8 SYKES ON EIGHT...
Vanity Architecture
Architect Christopher Sykes indulges in Chinese whispers,
thinks colour not monochrome and praises more CABE initiatives
The strange incomplete hotel in central China (photographed by Christopher Sykes from the market below while
drinking a beer. Time taken to drink beer 2 minutes; time taken initially to haggle over price of beer 5 minutes).
YES, I KNOW THAT OTHER From grey to green.... dramatically serves as a backdrop for
PEOPLES’ HOLIDAY SNAPS CAN
CABE tells us that yet another crisis looms carefully planted tree groves and gardens. As
but, being CABE, they are going to do the RIBA commented, ‘The positive spirit of
BE A BORE BUT I BEG YOUR something about it. It appears that we the place is signalled with a roof canopy that
INDULGENCE TO MAKE AN
need more people with the right skills to oversails its many intimate internal gardens
manage the landscape of our towns and and courtyards.’
EXCEPTION FOR THIS ONE. cities.
……to colour
T
his is somewhere in central China at a Many green elements are already in place And that brings us neatly on to another
place called Fengdu, famous for yet but, like roads, their value lies in being subject - colour - since colour is one of the
another Buddhist temple complex and networked – ie a well-maintained and well- dominant features of this project.
known as the city of ghosts. This is a hotel connected system of parks, gardens,
which is successfully incomplete and, I think, waterways, allotments and tree-lined Colour, the experts will tell us, is one of the
abandoned. Doesn’t look much like Buddha streets. Green infrastructures are a powerful most neglected aspects of the 20th century
and maybe it’s not meant to but it’s a novel weapon in the fight for stronger modernist approach to architectural design.
idea – don’t use the best side of your hotel communities, healthier lives and a The love of natural materials, unadorned
for anything boring like great views from the sustainable future. This is laudable stuff concrete, minimalism and all those sort of
hilltop, in this case overlooking the river and all the more so because earlier this things have created rather monochromatic
Yangtse. Instead, replicate someone - your month CABE launched Grey to Green - a landscapes and boring they have often been
leader, your sponsor, yourself. This has to be public debate to shift funding and skills from – as boring as black clothing since it’s been
the ultimate in vanity architecture. grey to green infrastructure. the new colour for so long, especially among
the younger population. So it is very
Vanity architecture certainly doesn’t label Foster’s Speakers included leading landscape stimulating when something like Maggie’s
great Beijing Airport though it probably does designer Dan Pearson. Among his recent Centre (architects Rogers Stirk Harbour)
Tian An Men Square with its vast Mao projects is London Maggie's Centre which reminds us what artificial colour can do for
mausoleum and gigantic photo. One interesting has just won the 2009 Stirling Prize. This two us. Perhaps runner-up Kentish Town Health
statistic connects the two. The Airport storey pavilion was conceived as a home-like Centre (AHMM) should also be praised for its
measures 1 million square metres while 1 million sanctuary to help patients with cancer. The hint of colour in its small windows which
Chinese can stand together in the Square – or architects have sheltered the centre from its blasts you inside with fine and dramatic slabs
half that number if they are ‘Big Noses’ which, I harsh NHS hospital surroundings with a thick of plain colour murals to brighten the
discovered, is how we Westerners are sized. and cheerful orange masonry wall which whiteness of the interior.
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