Wonders & blunders

The Michelin building on the Fulham Road is a great example of how the revitalisation of a building can kick-start a whole area. I like the number of uses it has now – retail, food, offices. That's bound to create a more vibrant environment than having offices over there and retail over here.

The tiled pictures of the Michelin man are glorious, I love the light and there's always something happening – you can sit in the café downstairs, and they sell fish and flowers at the front. I remember thinking when it was being developed will it work, but full credit to Sir Terence Conran and the late Sir Paul Hamlyn for such a brave and imaginative restoration.

My blunder is a Dave Wilson Homes' estate in Hungerford. Frankly, if you look at the houses, they could be anywhere. I'm not saying they're badly built or that the residents aren't happy, just that they have been dumped on the landscape without any consideration of the topography or the characteristics of the area. They're basically taking advantage of PPG3 to increase the densities without improving the overall quality of design. My other bugbear is that there seems to be at least one new piece of road furniture for every house – lighting, roundabout ahead signs and other paraphernalia. You don't need this kind of visual pollution – it's complete overkill.