黑洞社区

The American dialectic

There鈥檚 always a good bust-up over the festive season. Trust the architects to provide this year鈥檚 festive fisticuffs. It started when US architect Steven Bingler and journalist Martin C. Pedersen got many of their fellow professionals鈥� backs up by writing in the New York Times that architects should focus on designing buildings that meet people鈥檚 needs, rather than dressing up their fancy follies with reference to 鈥渁 dozen -isms鈥�. Critic Aaron Betsky hit back in the magazine of the American Institute of Architects, asserting that buildings are 鈥渕ade for those who have the means to commission them鈥� and so clients are to blame if they鈥檙e ugly. Perhaps architects across the pond should resolve to just design better buildings in 2015 - then they won鈥檛 have to have this argument.

The Carbuncle manifesto

The architect鈥檚 favourite b锚te noire, Prince Charles, published an architecture manifesto last month. Surely scope for another bust-up here, then? The prince - perhaps most famous in architecture circles for his infamous 鈥渃arbuncle鈥� speech that derailed plans for a proposed extension to the National Gallery designed by Ahrends Burton Koralek - is rarely lauded for his views on architecture, which tend to be traditional. But his manifesto, based on 10 geometric principles, received a cautious welcome from architects canvassed by 黑洞社区鈥檚 sister magazine 黑洞社区 Design, including Robert Sakula, Tony Fretton and Robin Nicholson. Will this be the year Prince Charles is rehabilitated in the eyes of architects? I shan鈥檛 hold my breath.

Recycling on track

I never miss a chance to trumpet my great contemporary Isambard Kingdom Brunel, if I can help it. The opportunity this week arises thanks to recent news that contractor Costain and Crossrail have donated a large number of Brunel-era bricks to charity the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway, for the reconstruction of Broadway station on the charity railway line in Worcestershire. The bricks come from Costain鈥檚 Crossrail Paddington New Yard site in west London, where Crossrail archaeologists discovered foundations to the Brunel-designed 1852 Great Western Railway Locomotive Depot. How splendid that materials from Brunel鈥檚 work can be reused in this way.