Re: Re: libeskind / Manuel Aires Mateus on the docks

gunter: I will accept your criticism and ‘crap’ was a singularly ill-chosen word; you do have a knowledge of where we’re coming from and I believe that does make a real difference. We are not slaves to the past, but the paradox is that if we are to design a historic city we cannot ignore it and indeed we should draw inspiration from it (not copy it). There are plenty of historical precedents for designing near water and my main critique of this design is that, apart from the orthogonal discipline of the square itself, there is not a shred of evidence that anybody has bothered to discuss the relationship of one building to another or indeed of any of them to the square. How ‘professional’ is that?
PS Good point about Sean O’Laoire; my experience of academic discussions is that they can be quite visceral, but we need a much wider discussion of what civic architecture is about. We need to understand that criticism is not ‘ad personam’ and that just because someone is not ‘on message’ doesn’t mean they’re wrong.