Letter from London

摘要

We should be supporting the idea of a government chief architect, or perhaps chief design adviser, rather than squabbling about that persons precise role and desk location, which is what seems to have happened. The argument in favour of the post, forcibly put in the Farrell Review, is tacitly acknowledged by Whitehall, in the sense that so many departmental policies refer to the importance of good design, place, environment and so on. More importantly, the significance of architecture and design as a national resource would be brought into focus by such an appointment. This would promote UK plc, if that is the language required to energise the Treasury into exploiting latent commercial opportunity.