Eden Project architects catch third runway pox
Following last week's hi-jinx at the architecture awards, the bored-and-ill-informed climate change deniers at Building Design magazine decided to find out if we'd targeted the right people when we tried to give Pascal & Watson their 'We Don't Give a Shit' award for going for the Heathrow contract.
Pascal & Watson have done plenty of airport expansion in the past so we're confident that they deserve the award, but they lost out on the Heathrow contract to Grimshaw. Grimshaw, who never tire of telling everyone that they designed the Eden Project, are a founder member of the UK Green Building Council. The UK's most controversial high-carbon development is a curious direction for them to start moving in.
Intimate relations with BAA are never a wise PR move for any brand, but Grimshaw seems particularly ill equipped to enter the third runway warzone. Sir Nicholas Grimshaw - inventor of EVA ("Environmentally Viable Architecture") goes around saying things like: "We've been trying to define our ideals in our practice recently, and one of things that came out was that we would very strongly rather work with people we liked! Empathy with the people we were designing for was a critical issue, and although you could make a lot of money working for bastards, there's no real joy in it."
The UK Green Building Council has defended Grimshaw, saying, "...we need to direct our anger at the policymakers involved. Where does this stop? Should we be protesting against the people that pour the concrete for coal-fired power stations?". Hmm. If you expect us to applaud architects for doing sustainable architecture then why can't we attack them for doing unsustainable architecture? Swings and bloody roundabouts.
In Memoriam Grimshaw Sustainable Architects
So. Farewell then Grimshaw sustainable architects.
Your bedfellow has violated you.
Now, infected, simply:
Grimshaw, architects.
