Bouncing into Astragal's inbox this week was an email from an eagle-eyed reader, questioning the provenance of Mecanoo's 'filigree' facade for its new Library of Birmingham (AJ 02.04.09). The email read: 'Despite Mecanoo's claims on its website that the facade of the proposed library {pictured above) is a "delicate metal filigree, inspired by the rich and proud history of this former industrial city with a tradition of craftsmanship", it looks surprisingly similar to the practice's International Criminal Court in the Hague {inset), which one presumes has an equally inspiring tradition of craftsmanship!'rnAnother email, this time rather peculiar, came from CowellrnConsulting International, a construction consultancy founded by pop mogul Simon Cowell's elder brother John, dontcha know. "Though having Simon Cowell as a sibling must open doors, business-development consultant to architects, surveyors and construction companies, John Cowell, has never needed to call on the Pop Idol star to give him the X factor,' read the email. Except in his marketing literature, of course.rnAstragal spent a delightful evening at the last of Leeds Metropolitan University's 4x4 Making Places lecture series. In a rather irreverent speech, Leeds' chief planner, Phil Crabtree, spoke about the ambitious housing targets the city has set itself. Leeds is in the tricky position of having published arndevelopment plan at the height of the boom last year, promising 5,000 additional new homes on top of the regional housing targets. Crabtree said, in no uncertain terms, that the target looks impossible to deliver now, especially with the contraction of the financial services sector that the city's growth was based on. That is, he stressed, his view, not that of the planning authority. Astragal wonders how many other local authorities are labouring under development plans predicting growth?
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