It doesn’t mean that we should replace the “ordinary” architecture Adrian Welch is talking about. Please don’t touch the ordinary buildings, don’t confound modesty and mediocrity. Ordinary buildings are honest and without pretensions, a simple shed can be far more interesting architecturally than a shed trying to be a town hall or a greek temple. There can be a real beauty and intelligence in the simplicity of the volumes and materials, often involuntary, but we shouldn’t dismiss it. I remember an insignificant small garage/substation in Glasgow at the corner of Cathedral street and North Hanover street, with interesting proportions and clever details. Six months after the redevelopment of the Buchanan Shopping centre, it was done up and is now a horrible little thing, looking like a suburban house gone wrong. Before, it existed and was pleasing in its simplicity, now I always have to turn my head. I am not criticising the status of the brief, but the result in trying to transform an ordinary building into “recognisable” architecture. If the occasion arises, the ordinary brief of a shed or factory is as interesting (look at factory designs from Alvar Aalto, Herzog & de Meuron or Jacques Ferrier) as more mediatised ones and should be considered and discussed on the same level in architectural debates. I would agree with Gordon Murray that the peripheries of our cities and their unfashionable briefs have to be considered by architects and are essential to a positive development of our cities. But please don’t touch the ordinary buildings.
Iconic Architecture – article by Charles Blanc