黑洞社区

Problems like the housing crisis and mediocre development will be overcome by the 鈥渟heer shining talent鈥� of Britain鈥檚 finest architects, Stephen Fry predicted at 黑洞社区鈥檚 sister title BD鈥檚 Architect of the Year Awards.

The best architecture will filter down and eventually become 鈥渙rdinary and expected 鈥� and that鈥檚 a marvellous thing鈥�, he said.

He praised the 800 architects at the awards ceremony for their part in shaping a better world and said theirs was a glorious calling.

Ugliness was a moral failure, he said, singling out Leo A Daly鈥檚 Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City as a particularly egregious example, likening it to a marble abattoir.

Earlier, giving the keynote speech at the Ecobuild conference, he warned that our best architects were building abroad because they were not appreciated here.

And he articulated 鈥渆veryone鈥檚 nightmare鈥� that English towns and cities were being 鈥渨orld-glossed鈥� into Dubai.

鈥淲e ought to be living in a golden age of architecture, if we could allow architecture to take centre stage in the business of development and construction,鈥� he said.

Every month 鈥渕agical鈥� new materials were invented which 鈥渢ogether with a trained architect and enlightened public officials and contractors could allow us to live in a self-confidently modern age that could be thrilling.鈥�

Instead he warned the country not to repeat the mistakes of the last century and build 鈥渙ffensive鈥� flats with walls that could be punched through.

鈥淲e are led by crisis in this country and our crisis is housing, as it was after the war,鈥� he said.

鈥淧lanners were being pushed to build, build, build and it took us two decades to see what happened. Now we are being told the same but we want to see proper housing. We want to build things that aren鈥檛 contemptuous of people and where we feel the architect has loved us and took pleasure and joy in leading us round a place.鈥�