A CRITICAL LOOK AT THE DESIGN OF MILLENNIUM BUILDINGS

The John Wood Lecture on Architecture

Patrick Hodgkinson, Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Urbanism, University of Bath, on 24 October 2001

Professor Hodgkinson, a distinguished architect and a nationally recognised expert on housing, was introduced by Victor Suchar. The speaker has a taught at the University of Bath School of Architecture for 15 years and has written extensively on the subject.

In the inaugural John Wood lecture on Architecture, the speaker selected for appraisal some of the millennium projects that had received substantial funding.

Prof. Hodgkinson started by describing the architectural scene in the l950s when he began to practice architecture. Then the craftsman still played a role and some of the giants like Frank Lloyd Wright were still living. Le Corbusier's influence, however, changed the direction of architectural design.

Alvar Aalto still believed the building must be suited to the occupants' needs but increasingly the highly technical building came to dominate. This was seen early in the 20th century by Rennie Macintosh, who complained that modern materials do not satisfy, unlike stone which provides enough mass. As the speaker emphasised traditional materials also improve with age which concrete rarely does.

Prof. Hodgkinson gave two examples of modern architecture that he believes do work well: Lloyds building in London designed by Richard Rogers, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building in Hong Kong by Norman Foster.

Prof. Hodgkinson's choice of millennium buildings are all located in London.

1 Tate Modern. Here he feels the large size posed a problem not solved by the Swiss architects selected to design this project. He finds the interior detailing does not have enough interest.

2 The Dome. The structure was designed by the architect Richard Rogers and the structural engineers, Buro Happold, based in Bath. The speaker considered the design highly interesting, but the interior banal and generally unattractive. Politicians should not get involved in designing exhibitions.

3 The Great Court of the British Museum. Here the tragedy is that the round reading room is no longer a functional library and the roof gives one the feeling of being in an airport.