind against the smooth calculating developer’s hack Childs did make “gripping” soap drama but was it unfair to architects? Most architects ...
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Opinion
Silliness continues
I thought the start of September was supposed to mark the end of “silly season”. Your September 3 front page suggests otherwise.If Wakefield District Council and its coterie of media-friendly architects really think it is appropriate to package up “regeneration” and the spending of public money for the benefit ...
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Opinion
Timber specified
BD: Our survey of architects’ use of Forestry Stewardship Council approved timber reported Alsop Architects’ assertion that the practice had not used FSC-timber on The Public in West Bromwich. The client has written to correct this stating:“We have specified the use of FSC wood in Clause A.6515 of the tender ...
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Opinion
The name game
Don’t worry aunty Beeb, you are doing nothing wrong by referring to TV presenter Charlie Luxton as an architect (News September 10). He, like 20,000 other “architectural designers” in the UK, are in-fact architects (design and supervise the construction of buildings). A problem only arises when they trade under a ...
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Opinion
Help the urban poor to help themselves
In just four years, the majority of the world’s population will be living in urban centres. Despite common conception, the majority of these urban residents will not be living in the megacities of Mexico City, Tokyo, New York and London. Rather they will be in the southern hemisphere, particularly Asia. ...
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Opinion
Dearth in Venice
The stakes are high at the Venice Architecture Biennale. Every architect on show is compared to the best in the rest of the world.
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Opinion
School duel
Peter Cook’s Nine Positions theme for the British pavilion was the subject of much salon discussion (that’s what you do in Venice).
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Opinion
Holding Hans
The high-priest of Austrian post-modernism, Hans Hollein, visited the Venice Biennale last week. Boots was keen to know what perhaps the world’s most unfashionable architect made of the British Pavilion. Nine Positions, he suggested, was at least six too many. Pawson and Lim got measured blessings but Hollein reserved his ...
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Opinion
Big heads in China
Herzog & de Meuron and Rem Koolhaas, perhaps the world’s two hottest architects of the moment, were virtually invisible at Venice. The talk on the grapevine was that they had bigger fish to fry and instead were preparing to exhibit at the first Beijing Architecture Biennale which opens this week. ...
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Opinion
Zero tolerance
Anyone who saw the Ground Zero documentary recently will know to take statements that all is well on the design team with a big pinch of salt, but Daniel Libeskind seems content. “We are at a good point,” he gushed. “We are at the final stages of negotiation with Larry ...
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Opinion
Mandy mistake
Talking to Arb about misuse of the term “architect”, CB was surprised to hear Peter Mandelson’s name crop up. Apparently, Arb gets a regular flow of complaints from the public about Mandy because the media often refers to him as an “architect” of New Labour. Yes that is so confusing ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
Mostly everything is turd-shaped. Darcy says this is to do with a catharsis of the Aristotelian thought-world
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Opinion
A railing rather than rallying cry
Julyan Wickham, LondonThe new Housing Corporation chief executive, Jon Rouse, is surely the stupid one when he says “keep it simple, stupid” (News August 27). He will have to do a lot better than this to prove himself worthy of the public position he has obtained.For a start, what on ...
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OpinionA dressing down
Sek Cheong Ho, LondonIs this a publicity stunt (Dressed to distress August 27)? Many knowledgable and accountable architects will know how difficult it is to manoeuvre with braces, straps, splints etc, while maintaining patients’ dignity and privacy. More importantly, if they have gone through an experience themselves as patients in ...
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Opinion
More suitable way
Ann Sawyer, LondonRather than using a suit that “mimics age and disability”, how about using design standards based on research into the needs of real people (BS 8300), or other comprehensive guidance, such as The Access Manual.The information is all out there; the problem lies in convincing architects to use ...
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Opinion
Clash of the titans
David Hebblethwaite, LondonThis week’s fascinating Channel 4 insight into the trials and tribulations of Daniel Libeskind and David Childs (“Trouble at Ground Zero”) was like watching an architectural car crash. You knew you should look away, but you couldn’t take your eyes off the impending doom. While this was ...
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Opinion
Back in the fold
Nigel Turner, DerbyI was surprised at the number of architects wanting a career swap (News September 3). I find myself swimming against the flow, having left architecture 13 years ago to become a church pastor, I now find myself returning to design for positive reasons. This year I have set ...
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Opinion
Word perfect
James Boutwood, EssexCongratulations to Peter Wilson on his excellent coverage of the extension to the National Gallery of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Academy (Works August 27). It was a joy to read and an excellent description of a very successful building. What is more, it was a welcome change ...