Leader & Comment

摘要

Architecture minister Margaret Hodge has made her amateur views on architecture abundantly clear long before her decision not to list Birmingham Central Library. But her attitude, and the debate it provokes, brings to light one of the paradoxes of modern heritage. We must think harder about why some modernist buildings are still so unpopular. While it is hazardous to generalise about the many modernisms of the 20th century, the kinds of buildings we are looking at here (Birmingham's Bullring was one, the library another) find so little popular support that 'expert opinion' - from English Heritage and parts of the architectural profession, in this case - is often their sole defence against destruction.