Left The British Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, eschewing imperial pomp and grandeur for a more modern show of diplomatic prestige


Right The Antwerp Port building, designed by the renowned British-Iraqi architect, Zaha Hadid


section of the Oosterweel Link, and the largest infrastructure project in Flanders now due to be opened by 2025.


Once completed, the quays of the disused Kattendijk dock, with the Port House close to its northern edge, slowly filled with housing – apartment towers by David Chipperfield, Diener & Diener and Tony Fretton – extending the city’s borders in the direction of the port. Te port building designed by Zaha Hadid is as overpowering as might be expected, an iconoclastic vision of the future, and one that, according to the Flemish government architect, Tania Hertveld, succeeds. ‘Not everyone is particularly fond of the chosen design by Zaha Hadid. But the commissioner got exactly what he had asked for in the project definition: a spectacular


building that catches the eye of every visitor to Antwerp and that was designed by an international starchitect. It is a merit of the Open Call that commissioners can decide for themselves how they want to show their organisation to the outside world.’ ‘Catches the eye’ it certainly does. Faithful to her deconstructivist ideals, dismantling remnants of academic Modernism, a philosophy summed up in a MoMA catalogue of 1988 by Mark Wigley and Philip Johnson, ‘Deconstruction gains all its force by challenging the very values of harmony, unity, and stability, and proposing instead a different view of structure: the view that the flaws are intrinsic to the structure’ but one that in the eye of Christian Rapp, another contender in the competition and, since 2016, city architect


of Antwerp, publicly called it ‘a nightmare realised’ shortly after completion, expressing the view of many of his colleagues. A €28m project ended up costing €63m, the irregular façade of opaque and transparent triangular glass panels only offer fragmented views out, the desks designed by the architect are not rectangular, and clearly the needs of the 500+ staff were not the first consideration of anyone involved: not the designer, nor the client. What was a deconstructivist dream for some became a glittering nightmare for others, a signpost towards the city, an alien spaceship, totally irrational, and one of the city’s main attractions. As to whether it was necessary or appropriate will be debated for generations to come – or at least until that tunnel is finished.


PETER COOK


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