All Opinion articles – Page 375
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Opinion
Ian Martin
From Selfridges to the Smirkin' Gherkin, Charles paved the way for the 'blob standard'
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Opinion
Taking his queue
Since when did the deputy prime minister have to queue for anything? Since he became an RIBA honorary fellow this week. John Prescott arrived at Portland Place in a Mercedes, but proved he was a true man of the people when he stood in line for his honorary scroll with ...
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Opinion
Mysterious girl
It is good to see that the Landscape Design Trust has celebrated Peter Shepheard’s full and varied career with a new monograph (Culture April 30). Shepheard was a beacon of the values behind an architecture of the “everyday” and the role of the generalist.In today’s world of paradox that has ...
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Opinion
Philly friends
It is strange to read the statement that the legacy of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown has been, “to remove any idea of the social or political relevance of architecture...” (Letters April 8). Let me tell you about Chad (Charter High School for Architecture & Design) in Philadelphia – ...
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Opinion
Fitting honour?
Another interesting fellowship went to Fergus Muir, the civil servant responsible for architecture at the Department for Culture, Media & Sport. According to RIBA chief executive Richard Hastilow, one of the reasons Muir won the award was for “helping in the reconstruction of Iraq”. Um…
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Opinion
A little discipline
Staying with the military theme, RIBA president George Ferguson opened the ceremony, sharing the stage with Hastilow, a former senior Royal Navy officer. Ferguson said the fellowships would be “awarded by discipline. I don’t mean military discipline. There is not a lot of that here, except for…” the president then ...
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Opinion
Stand up comrade
It was an interesting coincidence that on the back of the page featuring Charles Jencks's letter about terrorism and architects (Letters April 23), there was an advert for Barbour Index featuring "comrade" Lenin and Russians.The corollary is that, architects – with all their good intentions and valuable function as the ...
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OpinionJonathan Ball
The co-founder of the Eden project has come up with what he hopes will be another world-class visitor attraction for Cornwall. But this time there'll be no legal wrangles he says
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Opinion
Social awareness
I am delighted that the social aspects of housing design (April 30) featured so prominently and so soon after the previous debate on John Prescott’s National Centre for Sustainable Communities. But Cabe’s Alex Ely and suburban masterplanner Roger Evans need to widen their sights to include the greenfield/brownfield debate, not ...
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Opinion
Egan's angels
Punchy journalism may force you to simplify the debate about the Egan Review (BD April 23). But it might be more helpful if the profession allowed itself time for careful deconstruction of generic skill vs core competence, to wonder whether they are really so different and exclusive.Here's a story to ...
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Opinion
We must be master of all trades
Oh, come on Claire Barton and others (News Analysis April 23), have you not heard of the Universal Man? You need to understand that as an architect, you do have to be good at everything.To suggest anything else is simply to go along with today’s acceptance of mediocrity, where everyone ...
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Opinion
Table talk 2
Re Alsop’s “flying tabletop” (News April 16), I understand RIBA president George Ferguson believes a key challenge for architects is to have a “visually educated public” – or have I got it the wrong way round?
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Opinion
Table talk 1
Tony Aspinall (Letters April 23) may be assured he is not the only architect who holds his views on Alsop’s “Table for Toronto”. The sheer bad-mannered arrogance displayed by this building leaves me breathless and wondering what sort of planning authority would subject its fellow citizens to such antisocial gimmickry.
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Opinion
Uphold the title
BD might have a new format, and very good it is. But the old ideas continue: if Guy Pound said he was an architect, and the Serious Fraud Office agreed, then he must be one, even though he was not listed with Arb. If the professional press can’t be discriminating ...
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Opinion
Unhelpful tactics
The group I chair will, no doubt, receive, from Arb board members who have made anonymous comments to BD (News April 23), the courtesy of a private reply to a private letter. What they (and your readers, since BD omitted it from the story) may not have known is that ...
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Opinion
A rising trend
Jean Nouvel was in London this week to hook up with Foster on their collaboration in the capital and learnt the nickname for the Swiss Re, which translates as “le cornichon erotique”. “I’ve got one of those,” he exclaimed excitedly, referring, of course, to his own torpedo-shaped tower in Barcelona.
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Opinion
Playing the system
I knew the press would find it difficult to report accurately on the exit of AA chairman Mohsen Mostafavi, but Will Hurst’s report is misleading. The article makes it look as if he is going because he is not wanted by the school or because he has not done a ...
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Opinion
Smoked pickle
In a moment that was more Manhattan than London, Swiss Re security men pounced on our venerable correspondent Christopher Woodward, when, after three hours in the tower, he lit up a well-deserved cigarette on the building’s forecourt. The signs may not be up yet, they explained, but smoking was strictly ...
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Opinion
Peter Rees
The opening of the Swiss Re tower this week confirms the City's shift from boring post-war office blocks to bold new design. The Corporation of London's chief planner is excited
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Opinion
Men suffer, too
Having read “Fear and loathing in the boy zone” (In Practice April 23), I feel moved to write to reassure Sarah Wigglesworth that the very same problems she has experienced working as an architect on site, in terms of bullying, intimidation, criticism of our work, refusal to take instructions, procrastination, ...