Tuesday, September 22, 2009

From The Mersey To The Dee, The Carbuncles Grow


Looks familiar? No, it's not the carbuncle cup-winning ferry terminal on the city's waterfront, it's the design for a hotel overlooking West Kirby's marine lake which looks as though it's been given the green light (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/22/controversial-west-wirral-hotel-plan-looks-set-to-move-forward-92534-24747849/ ).
The design has been criticised for being "not iconic enough". That's one way of putting it.

3 comments:

Guillaume said...

It makes me dizzy just to look at it.

Ronnie de Ramper said...

It's supposed to make you seasick.

I can see what the architect is getting at here. He (or she) has noticed that boats - cruise liners for example - increasingly look like buildings. So let's fight back and make buildings look like boats. The one on show here is, I guess, designed to look like a yacht leaning into the wind.

That's all very neat and dinky. I bet it raised a few chortles around the laptop when they first put it together. But a building isn't a boat; and just because it's by a yachting marina, it doesn't have to look like a yacht. Airport terminals don't look like planes; and hospitals don't look like an oxygen cylinder.

If a building has to reflect what it's for, then every public convenience would look like a bog roll; and the Council offices would be made from porcelain.

Just build, will ya! And kick the gimmicks!

Prof said...

Well if this is the thinking Ronnie, let's hope they don't build a new IVF unit.