More Opinion – Page 365
-
Opinion
Departures mark a new era for Cabe
The revolving door at the Waterloo HQ of the national design watchdog could hardly spin any faster. The Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment has been gripped by the departure of its first chief executive, the arrival of a second and now the departure of its founding chairman, Stuart ...
-
OpinionRod Sheard
The Australian director of HOK Sport designed Lisbon's Estádio da Luz, home of Benfica football club, which hosts the Euro 2004 clash between England and France this Sunday
-
Opinion
Questioning Peabody priorities
Charles Thomson (Letters May 28) praises the Peabody Trust for its high-quality design, buildability, sustainability and innovation, while damning many in the social housing movement as second-rate with regard to the quality of their own new developments.Apparently, allowing schemes to overrun budgets and delay the upgrading of properties should ...
-
Opinion
We deserve better
We question how you justify devoting four full pages to a housing development that is not only ordinary, but also downright ugly and uninspiring (Works June 4). We suppose this must be because the project architect is renowned and occasionally writes a column in BD. Of course, there may have ...
-
Opinion
Higher purpose
“Bristol’s tall tales” (Peer Pressure May 28) seems to be trying to create an argument about tall buildings per se. This is missing the point of the Temple Quay tower, where the issue was not one of height — it seems anyone can design incredibly tall buildings — but sensitive ...
-
Opinion
Burges bonus
Concrete Boots is a little harsh in chiding Jimmy Page for not letting the public into William Burges’s Tower House (May 28).Notwithstanding the fact that it is a private residence, Leighton House Museum (located nearby) came up with the brilliant idea of arranging guided tours of the house as part ...
-
Opinion
Power slant
Your Power 40 (Special report May 14) contains some interesting perceptions of the powerful. The description of “the Chinese system of centralised control” stretches euphemism to its limits, praising the president of a state that sentenced to three years in prison the defence lawyer who assisted hundreds of displaced families ...
-
Opinion
Foxell for leader
This year’s field for the RIBA presidency includes four serious candidates (Saxon, Pringle, Owen and Foxell), each of whom would be an asset to our profession and our art, but only one is an award-winning designer and a progressive small practitioner.Simon Foxell is also the man who has developed most ...
-
Opinion
United silence
I am writing to ask you to correct the record on two articles you recently published (News February 20 and May 14).The first is Arb's policy on confidentiality. The board wanted a transparent policy and set up a working party of board members to formulate the policy. On first considering ...
-
Opinion
Rouseing farewell
Ex-Cabe chief executive Jon Rouse had his leaving party this week, and the pathos created by a valedictory speech by beleaguered chairman Stuart Lipton was relieved by some humour when Rouse, now chief of the Housing Corporation, was presented with a book by Gropius on factory-built housing and one by ...
-
Opinion
Motivating Cabe
Rouse’s successor at Cabe, Richard Simmons, could have an interesting time if he visits the US. The new head honcho shares his name with the US equivalent of Mr Motivator. The US Richard Simmons is a hugely camp aerobics impresario with a Leo Sayer bubble perm and a penchant for ...
-
Opinion
Whipping Post
As Daniel Libeskind himself admitted during a lecture in London last year: “The New York Post doesn’t like me”. That is an understatement. A recent editorial in the Murdoch-owned tabloid pulled no punches, asserting: “Libeskind seems to be more concerned with shameless self-promotion than restoring New York’s skyline and commercial ...
-
Opinion
No kidding
Huddersfield-based architect Mark Lee has an interesting sideline — designing colourful educational school books featuring cartoon characters known as the Kid Premiership. Lee, who is developing the business with his wife, Caroline, told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner about the origins of the idea. “I just got this idea in my ...
-
Opinion
Hidden talents
Does architecture rock? Hell yeah. Boots had the pleasure of playing Simon Cowell in helping to choose bands for the Architecture Foundation’s Architecture Rocks party during Architecture Week. Only architect bands could apply. Step forward covers bands from Feilden Clegg Bradley and BDP — Paul Weller anyone? More leftfield was ...
-
Opinion
Ian Martin
It's not long before there's a conflict of interest, as I'm not in the least bit interested in what he's saying
-
Opinion
Take the blame as well as the plaudits
If contemporary architecture came with a money-back guarantee, you would find my friend Cassie first in the queue for a refund. Cassie would normally be a cheerleader for all that is good about cutting-edge architecture. Wow factor, delight, call it what you may, Cassie (no architectural expert — she's an ...
-
Opinion
Ian Martin
We have to cut the session short, as it's karaoke night and we can't hear ourselves tank-think
-
OpinionGeorge Ferguson
The RIBA president visited China last week leading a delegation of UK and US architects. The group, which included RIBA USA chairman Tim Clark and architect Angela Brady, visited Beijing and Zhengzhou to discuss the future of development in the country
-
Opinion
Pringle matchless
In the race for the presidency, no other candidate can match Jack Pringle for breadth of experience across the RIBA spectrum. He has been prominent in issues that will dominate the next presidency, such as PFI, a fair deal for small practices, sustainability and education.