Leader & Comment

摘要

The spot-the-difference contest that you see on page 5 this week is certainly not the first time a developer has hedged its bets when faced with an obstinate local authority. But Gladedale, in this case, has brought into focus a stylistic debate that years ago would have exercised Prince Charles, particularly as the building sits opposite Hampton Court Palace. What is striking to me is how utterly inoffensive both the options look. If anything the heaviness of Quinlan & Francis Terry's quoined brick and the bizarre proportions of its deep block look more of an imposition than Allies and Morrison's breezy timber-clad building. But there's not much to choose between them. CABE, in its design review of the wider Allies and Morrison masterplan proposals, said that 'the architectural expression, while suitably normative, has a subtle richness'. This is a Pseud's Corner way of saying that the practice does unremarkable, background townscape. We know Allies and Morrison is good at this, and within the Hampton Court station masterplan you see its variations of oversized windows as voids in facades made of brick, stone or timber making a pretty coherent place.