The UK's most up-to-date social housing and public sector news website
Architects call for boycott of Prince Charles' RIBA lecture
Other Housing stories
- Council's 30-year housing plan agreed following HRA reform
- Housing association welcomes credit union expansion
- Shapps urged to adopt 'five-point plan' to tackle rogue landlords
- Housing association to create 215 new apprenticeships
- Repossessions 'lowest since 2007' as councils handed new 'safety net' cash
Advertisement
The Prince of Wales is threatening the "democratic process" with
a "destructive" intervention in a planning process to "oust modern
architecture in favour of his preferred style", according to
leading architects.
Stirling prize-winning architects Will Alsop and Chris Wilkinson
are backing a call for the industry to boycott a lecture by the
Prince at the headquarters of the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA) on Tuesday.
The Prince reportedly told representatives of the Qatari royal
family that designs for a £1 billion housing scheme on the
site of the former Chelsea barracks were "unsympathetic" and
"unsuitable".
In his last speech at RIBA, 25 years ago on its 150th anniversary,
the Prince stunned architects when he branded a proposed extension
to the National Gallery as "like a monstrous carbuncle on the face
of a much-loved and elegant friend".
In a letter published in today's Guardian, Peter Ahrends, of ABK,
wrote: "The Prince's latest move displays the destructive signs of
his earlier interventions, when he set out to scupper modern
architecture.
"This intervention must now be resisted by the profession; not
because of the question of architectural style, but because his
actions again threaten an important element of our democratic
process.
"To all architects who value these democratic procedures, we
advocate a boycott of the Prince's lecture at the RIBA on the 12
May."
The letter was signed by Mr Ahrends, Mr Alsop, Mr Wilkinson, Ted
Cullinan, Paul Finch, Tony Fretton, Piers Gough, MJ Long and Ian
Ritchie.
The Prince's criticism of the plans for the former Chelsea barracks
site, by the firm of Richard Rogers - who designed the Millennium
Dome - was followed by the publication of an alternative design
based on a classical pastiche of Sir Christopher Wren by Quinlan
Terry, reputedly one of Charles's favourite architects.
The Qatari royal family is understood to be considering the
alternative, according to reports.
A spokeswoman for the Prince of Wales declined to comment.
