Letter from London

摘要

The Silly Season has started early, with the news that One Hyde Park, the apartment complex for the mega-rich in Knightsbndge, has been blocked from receiving a national award from the RIBA because, well, it is for the mega-rich. They might not even live there all the year round. Also they are foreign (was the faintly unpleasant unspoken sub-text). If buildings are going to be eliminated because they are expensive and therefore only available to the wealthy, where is the line going to be drawn? After all, many of the excellent winners featured in last week's AJ are scarcely within the financial remit of ordinary citizens. And what about libraries or music blocks for public schools, whose fees make it impossible for the poor (routinely) to attend them?