Ellis Woodman’s article “Too many cooks” about the Venice Biennale (BD September 17) is the best thing that I’ve read in the architectural press for a very long time.

Michael Badu, Norwich

One of the main problems in the architectural scene in the UK today is the distinct lack of genuine polemic and the proliferation of the “anything goes” culture. This means that the culture of “justification” of ideas is looked upon with disdain.

People forget that perhaps the best period in modern architectural history was when significant world events that affected everyone (the industrial revolution, and the growth of industrialisation) meant that architects had to respond with genuine polemic, and ideas that took the wider world into consideration.

Now architecture in the UK seems to be self-congratulatory and self-referencial, and this is as a direct result of the lack of serious debate in architecture today. The world events are still there (global warming, climate change) but the UK architectural scene continues to bury its head in the sand. More serious intelligent articles like this please.