New year's resolutions for architects in 2015

A monumental mistake? Zaha Hadids Tokyo Olympic stadium has drawn criticism from Japanese architects. Image: ZHA Photograph: AP

If nearly every venerable architect in the host country slams your proposed design for a building as a monumental mistake and a disgrace to future generations, its probably a good idea to reconsider. Not so Zaha Hadid, who, after facing calls for her Tokyo Olympic stadium to be scrapped following a petition of 32,000 signatures and an open letter of opposition from a host of eminent Japanese architects simply accused the locals of jealousy. I think its embarrassing for them, she said. I understand its their town, but theyre hypocrites. The fact that they lost [the competition] is their problem.

Facebook

Pinterest

Youll have two icons sat side by side. What could be better than that? So asked Rob Tincknell, the man in charge of the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station, before unveiling his plan to build an architectural petting zoo around Giles Gilbert Scotts brick cathedral of electricity. The power station-reborn-as-mall will be reached along a high street (AKA a gauntlet of luxury apartments), with a wiggling glass worm by Norman Foster on one side and a scrunched-up metal flower by Frank Gehry on the other, terminating in a big swoopy hole scooped out by Danish funsters, BIG. Its the kind of car crash of competing icons that might make you wish the place had been left as a majestic ruin.

Since the Shard broke on to the London skyline as a dazzling crystal spear, many have been the lesser buildings that have tried to emulate its fractured facets with the odd bit of wonky glass hung askew. The city is now littered with crumpled glazing and angular floor-plates terminating in useless acute angles. These are not urban jewels, nor do they reflect a vision of a multi-faceted world. Theyre ugly hulks with shoddy details those ambitious multi-angled joints usually bodged with a splurge of mastic and the result just looks like something went wrong with a Sketch-Up computer model, the whole thing triangulated to oblivion. If in doubt, keep it orthogonal in 2015.

Facebook

Pinterest

Heres an idea for a makeover. Why not flay the skin off a supermodel and stretch it over your own body? You might have difficulty seeing, given that your eye-holes probably wont match up, and you might not be able to breathe through that misplaced mouth, but no matter. Youll look great. And you can apply the same idea to your buildings. The six-storey 300-room student accommodation block youre planning might not fit behind that nice four-storey Victorian brick frontage, but what the hell. You can squeeze it in. Theyre only students. They wont realise that their windows look out on to a blank brick wall and that they cant fully open their front door. And the conservation officer will give you extra Brownie points for retaining a beloved heritage asset. Win win.

Time was when the lord of the manor went in through the front door and his lesser servant-serfs went in round the back. But the chances are that the apartment block youre designing isnt the new set of Downton Abbey, so theres really no excuse for specifying a poor door. If your housing association client insists on the affordable housing units having a separate entrance for maintenance reasons, then at least design it on equal terms as the market-rate housing and dont hide it down a service alley next to the bins.

View post:
New year's resolutions for architects in 2015