Paul Finch's Letter from London Classical Gas - what if peace breaks out?

摘要

There has been a degree of excitement over the current exhibition of work by 'classical' architects at the RIBA. Leon Krier made a hyped-up speech at the opening, and the artificial question of whether classical or 'modern' architecture is appropriate has been taken up by The Times, not least because of the embarrassing/amusing revelations about how the Prince of Wales muscled the Emir of Qatar into ditching the Chelsea Barracks design by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP).rnThis was in favour of something supposedly more traditional - though one can scarcelyrndescribe Michael Squire as anything other than an admirable modernist architect; Dixon Jones (urbanism adviser on the project) is also a modernist with a small 'm', and it is worth recalling that Jeremy Dixon taught Zaha Hadid at the Architectural Association. Landscape architect Kim Wilkie is a talented designer who inclines toward tradition, though these days it is modernism that might be said to be traditional after nearly a century of experience.