More Opinion – Page 363
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Opinion
Take bold steps
In 1982, an Architectural Association student proposed a grand entrance staircase for the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. It was considered too freakish an idea and rejected.In “Dixon Jones proposes grand entrance” (News June 18), we see that loftier concepts may prevail again. However, judging by its design of the ...
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Opinion
Captain Cabe man
You have got the wrong end of the stick about Cabe’s design review committee (News June 25), as your editorial did the week before when it described me as Cabe’s chairman (I am deputy chairman). I did not tell your reporter that DRC would be the subject of a big ...
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Opinion
Cross dressing up
Is the reporter on Alsop’s designs for The Public in West Bromwich (Solutions June 25) ashamed to write about corrugated cladding, and instead has to dress it up as sinusoidal cladding? It’s this kind of pretentiousness that distances the profession from the public.
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Opinion
Ferguson’s challenge: lead a revolution
We should welcome the stirrings of revolution around the professional status of architects.
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Opinion
Move over Glasto
If architecture is frozen music, God only knows what the buildings designed by Fat Midget look like. After the duo’s appearance at last weekend’s Architecture Rocks gig (pictured below) you’d have to cross a giant cornbarn from the Deep South with Daniel Libeskind after 15 espressos and armed with a ...
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Opinion
Blockheads hit
More hedonism at a Chetwood Associates party and a clear sign the firm must be doing all right. Laurie Chetwood appeared to have swallowed the party planner’s handbook whole and deluged his guests with treats from frogs’ legs canapés to a fountain of liquid chocolate, waitresses dressed in RAF uniforms ...
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Opinion
Prince Charming
Minister for housing and planning Keith Hill grins… and grins and grins. If prizes were won for grinning, Hill would win them all. Mild use of violence would probably only make his grin more inane. And now, having charmed audiences everywhere with his Mr Nice Guy with bonhomie to spare ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
The Future Systems Selfridges is 'OK outside, like a giant slug, but inside it's only an old people's clothes shop'
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Opinion
Backyards available to good listeners
Most readers will guffaw at the suggestion that the British public's "not in my back yard" mentality is becoming a thing of the past. Surely there are too many militant local campaign groups and retired judges with little better to do than oppose architects' schemes.
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OpinionDominique Perrault
To coincide with his first exhibit at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, the Frenchman will be in London this Monday to discuss his design for the New Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg
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Opinion
Making density more palatable
Councillors' reservations about high-density development are not surprising. At the Civic Trust we are all too aware of our members' concern and the challenge facing suburban areas to accommodate higher residential numbers. One of the main concerns is losing facilities to give way to housing development. If we are to ...
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OpinionMissing link
I can recognise Andrew Matthews' problems only too clearly (In Practice June 18). The bigger the job, the more people get in on the act. But I note that neither the acoustic consultant, the DDA access adviser nor the planning supervisor was present. After a big accident, we are often ...
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Opinion
Blame the builders
My blood boiled when I read the article headed "Architects 'blithe' on safety" (News May 14).The National Audit Office criticised architects for "failing to design out safety risks". MP Edward Leigh supported this view as did other stakeholders.We are all fully aware of our responsibilities. However, I am regularly on ...
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Opinion
The force is strong
The last sentence of your article on Ken Shuttleworth's Vortex (News June 11) reads: "The engineer also believes the distinctive shape works well to minimise wind loads." This rings a bell.The Vortex is a version of the hyperboloid of one sheet (albeit using different values for the equation) used in ...
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Opinion
Tall order
Where can I buy one of the beautiful vases illustrated on the cover of BD June 11? It would look stunning on my dining-room table, though I’m not sure it will fit in the sink when in need of a clean.
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Opinion
Out of the ordinary
I feel just about everybody has missed the point on Malcolm Fraser’s Bo’ness project (Works June 4; Letters June 11 and 18). To criticise it for not looking different or exciting enough is not particularly sensible, but to defend it on the basis of its “ordinary” aesthetic is just as ...
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Opinion
In praise of men
One of the best things about being a female architect is working with lots of lovely men. I feel moved to say this in response to the experiences so regularly and aggressively related by Sarah Wigglesworth (In Practice June 4).Coming out of college without ever having seen a roll of ...
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Opinion
Shiver me timbers
I like the look of Foreign Office Architects’ Korean book building: “One face of the screen is clad in timber, the other in wood” (Works June 18). Is this the meaning of juxtaposition?
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Opinion
Biker bashing
For one reason or another Concrete Boots compared the new-look BD to a Harley Davidson rather than a Triumph, a few weeks ago. This didn't go down well with one or two most valued readers. William Murray of Wordsearch (which organised the London Architecture Biennale, see below) wrote in to ...
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Opinion
Biennale bonanza
The London Architecture Biennale kicked off with real intent on Saturday. The intent seemed to be to puzzle and/or delight the public with juxtaposition.There inside the atmospheric post-industrial Farmiloes building — the centre of the Biennale — were a string of domestic garden sheds, while outside in the street, on ...