All Opinion articles – Page 361
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Opinion
Raines check
Your article, “Prefab security slammed” (News July 9), and editorial conspired to give a misleading picture on Raines Court.Secured by Design (SBD) was fully consulted during the pre-construction phases and no specific recommendations were made at this time. SBD’s specific concerns regarding deck access, the open-plan flat layouts and the ...
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Opinion
Pull up a chair
Another ex-RIBA president has been eying the Cabe chairmanship — Paul Hyett. He’s been taking a few gentle soundings and might fancy a pop at the big gig, alongside Marco Goldschmied. As far as anyone can tell, Hyett looks like an outsider, but the whole situation seems confused. What kind ...
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Opinion
Worst of British
A recent comment by Peter Kellow is that as “British people” don’t like modern architecture, we should therefore give it up, a proposal seconded by Robert Adam (Letters July 2).To be consistent let’s ditch the arts entirely and confine our media to soaps, sport and Big Brother. While we’re at ...
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Opinion
Oh, Danny boy
The New York gossip mill reports that Ground Zero architect Daniel Libeskind recently threw a party to celebrate the departure of New York Times critic Herbert Muschamp. The long serving NYT critic created a stir last year when he wrote a review backing Rafael Vinoly’s THINK Team proposal for Ground ...
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Opinion
Listing benefits
Handing over responsibility for listing buildings to English Heritage (News July 2) can only benefit the development industry as it will bring increased certainty. The transfer of responsibility to English Heritage does not come without scrutiny and has important new safeguards: it will be required to act within published ...
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Opinion
Arbs secret society must be challenged
Regarding the article on Arb’s desire to remove democratically elected members without reference back to the membership (News July 9), the board appears to wish to turn itself into a secret society, hiding behind its ever-changing remit. No wonder the profession’s elected member, Ian Salisbury, is so frustrated by this ...
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Opinion
Starry night
As we all know, architecture rocks, so what better place to put up the speakers at last week’s RIBA annual conference in Dublin than in a rock star hotel. Bedding down for early nights with a mug of cocoa in neighbouring rooms to ABK’s Peter Ahrends and Davis Langdon’s Paul ...
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Opinion
Twisted logic
Michael Wigginton queries my comment (Letters July 2) that students are “inducted” into the modernist approach to architecture by saying: “Our students form their own views… resulting no doubt from the reading and discussion they are involved in day to day.” Exactly. Inducted. I cannot imagine a better definition of ...
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Opinion
Ian Martin
The Irish government’s latest campaign to preserve historic buildings: No Surrender to the PVC
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Opinion
How modern
Many architects attending the RIBA conference must have thought the UV lighting in the toilets awfully trendy. They were audible gasps then when speaker, and Gillespies partner, Brian Evans told the audience that the lighting is actually a tactic to deter heroin addicts because it prevents them “finding a vein”. ...
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Opinion
Staying safely within guidelines
Last week’s article, “Prefab security slammed” (News July 9), claimed that design flaws with our Raines Court scheme have led to security breaches.The security at Raines Court is extremely high for a development of its kind. Breaches have been due to the nature of the area, which, as Will Hurst ...
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Opinion
Speed freak
Brian Godfrey attended a Formula One race instead of campaigning for the RIBA presidential elections last month. “I was so close to the action I could have reached out and shaken Michael Schumacher’s hand. The only problem was he was going 500 miles an hour.”Probably not a good idea ...
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Opinion
Forward march
Michael Wigginton, chair of Plymouth School of Architecture and Design, claims (Letters July 9) his students are free to choose their own direction. So, presumably, the tutors who pass or fail them suppress their own views?He also writes that the public may eventually catch up with this radical thinking. This ...
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Opinion
Design lesson
Regarding your article about the “victory” of the developers in relation to the Annandale Primary School site in Greenwich (News July 9), it was more a case of the council screwing up and leaving the developers this very fortunate technical opportunity to appeal. The site is not one of good ...
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Opinion
SOS at DCMS
The axe was hanging over the Department for Culture Media & Sport this week. But the axe never fell. The immediate net reduction in posts is merely 30, so McIntosh’s band can rest easy for now. But with listing decisions being devolved to English Heritage and Gordon Brown championing ...
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Opinion
We can save design from PFI darkness
The sight of architects using the annual RIBA conference to bleat about their dwindling status in public procurement projects is as predictable as the British summer is rainy.
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Opinion
Comic relief
The glamour of awards ceremonies is often marred by duff categories. But can things get any worse than “commercial loo of the year” - a new contest launched this week. Set aside the unfortunate double meaning in the sponsor’s claim that “loos have become an environment in which architects and ...
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Opinion
Keeping it clean
I greatly welcome the election of Jack Pringle to succeed me from September next year and congratulate the others on a good clean contest. We see very much eye to eye on the crucial issues facing the profession as well as the need to review architectural education. In commenting on ...
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Opinion
Childs play
If you felt starved of news about Ken Shuttleworth after last week’s Ken-free BD, The Times came to the rescue on Saturday with a major profile of the man as the next big thing in British architecture. Norman must be loving this. Still there’s always something to bring you down ...
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Opinion
A cheap shot?
As a young architect trying to persuade the world that there are better ways to live than in a Barratt Home and also as one trying to develop sustainable housing through innovations such as prefabrication, the headline “Prefab security slammed” was distinctly unhelpful.The Peabody scheme is a cutting-edge inner-city redevelopment ...