Prince Charles 'Carbuncle Speak Reduex'

[Mike]

Prince Charles has taken another pot shot at the Carbuncles that blight our cities skyline. I feel that he has been spending rather too much time building twee minics of the past such as his new village Surfbury (Surf in a place name! Is he mad?! Does he not see the potential jokes inherent in the name which will no doubt be at his expense).

The twee mimics have included windows bricked up to mimic the window tax era (to mimic the history of a building in a new building) and other veneers of history and respectability that are just pointless.

I suppose this affectation is no worse than a Barrat home but oh my god will people never learn?

[stimpsonslostson]

Good old Chuck, always engaging his mouth before his brain. (Maybe slightly like his dad?) I can see his point in some respects- the new ultramodern buildings don't always (to my mind) sit easily with old city sites.
A clear distiction between old and new can work well. The national museum of scotland is one that springs to mind as being sympathetic to its surroundings whilst still being both modern and interesting. I have mixed feelings about skyscrapers, the beetham is impressive but I can't claim to like it very much.
However I also think that the faux old buildings are usually dreadful- Stirling Castles great hall was painted yellow "because thats the original colour it was when it was built"... as the rest of the building has aged for centuries the new bit is referred to as the Lego castle!

p

[mr_e]

I picked up one of Stan's AJ's (or some similar title), and it had an article, albeit a year or so old, bemoaning the fact that modern architects can't design streets very well. It did have a valid point: basically, there's too much desire to be unique and groundbreaking with every building. Anyone got any decent examples of modern streets to prove this wrong?

The Prince's schemes do seem to be pretty good on the sustainability side, and despite how twee they may look, I gather they're rather popular. Each to their own and all that.

Having watched Grand Designs a bit, English Heritage seem fairly good about restorations: they've basically said don't make new stuff look old, the new bits will reveal the history of the building in the future. The opposite appears to be true in areas of Italy, for example.

[Mike]

I picked up one of Stan's AJ's (or some similar title), and it had an article, albeit a year or so old, bemoaning the fact that modern architects can't design streets very well.

I don't know if this is true or not - I don't know the article in question but was it a lay person or a professional? We don't design many streets here to give you an idea of it, however, there are some great examples. I will try and dig them out and post it later.

English Heritage seem fairly good about restorations: they've basically said don't make new stuff look old, the new bits will reveal the history of the building in the future.

I personally prefer this method. The new bits are part of a tapestry that becomes history. We can not force it by being twee and stuck in a false window rut!