Sadly, instead of a gorgeous and innovative design for the Queen Elizabeth national memorial, we will end up with this monstosity by Norman Foster instead, which looks like it would be more at home on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise than St James's Park.
His translucent glass “unity bridge”, inspired by Elizabeth’s wedding tiara, is said to symbolise her as a “unifying force”.
It looks more like the plastic cutlery yoi get with a takeaway packed lunch to me!
2 comments:
Those glass balusters look horribly like the equivalent of a row of magnifying glasses, with potentially uncomfortable consequences on sunny days for those swans (and the legs and feet of anyone who stops to enjoy the view).
Think it would never be allowed to happen? I give you this from 2010: ‘Guests at a new hotel in Las Vegas have complained of receiving severe burns from a 'death ray' of sunlight caused by the unique design of the building. Due to the concave shape of the Vdara hotel, the strong Nevada sun reflects off its all-glass front and is concentrated directly onto sections of the swimming pool area below.'
…and this from 2014: ‘A £200million London skyscraper which melted cars by reflecting sunlight has been fitted with shading. The concave design and mirrored glass of 20 Fenchurch Street, which is more commonly known as the Walkie Talkie due to its distinctive shape, had caused the sun to shine powerful, focused rays of light onto the street below.’
(I once met an extremely rich structural engineer whose job consists solely of finding ways to mitigate similar design flaws in the work of household name architects (including two London Olympic venues)).
It looks just like her tiara.
The one she never wore.
And the glass will be manufactured and crafted in UK?
Post a Comment