Does the Princes revival mean more carbuncles?
This article first appeared in the Architects’ Journal on 8 January 2004. As the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott equates his Sustainable Communities plan with the sort of New Urbanism advocated by Charles Windsor, Martin Pawley wonders what will happen next. Architects should once again expect to be accused of designing ‘carbuncles’. It is sometimes comforting to remember that there has always been architectural criticism of a sort, most memorably perhaps in the heyday of the Prince of Wales when the heir to the throne had great success with such witticisms as; It looks like a municipal fire station with a sort of tower for the bell , and It looks like an assembly hall for secret policemen. These being his critical summations of the unsuccessful National Gallery Extension project of Ahrends Burton and Koralek, and Birmingham City Library. Two remarks destined to join the young fogey s bestiary alongside It looks like a toad Sir John Gielgud s description of the National Theatre and
