Architecture Foundation: pointy metal building...

Good point LR.

I expect that someone called Daniel Liebeskind may find it easier to get commissions from e.g. various Jewish foundations (see his site. He seems to have done a heck of a lot of Jewish museums as a % of total work) than someone called Zaha Hadid.

(Of course, I've jumped to the conclusion that Zaha Hadid is a Muslim name without any support or knowledge, and am now waiting for someone to tell me she's actually a radical Zionist. Just thought I'd better point out my own ignorance before anyone else did)

I am dead chuffed that she has finally got something that is going to be buit in se1. I don';t think she has had much built at all (if I recall). I don''t think it looks much like Liebeskind's stuff either (other than that the image is grey/metallic ) but it is really hard to see from that image. It will be opposite the building that used to have FurureBrand in - which is also a wee bit leany-pointy.

btw Ivanhoe - I think I might have that as well - a kind of tingling in my nose as I go over the Thames and then a dull headache the further North I go in London. Also a mild Tourettes-like affliction which makes me boast wildly about Sarf of the River to any soft North London types (before I nut 'em - of course).

...edited to say 'FutureBrand'



Edited 1 times. Last edit at 12 January 2005 5.19pm by red bus.

Wot, redbus? You speak to people North of the River?!?!?! I hope you wear a surgical mask to prevent ingress of germs.

I have merged janefs's other message into this thread.

When we're old and grey, (or in our case even older and greyer) we'll be so SMUG that we were the trail blazers of SOUTH OF THE RIVER. Already ten years in this neck of the woods, we wouldnt go bck North if they paid us. And we were refugees from Belgravia!! (Shameful I know, but you have to forgive us). The Zara Hadid building is smashing, it will be a terrific draw...although do we want draws? I'm getting a bit possessive, dont know if I want all those Northerners down here.

Go see the exhibition at the Ragged School. The judges report suggests that the decision was close. The runner-up is a fascinating proposal if you take the time to work it out from the presentation material, and theres an opportunity to make your own comments on a message board. However. the drawings for Hadids scheme and particularly the model which allows a 'street level' view from various approaches, have great impact and clarity. Info material states that there are 'unresolved issues' to be sorted out - I hope Southwark allow this building to become a beautiful little gem among its relatively ordinary corporate neighbours.

I didn't like Zaha Hadid's inhabited bridge design ,that was never built.

the Architecture Foundation requires something eye caching

and this fits the bill.

it does look like an abstraction pulled from nowhere. though

rather than something inspired by the area around like the Scottish
assembly which I love.

Rowan Moore - director of the soon-to-be-Southwark-Street-
based Architecture Foundation - praises the Hop exchange

nice to hear some sensible comment coming from the
inhabitants
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/nmCentre/images/latest/index.htm







Edited 1 times. Last edit at 17 January 2005 4.36pm by mickysalt.

i would second janefs's comments. You have to ring the bell at the ragged school to gain entry, but it's worth the effort.

I have to say that I wasn't very impressed by whichever of the shortlisted practices it was that consistently referred to 'Southwalk Street' on the plans they submitted.

{Apologies for not posting earlier}

Don't forget that the exhibition only runs until 23 January at The Ragged School, 47 Union Street.

weekdays 12 - 7pm weekends 12 - 5pm

I went along earlier in the week. I hadn't realised just how much the site will be dominated by the Land Securities project Bankside 123 that will rear up behind and for which the Architecture Foundation is presumably part of the "planning gain".

Most of the presentations failed to make clear just how tiny the competition site is relative to that development (on the site of the enormous 1960s St Christopher House). Bankside 123 has been given a veneer of architectural respectability by Allies and Morrison, but it still elephantine. The published graphic of the winning design is thoroughly misleading in making the larger block appear transluscent, when being south facing, it will be highly reflective and obvious.

There are fundamental questions about why the Architecture Foundation only get such a short lease on the site - can it really only be for ten years!

I went along expecting to be impressed by the Hadid design, but I was very disappointed. No two surfaces appear to be at 90 degrees to each other, but there seemed to be no alternative underlying logic to the design - described as a solid concrete ribbon folded over itself.

I fear that although it is striking - in a vertigo inducing Cabinet of Doctor Caligari expressionistic way -it will be even less fit for purpose as a flexible exhibition space than the Hayward.

I liked the Foreign Office Architects scheme, which seemed to work as a piece of sculpture both by day and night, as well as a building