Beige Concern

摘要

Four years after the Beige Building Awards replaced the Green Building Awards, the competition is fiercer than ever. It's always a shame there has to be a winner. Depressing, in fact. Feels like ancient history now, the pre-austerity world, with its 'green' this and its 'sustainable' that. And how wasteful it seems, with our New Frugalist hindsight. We squandered so much visual capital. Created buildings that were ecologically sound AND attractive. What a scandalous waste of neural and optical resources. Green. How laughably inappropriate for these joyless times we now trudge through. Of course it takes a dazzlingly ordinary building to win a beige accolade. The stakes are lower than ever. Austerity Chic' is now merely the name of a pub tribute band. As usual the judges were looking for that magic post-green combination of 'economically prim' and 'spectacularly dull'. As I say, it's a shame there has to be a winner and to be honest this year we couldn't be arsed to pick one.