All Opinion articles – Page 362
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Opinion
One for the bored
George Ferguson’s presidency is proving particularly successful because he represents so well publicly many of the positive features of a highly attractive profession. Perhaps he exemplifies also one of its drawbacks, from your report (News July 9) of his claim that the profession was “bored to tears with the Arb ...
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Opinion
The bigger picture
It is always gratifying to see the honour of architects defended (Editorial July 9), and I agree that we tend to raise expectation with our “big claims”. But since when does the provision of a safe environment have “big claim” status? I would have thought that creating places that ...
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Opinion
Poll positives
Robert Adam chastises Chetwood Associates for misinterpreting the results of the Mori poll we commissioned on attitudes to modern architecture (Letters July 2). He may be right — many architects do produce designs the public does not like, and certain architects are doubtless arrogant.But this is not the whole story. ...
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Opinion
My PCC ordeal
I would like to comment on your coverage of my hearing before the Arb (News July 2). The main charges against me were that I failed to give clear written advice in relation to cost plans and that I failed to draw to attention to the cost of proposed alterations.My ...
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Opinion
To sirs, with love
Q: Who does rebel Arb member Ian Salisbury consult on matters of etiquette?A: Lesbian greengrocers in Oxford.An item, "Minorities", on his website tells of his struggle to find the correct greeting for a letter to two female solicitors. "Dear Sirs", the convention, felt inappropriate, but so did "Dear Ladies", "Mesdames" ...
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Opinion
See you later...
Will no animals appreciate London Zoo’s famous Lubetkin pool? First the penguins hop it to another pool and find love, and now it’s the Chinese alligators. The pool was specially converted for the reptiles with a consignment of mud and floating plants to recreate their natural habitat. But sadly ...
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Opinion
Weighty issues
Stanton Williams’ press office clearly has rather too much time on its hands. The press release for the practice’s recently completed Tower Hill Square project offers some “interesting facts and figures”. Among these Boots spotted: “The weight of a typical granite paving slab is 172kg, the same weight as two ...
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Opinion
Saving the world is mission impossible
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to save the world — or at least stamp out crime, rehabilitate victims of torture and stop terrorism. Those are just three of the tasks demanded of architects featured in BD in the last fortnight. Take other weeks and you can ...
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Opinion
Holyrood refund?
Speaking as a non-architect who has come across a copy of your article on the Scottish Parliament (“Design team delays cost Holyrood £166m”), perhaps the design team would be magnanimous in reimbursing the public for the cost of their failings by reducing their fees accordingly?
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Opinion
Highway to hell
It is good to see Richard Rogers and George Ferguson speaking out on the need to have more integration in the education of architects and others working in the built environment (News July 2). And it’s not just planners either.Highway engineers — where do they come from? Most of what ...
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Opinion
Glass not dead yet
I would like to clarify the article on cladding “Glazed over” (Solutions June 25). The DTI Partners in Innovation research project does not comment on or make any conclusions about how much glass should be used in buildings. The output of the work is a toolkit to look at ...
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Opinion
Public may catch up
Peter Kellow's letter (July 7) prompts two thoughts about the appeal of so-called modern architecture (or lack of it), and the way students are "inducted". He makes reference to the Plymouth School in particular.It is an article of faith at Plymouth that we avoid pushing stylistic approaches. Our students form ...
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Opinion
Rock the casbah
The late Joe Strummer will lend some posthumous celebrity weight to a derelict Victorian folly in Somerset, lined up as one of the candidates to be saved on BBC2’s Restoration series which starts again this week. Friends of Strummer, who died of a heart attack 18 months ago, are bidding ...
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Opinion
A mini adventure
We reluctantly bring you news of a breach of the law by one of the UK’s, nay the world’s, most esteemed architects. No, not Simon Foxell (who crawled in last in the RIBA election, faring even worse than Ian Salisbury). Instead, the spotlight falls on the guilty pate of Norman ...
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Opinion
What people want
I don’t wish to say “I told you so,” about the public’s negative attitude to modernist architecture, but it is no great surprise. What is interesting, however, is Chetwood Associates’ response.Chetwood Associates put it down to the fact that the public are ill-informed or confused. So, presumably, if they were ...
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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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OpinionThe Nimbys need guidance
I have always thought Nimbys may be misunderstood (News June 25). When someone says “not in my back yard”, they may not be saying “not in my back yard because it is mine”, but that they see themselves as its custodian and would say the same if they thought it ...
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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
Game on
The 3D real-time interactive technology reviewed in your article, “Game plans” (Business & IT June 18) is not new, but rather it is the increasing awareness of its benefits that is making it more acceptable. As a registered architect, I have used it within architecture since working in the computer ...