All Letters to the editor articles – Page 31
-
Opinion
No comparison
Reviewing Shoshan/Grootens’ Atlas of the Conflict: Israel-Palestine, Levent Kerimol suggests that “an equivalent look at Jewish ghettos, holocausts and pogroms, placed alongside the constrained conditions of Palestinian Arabs could raise an ironic hypocrisy in the present situation”.
-
Opinion
Border skirmish
Levent Kerimol is an unlikely character to review Atlas of the Conflict: Israel-Palestine.
-
OpinionAn insult to all who gave time
The creation of the RIBA Trust a few years ago really marked a positive sea change in the way the cultural side of architecture was to be cared for
-
Opinion
All in it together
You quote Richard MacCormac in the issue of 14 January as being worried “about the RIBA’s ability to maintain its scholarly commitments”
-
OpinionRedesigning the review process
In the past a “design review” typically meant that a panel of professionals from fields such as architecture, planning, landscape design, and development would scrutinise a proposal, and then advise the local authority or developer on how it might be improved.
-
Opinion
Join the protest
For 12 months, I and the Friends of The Green Park and other intelligent and caring souls have tried to convince the authorities and Bomber Command Association to withdraw from causing irreparable harm to Green Park.
-
OpinionA fitting tribute?
The design of the £5 million memorial to Bomber Command with its irrelevant and inappropriate 85m-long classical colonnade, more suited to Berlin in the thirties, along the South side of Piccadilly, was granted planning permission against the recommendations of the City of Westminster’s own planning officers.
-
OpinionTowers of Babel
With regard to Tower Hamlets Council’s refusal to grant planning permission to the Limeharbour development (“Council blasts Limeharbour plans” News January 7), one can agree with the arguments of lack of 106 agreement and possibly affordable housing volume.
-
OpinionTalk to people who know
Oddly, the two bids for the design review (“Riba could usurp Cabe in bid to run design reviews” 17 December 2010) are both from national bodies claiming to be capable of acting locally.
-
Opinion
Begging to differ
Ruth Reed was mistaken to claim that Cabe has not been involved with villages or small urban areas.
-
Opinion
Rhubarb listing
There are very few true brickwork forcing sheds left now in the “rhubarb triangle”, and even fewer timber ones, but the brick ones can be seen sometimes in passing.
-
OpinionSteeling thunder
How interesting that John Thorp (Review 2010 December 17) acknowledges the rhubarb shed, where form follows function, as a piece of vernacular architecture.
-
Opinion
Staying on track
Your final issue for 2010 leaves the impression that some architectural luminaries’ judgments are going a bit astray in two areas.
-
OpinionA matter of trust
Riba Council’s decision on December 10 (bdonline December 14) removes the function and independence of the Riba Trust
-
Opinion
Local villains
Localism is simply the worst thing that will have happened to the building industry in the UK, especially in regards to the urgent need for delivery of housing to meet the needs of an increasing population.Anyone with experience in the sector knows the public detest having any change and progress ...
-
Opinion
Let Riba rethink
I have just heard of the extraordinary decision to wind up the Riba Trust. This is devastating news
-
Opinion
Local heroes
There are many practical details to be clarified, but the localism bill’s requirement that developers must consult communities before submitting planning applications for large developments (News December 10), and give local people a real chance to comment on the proposals and to influence the design before it has gelled, will ...
-
Opinion
A hard lesson
I completely support the actions of protesting students (News December 10) but I do think we are witnessing something that goes much further than the fees issue and is finally going to challenge the very fundamentals of the rigid architectural education system.For decades, the seven-year, three-part qualification process has been ...
-
OpinionDown like a ton of bricks
Further to your report on a possible carbon tax on bricks (News December 10) the EU should realise that while brick-making might require upfront energy consumption, bricks can last absolutely indefinitely – think Babylon stepped ziggurats. Compare that to steel and other thin sheet materials used for cladding, which can ...
-
Opinion
Up to the mark
In the scramble to cut cost and red tape, housing minister Grant Shapps may be missing the value of housing standards. Get them right and they don’t automatically push up costs, reduce choice or curtail supply; they provide benchmarks that allow us to compare housing quality