All Opinion articles – Page 377
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Opinion
On deaf ears
An extraordinary state of affairs has recently arisen in respect of Arb. Last July, the professional organisations were consulted on possible amendments to the composition of Arb's professional conduct committee. The Association of Consultant Architects suggested a Parliamentary Committee should investigate Arb and the Architects Act 1997.However, on March 11, ...
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Opinion
Dairy delight
In response to Richard Weston’s piece, “The divine bovine (Backspace April 8), we thought that, a copy of the “Three Cows” short-listed entry for the Burrell Gallery competition might help to illustrate the point of his article. The illustration depicts one seated cow, containing the main entrance and ancillary accommodation, ...
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Opinion
Golden community opportunity
John Prescott has a golden opportunity to create a national centre dedicated to building sustainable communities that includes not only planners, engineers, developers and councillors, but also housing and social administrators as well as social scientists. Much is commonly assumed about the mistakes of the past 50 years, but ...
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Opinion
The art of Zen
How architecture happens: Malcolm Fraser was enjoying a contented afternoon in his Edinburgh office, listening to four second-hand Rod Stewart albums he had just bought for £2.50 when the phone started ringing and ringing… a local paper had unveiled Fraser's scheme for 150 Tibetan-style flagpoles on Edinburgh's Carlton Hill, with ...
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Opinion
Arb propaganda
Susan Ware invites your readers to take a look at a fuller version of her letter (April 2) on Arb's website. There, in an attempt to defend the indefensible from the well-directed criticism of Jack Pringle, she claims that a less secretive organisation is difficult to imagine.It speaks loudly of ...
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Opinion
Adult-only Egan
Architects are shuddering again at the thought of John Egan returning to the fray with his skills report this week. Memories of wrestling with his obsession with supply chain management came flooding back to designers at the Building Awards on Tuesday. Egan, it seems, is for adults only. “I wouldn’t ...
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OpinionUnlucky winner
I refer to the front-page story, "Client shows 'contempt' for RIBA contest" (News April 8).First, the Middlesbrough town hall competition was not an RIBA contest. Second, the RIBA did not run a design competition for the Corn Exchange in Bury St Edmunds. The basis of selection was competitive interview with ...
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Opinion
Wright stuff
Americans love Frank Lloyd Wright almost as much as they love anything even vaguely historical. So when the two come together the dollars flow, as demonstrated by the $400,000 preservation of a small prefabricated house designed by the master architect in Illinois. The 1957 home is being taken apart and ...
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Opinion
Quality in quantity
Further to the article "RIBA plots credentials crackdown" (News April 2), I would like to clarify the issues discussed.My quotes relate to outline proposals for a higher standard of chartered practice. Out of this may come some changes to the RIBA registered practice system, but there are no firm plans ...
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OpinionLessons in prefab
What is wrong with prefabricated schools? Clearly, it is justifiable to condemn the development of a building’s detail design proceeding without the full involvement of its architect. However, “Schools face ‘dumbing down’” (News April 2) did not primarily address this. It appeared to focus more on the suggestion that prefabrication ...
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Opinion
Regional fairness
I was at first shocked when I read that the RIBA was to get strict on those that do not comply in terms of membership, professional indemnity insurance and CPD, but then I realised it would rid me of the unfair competition and I thought it an excellent move. However, ...
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Opinion
The wrath of EH
The Audit Commission has run the rule over Runnymede District Council, which gave Beadle consent to demolish the Wentworth house by Connell Ward & Lucas. The council, whose planning committee sanctioned the demolition subject to John Prescott’s approval, has been designated an “excellent” local authority with particular reference to making ...
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Opinion
Design falls into the wrong hands
One can’t fault the intention behind the amendment of planning law to improve building design standards, but providing local planning authorities with the power to determine the design merits of an application will not necessarily end happily.Having recently won two planning appeals; the grounds in part being based on PPG1 ...
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Opinion
Dictating demands
Romanian architect Anca Petrescu is looking for work having just completed her first job. The 54-year-old is available after completing the world’s second largest building, the 3,700-room Parliament Palace in Bucharest. She can call on experience of a demanding client (the late dictator Nicolae Ceausescu), the interruption of a palace ...
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Opinion
Cost versus ego
Victor Stellyes, project manager for contractor Costain on Daniel Libeskind's London Metropolitan University building, revealed the high level of cost-cutting at a recent BD conference.His illustrations showed the scheme had not altogether changed, but the project lost its stellar appeal because the closer details, finishes and specification lacked the careful ...
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Opinion
The celebrity racket
“I am summoned to the RIPBA. The president, Fred Trousers, has ‘writer’s skid’”
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Opinion
Clissold cacophony
A series of bizarre faults with the Clissold Leisure Centre are listed in Hackney council’s latest report on the troubled north London building. One item on the list reads: “Inadequate privacy to female changing rooms.” Another states: “Blocked symphonic drainage outlets”. The last one perplexed BD. Isn’t the word “symphonic” ...
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Opinion
Ban the bad
RIBA president George Ferguson is urging architects to “practise intolerance” on bad architecture with a rallying call on the profession to be “as intolerant of bad and mediocre architecture and planning as we should be of bad food”. So next time you walk past a building, you don’t like you ...
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Opinion
Angela Brady
Building the Dream is a new reality game show with the biggest prize ever given away on daytime TV – a £500,000 house designed by architect Brady Mallalieu. Here Brady talks to Karen Glaser about being broadcast to the nation
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Opinion
Stand firm against PFI trophy hunters
Is it commercially astute or cynically manipulative to hire good architects to improve your PFI bid and then drop their services once you’ve won?