All articles by Gus Alexander – Page 4
-
FeaturesGateshead M&S by John Pawson: Nothing to shout about
Marks & Spencer’s efforts to rebrand itself as a sophisticated purveyor of aspirational housewear has led it to put a super-minimalist John Pawson house in its Gateshead store. We ran a jaundiced eye over the results …
-
Comment
Serves us right
The maddeningly dysfunctional nature of Britain's planning system can be largely explained by the general rule that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys
-
Comment
The couch brigade
Billions have been earmarked for new schools and hospitals, but who's going to build them? Either we rely on the Europeans – or we poach a few psychiatrists
-
Comment
Granting a sultan's wish
Architects are capable of anything – as long as they're given unlimited funds, resources and co-operation, and have no competition. Ah, them were the days …
-
Comment
How to repel women
Why are there so few women architects? Disinclination? Not really up to it? Indifference? Or because they take one look at the profession and run a mile?
-
FeaturesCircling the square
We visit the new buildings at Paternoster Square, next door to St Paul’s Cathedral, and find them to be a great British success story – because they give everybody something to moan about …
-
Comment
Drawing to a close
Architectural drawings were once signature pieces that told us a lot about those who did them. Now the RIBA has a great scheme to save them from extinction
-
Comment
Imhotep & Sons
The first ever architect was so successful, his descendants became pharoahs. Now, 4500 years later, the profession is still plagued by the unreliability of dynasties
-
Comment
O ye of little faith
If God is in the details, then there are one heck of a lot of buildings going up devoid of the least sign of the divine presence …
-
Comment
Gifts from Saint Nick
What would you do if someone offered you top-notch second-hand gear at rock-bottom prices … in a carrier bag … in a pub … under the table …?
-
Comment
The avenger
It was a bank holiday when the call came. Emergency gas leak, or so they thought. Here was a chance to pay back all those years of being messed around …
-
Comment
Unlikely bedfellows
Gus Alexander Small architectural practices are meant to have more clout on PFI projects if they get into bed with big contracting consortiums. But it's a recipe for sleepless nights
-
Comment
Top notch it ain't
Now that green-belt policy looks set to get some slack, we should ask how much longer rural developers can go on building such wretchedly ugly houses
-
Comment
Face the facts
When it comes to inner city social housing, boring, old-fashioned public procurement is the most amazingly good deal for the taxpayer. Unlike the PFI …
-
Comment
Follow the pied piper
Egan is leading us to a wonderful, magical world where buildings are replaced by clip-together kits and all our trained craftsmen mysteriously disappear …
-
Comment
Two's a crowd
Tough developers who try to cut costs by getting Sir Raphael Bowtie to do the concept and Cheapskate & Prune the execution are just asking for trouble
-
Comment
Procure for all ills
Things always go wrong when things are being built. But combine a novice client with a new procurement method, and it could spell disaster
-
Comment
Out with the old
The architecture of the British tourist industry must move with the times and stop attempting to recreate an ersatz past
-
Comment
The brand plays on
After years of talk, the RIBA is sprucing up its image and its spectacular headquarters. At last it looks like an organisation that knows a bit about design
-
Comment
Labour pains
Gus Alexander - New Labour's enthraldom to big business means we're all being held to ransom by private monopolies that don't know their elbows from a hole in the ground