All Letters to the editor articles – Page 68
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Opinion
Man’s world?
I am intrigued to know why Paul King’s task force to draw up the new new Code for Sustainable Buildings (News September 19) is entirely made up of men. Do UK women have nothing to contribute to this topic?
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Opinion
He’s no Scot
Contrary to Kathryn Findlay’s and popular belief (Scotland: A Celebration September 12), Catherine the Great’s architect, Charles Cameron, was no Scot but the son of a London builder.
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Opinion
Flair despair
Touring several architects’ own houses during Open House this weekend, it is obvious that there is a lot of talent out there, much of which has been strangled by planners.
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OpinionCabe criteria need quality too
Following my letter (September 12) about Cabe criteria, I should like to point out two puzzling contradictions in last week’s Opinion piece by Cabe deputy chairman Paul Morrell.
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OpinionBook misquoted?
In his review of Styliane Philippou’s Oscar Niemeyer: Curves of Irreverence (Culture September 12), Richard Weston apparently follows Philippou’s lead in lumping me together with “detractors” of the Brasilian architect.
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OpinionSaarinen style
I feel I should correct Dennis Sharp’s piece on the American Embassy (Debate August 29) when he calls Eero Saarinen a “Finnish” architect. His father may have been, but Eero was an American when he competed for the embassy project.
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Opinion
The public’s plan
Saul Metzstein in his comments on Kevin McCloud & The Big Town Plan TV programme (Culture September 12) did not mention the role of the public in finding solutions to Castleford’s regeneration.
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OpinionHigh standards despite ratios
Architecture degrees leap in popularity (News September 5) revealed that the annual number of students studying architecture has jumped by 10,000 in four years.
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Opinion
Not consulted
In response to ACA’s publication of its own appointment document (News September 5), Richard Brindley is quoted as being “disappointed” because “the ACA was extensively consulted in the initial development of the RIBA contracts”.
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Opinion
Free range choice
Boundaries can either confine ideas and produce pedestrian work or can provide the impetus for tangential solutions and creative ideas. This is true both in schools and in the workplace.
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OpinionGood and bad
Wasn’t Barking town centre one of the examples Margaret Hodge chose (News Analysis March 20) to illustrate what she believes is good modern architecture as opposed to bad Robin Hood Gardens?
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Opinion
Power surge
Heathrow is indeed too bossy by half (Jonathan Glancey, September 5). Apart from anything else, a flight path over Greater London has always been close to madness on safety grounds.
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Opinion
Murphy’s law
Perhaps Richard Murphy has spent so long “building down back lanes or in people’s back gardens” that he has lost sight of the rare characteristics that make Edinburgh such an inappropriate location for ego-driven architecture (Solutions, September 5).
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Opinion
..or habitual prejudice?
All traditionalists must be grateful for the editor’s call for balance. It is interesting, however, to see that the editorial itself is a concise sample of habitual professional prejudice.
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Opinion
Height of fame
When illustrating A Rich Harvest (Culture September 5) with the BT Tower, it was amiss of Liz Bury not to attribute the building design to the late Eric Bedford, chief architect of the Ministry of Works.
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OpinionDesign wobble?
Has anyone else noticed that flicking from the Practice page to the Archive picture (BD September 5) gives a good indication of the extent to which a designer’s responsibilities have changed… even if the bottom of the ladder is “adequately secured”?Bryan Scott, Hitchin, Hertfordshire
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Opinion
Costly Hadid
When are you going to learn that commissioning a Zaha Hadid building (News September 5) always produces the same tale of a rising budget for an overambitious, “iconic” structure?
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OpinionCorrect on the classicists…
I am one of the few surviving from the Bartlett of the fifties — the last school of classical architecture in the apostolic tradition of the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
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Opinion
Checking criteria
I was disturbed to read that it will be a requirement for local authorities to report on the design quality of new housing by marking performance against Cabe’s set of 20 criteria (News August 29).
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OpinionWearing well
I can’t believe that was me in July 1978, sitting next to Sam Webb and Clare Frankl at the RIBA Liverpool conference (Archive August 29).