The month: February 2012

Isi Metzstein, John Madin
Last month, sadly, saw the deaths of two of the UK’s great modernists, Isi Metzstein and John Madin, causing an outpouring of condolences and remembrances from the profession. Metzstein worked for the great Scottish modernist firm Gillespie, Kidd and Coia with lifelong collaborator Andy MacMillan, and took control of Scotland’s new catholic church building programme. Their modernist thinking produced the late, great St Peter’s Seminary, Cardross, while their tendency to constantly amend drawn details led colleagues to call them the ‘alter boys’. Isi was also a noted teacher, reportedly influencing generations of architects.
John Madin, born in Birmingham in 1924, was to become one of the UK’s most influential Brutalists, reshaping his home city post-war- most recognisably with his inverted concrete ziggurat Central Library (1974), which Pevsner called ‘the finest example of the post-war public building in Birmingham.’ CK

Pre-pack in the spotlight
With the liquidation of YRM and its subsequent sale to the RMJM the impact of the prepack agreements has come into question again. BD reports that salaries as well as PAYE and NI were left unpaid by the firm and that most of the 25 who have now lost their jobs will have to apply to the government’s statutory payment scheme for any sort of redundancy payment. Five jobs have been transferred to RMJM including one time YRM chief executive John Clemow. It is thought the firm was bought for the value of nuclear projects in the pipeline (RIBA J March 2011).
RIBA president Angela Brady said: ‘This seems very harsh on staff, the hardship to the former employees their families but also the loss of talent and energy to the profession, industry and the economy.’ EY

Och aye gets the eh!-oh
Diller, Scofidio and Renfro was announced winner of the contentious Aberdeen City Garden project, intended to reinvent the city centre’s Union Terrace Gardens. The firm beat Foster+Partners, and if built, it will be the first UK project for the noted New York practitioners and academics.
The emphasis should be on the word ‘if’, as a significant lobby has gathered to oppose the £140m proposal, which the local council went ahead with despite an initial public consultation that saw 55% of respondents reject it (RIBAJ May 2011). Mike Shepherd of the Friends of Union Terrace Gardens has described the scheme of artificial hillocks and high level concrete walkways over grass as a ‘Teletubby Park’, while John Stewart, chairman of the of the City Garden Project Management Board has said it could be ‘Aberdeen’s Eden Project, our Guggenheim’. Apart from the design, part of the issue seems to be that commercial interests may partially privatise this public space. It seems the jury’s out, at least until 1 March, when a new public referendum will decide the issue once and for all. CK

Commonwealth revival
The Design Museum has revealed its £80m plans for the grade 2* listed Commonwealth Institute. The designs are predicated on changing the way the building operates as well as the need to rescue this building ‘quietly and gently’ says director Deyan Sudjic, ‘It is a fantastic gestural building but it was built on a limited budget and it failed.’ 
The grand hyperbolic paraboloid roof will remain, but most of the rest will be reconstructed.
OMA will replace the patched outer skin with a glass facade that will give the same monolithic appearance but allow glimpses through. ‘The skin was just blue glass and blockwork,’ says Sudjic, ‘with a foot and a half of space with no insulation at all.’
Inside, John Pawson’s plans show how the basement will be dug out for additional galleries and the existing floors replaced. The floors are already working to the limit of their structural capacity. The ground floor will be compartmentalised to manage temporary exhibitions but access to the foyers will be free. EY

Boat/house
Not since Piercy Conner’s ‘microflat’ concept has so much critical attention been devoted to such a small building. The ‘Room for London’ on top of the Queen Elizabeth Hall takes the form of a boat, themed on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness. Jointly commissioned by Alain de Botton’s Living Architecture modern holiday-homes company and by art organisation Artangel, it will be in place throughout 2012 – and then go looking for a new site. It is designed by architect David Kohn with artist Fiona Banner. The critics have given it near universal praise. HP

A new Blackpool tower
Clad in golden shingles and sparkly bricks in honour of its position on Blackpool’s Golden Mile, and designed with a tall window to frame the Blackpool Tower itself, this is a squatter rival, dubbed the Tower of Love. Designed by dRMM Architects, it is a combined wedding chapel and registry office, with tourist information centre and restaurant (still to be let). The main wedding room is on the top floor, while the registry office overlooks the sea.  The building – the first to be built on Blackpool’s extensively rebuilt and landscaped promenade – is constructed of engineered timber; very thick, it enjoys a BREEAM ‘excellent’ rating. The wedding room cantilevers out over a roof terrace and the entrance to provide shelter. There is a fine ceremonial staircase, also in chunky timber.  It’s a shapeist building but without being too kiss-me-quick. HP

Fewer women in architecture
Concern over the effect of recession on women architects has been raised by a 7% fall in their working number.
Practices surveyed for the monthly RIBA Future Trends Survey reported that the proportion of women in their overall workforce was down from 28% in January 2009 to 21% in December 2011.
Adrian Dobson, director of practice, said: ‘Of ongoing concern is the disproportionate impact of the recession on employment levels for women working in architecture. The RIBA remains committed to addressing these inequalities.’ EY