黑洞社区

锘縕aha Hadid winning the Stirling prize for an 鈥渆xpensive鈥� Brixton school; is it a shot in the foot or a shot in the arm for British architecture?

Every generation or so it seems that architects have to re-convince the Brits about the value of investing in good design. Each time, we have to use a different argument depending on the prevailing national mood. Like George Bush Jr said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 like deja vu, all over again鈥�.

Some blame our pragmatic anti-design culture on Henry VIII. He sacked the monasteries and churches, putting the religious art industry in England out of business and arguably turning us into a literary society (enter Shakespeare, Bacon and so on). We still write more books than the Americans, despite being a third of their size. But you can鈥檛 blame it on Protestantism. The Germans and Scandinavians 鈥済et art鈥� and 鈥済et architecture鈥� in a way we just don鈥檛. It鈥檚 in their cultural DNA - just like it鈥檚 in the Mediterraneans鈥� and the South Americans鈥�. The irony is that as we have brilliant art and architecture courses and we turn out some of the best artists and architects in the world.

I thought we had it cracked during the long Labour boom when great design and architecture became a lifestyle magazine subject and even the schools鈥� programmes became infused with the necessity for good architecture to support good teaching. It seemed like the Brits, at last, got good design and our best architects could return from exile, from building in Germany and Asia, to practice at home. I failed to see the trap PFI and the bankers had set us.

Headlining with 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future (BSF), architects have become associated under the new Tory government with projects where needless excess seemed to triumph over common sense to burden us with debt. This is a misunderstanding, giving everyone a scapegoat. In reality the architects were working to a brief delivered by their PFI paymasters, those same paymasters who are offering flat-pack one-size-fits-all solutions now the wind has changed.

What is in the Brits鈥� DNA is ingenuity and architects are no exception. If we want well designed schools with standard components at lowest cost and highest speed, all you need to do is ask. There are plenty of top-class teams supported by their consulting and supply chain colleagues, who can deliver just that. Just look at the CLASP schools by Henry Swain, Patera office systems by Hopkins, Oxford and Nucleus system hospitals by Powell and Moya to cite but a few. We need to use our talent, not be afraid of it or marginalise it.

So, back to Zaha鈥檚 win at the Stirling. A shot in the foot or the arm? Her well-fancied rival was Hopkins鈥� velodrome at the Olympic park. An elegant structure, it is easy on the eye and super politically correct. It looks forward to the Olympics, a Labour project enthusiastically adopted by the Tories (unlike BSF) and part of the regeneration of not only the Lea Valley but the whole nation. It was the public鈥檚 favourite and the live Stirling Prize audience in the Wilkinson Eyre鈥檚 (Stirling-winning) Magna Centre just knew it would win. But it didn鈥檛 and rumour has it that it didn鈥檛 even come second, it was beaten into third place by an insignificant looking (but actually very beautiful) Northern Irish project. Are architects mad? Don鈥檛 they know what鈥檚 good for them? When they are in a hole, don鈥檛 they know to stop digging?

There are two truths here. Firstly architects don鈥檛 give the most important architecture prize in the UK to the scheme they think will please the government. I for one would hate it if they did. Secondly, you can鈥檛 judge buildings by their photographs. The RIBA insists that contending buildings are visited and having been a Stirling judge I know how important that is.

黑洞社区s need to be experienced first-hand to understand their qualities. You need to hear the story from the client and the users and to touch, feel and observe the building in use.
And anyway, I think that it鈥檚 pretty good to give generations of kids in Brixton an amazing building that might well change their lives, by one of the world鈥檚 greatest architects. That is a real legacy (eat your heart out Olympic park) and if it鈥檚 no longer PC, too bad. Will we design this type of school again in the near future? No, circumstances have changed; we can do something else that鈥檚 appropriate to the times that will be good in a different way.

Hadid鈥檚 Evelyn Grace Academy is a shot in the arm and a reminder of what real architecture can do for some very disadvantaged people.

Jack Pringle is a partner in Pringle Brandon