Architecture News

[Mike]

PFI has failed and should be replaced and bought out immediately with all future schemes being fully accountable to the Public Sector. £217bn in hidden public debt. This is the highlight figures from Unison and just shows a glimmer of intelligence.

PFI are great if you absolutely NAIL the brief to the contractor. No putting up new coat hooks etc if you miss something out.

One example is a school had forgotten to ask for coat hooks in art classrooms. The PFI management contractor reviewed the costs for putting up 30 coat hooks over the life of the building and sought £5k extra. School decided this was too much and put up their own coat hooks. PFI contractor removed them and made good the wall (in line with thier contractural agreement) and sent a 3K bill to the Headteacher. Great value for money I think you will all agree.

[mr_e]

Something tells me that a large part of that £5k coat-hook cost is pure profit. Which was always going to be the problem with PFI in the first place. The government suck at getting value for money with almost everything they do that involves private sector contractors. Which is everything.

[Mike]

Not really, you have to factor in the maintenance and replacement of coat hooks over a 25 year period, the fragility of the system (ie how many times it will need replacing with clumbsy kids using them) and the risk involved in the wall, hooks and equipment that they are responsible for getting damaged.

You could argue that PFI is anti-competitive because it becomes a closed market.

[Mike]

President Medals award from the RIBA. Some really good work is shown here.

[Mike]

Will 'The blob' Alsop is returning to Architecture after a 3 month spell of rest and relaxation after a painful divorce from his previous employers. The article is quite interesting and has a good few quotes that I agree with heartilly.

architecture had become "like pulling teeth", he complained

You need time and you need relative relaxation in order to work your way into a project, and if you don't do that you just end up repeating what you've already done

Honestly the last one does not remind me of anywhere in particular.