All Opinion articles – Page 327
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Opinion
Saving heroes
I look forward to the 2005 Architect of the Year awards, but my anticipation would be greater if the award categories included a Conservation Architect of the Year. Across the country there are architects doing excellent work in the conservation and creative re-use of historic buildings, but conservation remains the ...
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Opinion
Form a queue
But Prescott managed to wrangle the agenda away from terror and back to housing. In an uncharacteristic moment of goodwill, Prescott said of the £60,000 home competition: “Everyone is lining up to criticise the winners of the competition, but I welcome the criticism.” Prescott welcoming criticism? See, he is a ...
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Opinion
Dont gag the king
In reply to Ian Louth’s letter (Letters August 5)), Ian Martin is the king of architectural satire and must never, ever be gagged or otherwise censored.
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Opinion
Ditch the slum
It is regrettable to see that the overused word “slum” still has currency (News Analysis August 5). Although the intentions behind the United Nations’ efforts to “improve slums” may be good, the word still evokes the practice of labelling an area as a “slum” as a reason for eradicating it ...
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Opinion
Design rocks
For crying out loud, will rock gods, movie stars and television presenters please just leave architecture alone. The profession is fine without you.
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Opinion
Who decides?
Is it surprising that design statements are often “no better than a pack of lies” (News July 15)? Even if put together with insight and real commitment are they understood or even read?
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Opinion
Cheaper building is not the only goal
The announcement of a shortlist for the £60,000 house contest certainly demonstrates that an offer of assembled and permitted land is a powerful inducement for builders to offer cheaper houses, and it may identify useful innovations in materials and construction techniques. But are those really the questions we need to ...
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Opinion
A bad repeat
It is stating the obvious to say that the whole point of demolishing a hideous building, such as Portsmouth’s Tricorn centre, is to enable a good architect to design a better building and avoid making the same mistake again.If it is replaced by something just as bad or worse (News ...
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Opinion
French dressing is all part of the zoo
It is difficult to understand why Gavin Stamp thinks that London “shouldn't be some exotic zoo” (Soapbox August 5).
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Opinion
No a-gender
BD and the panel of judges should be congratulated on making the difficult decision to award the UK’s top graduates on the basis of merit and not gender or some other politically correct agenda (Class of 2005 July 29 and Letters August 5).
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Opinion
The 60,000 contest is a losing battle
John Prescott is a house-proud sort of chap. His country home has a turret, and this week he showed his pride in his short summer’s lease at Number 10 while the Blairs take a holiday when he surprised a group of tourists and invited them on an impromptu tour.
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Opinion
Planners stoop low
The news that a tall couple (6ft and 6ft 10) have been refused permission to raise the roof of their Aberdeenshire home is a pathetic indictment of planning bureaucrats.I recently visited some old crofting cottages where the doors are closer to 5ft. If planners were still enforcing these outdated ergonomics ...
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Opinion
Recycling is key
Being a greener construction or civil engineering company isn’t just about building less energy-hungry buildings or using more energy-efficient construction processes. It’s also about using recycled materials in new products. While companies may have previously not had much incentive beyond notions of corporate responsibility to use such products, there ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
We wish to create a united front , defying the establishment squares who laugh at our round shapes and spindly legs!
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Opinion
London shouldnt be some exotic zoo
Fashionable French architects seem to be as quaintly ridiculous as French rock stars. Dressed entirely in black, pouting and intense, they try hard to appear as if they have just come from discussing existentialism at the Deux Magots.
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Opinion
Cussing fussing
Reading BD’s back page on July 15, I was f@*%!ng unhappy about Ian Martin’s use of such a strong swear word printed in full. Were you?
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Opinion
Opera counterpoint
Simon Foxell in his piece Opera and Me (Culture July 15) refers to the value of opera — how it acts as a counterpoint, taking him from the everyday problems of practice, presumably into another world of fantasy and imagination. However, he does mention his feelings about the quality of ...
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Opinion
Community care
The use of the word “community” is presumptuous in the field of architecture and town planning, most topically with respect to John Prescott’s claim to be promoting “communities instead of soulless housing estates” at the proposed Thames Gateway.I have been trying to persuade my fellow architects to facilitate community in ...
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Opinion
Cabe unpressured
www.cabe.org.ukI write in reference to last week’s item on Falconer Chester’s proposed tower on Skelhorne Street Liverpool (News July 29). I strongly contend the suggestion by Adam Hall that Cabe has been put under political pressure on this or any other scheme. Cabe judges schemes on their design merits alone. ...
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Opinion
Concrete Boots
Kids on the caseKids say the funniest things. Boots has been speaking to architects who have had to consult children for new schools and a children’s theatre in London recently and found they are more perceptive than you might imagine. One child told an architect consulting on a school in ...