I HAVE much sympathy with the point of view of your correspondent Roger Waigh (Letters, January 26).
I was an architect until I retired some years ago and found exactly the situation which he describes.
In 1962, Elizabeth Layton produced a report for the Royal Institute of British Architects in which she advised that architects be trained in universities. This was nothing short of disastrous, both for potential students and their ultimate clients.
Architects had long since lost their interest in how buildings are built and the cost implications of their design decisions, despite the word originally meaning "chief builder, designer or mason". Instead they evolved into aesthetes and stylists, in which the form of the building became regarded as much more important than its function. The result is dramatically illustrated by three recent design disasters: the Holyrood Parliament building (10 times over budget); the Riverside Museum in Glasgow and now the V & A building in Dundee. Of course these are special buildings, but leaving aside the barmy idea of using superstar architects instead of Scottish ones, most people in most jobs would expect to achieve these projects within budget, plus a small contingency, and on time. For example, the Millau Viaduct in southern France, a highly innovative project, was completed exactly within those demanding constraints - by engineers working in close co-operation with the contractors.
When teaching in Manchester, I used to ask students attending for interview what they had made. Few had made anything at all with their hands, although all produced portfolios full of abstract paintings. Architecture is partially an art but mainly a craft in which we ask specialists to give us buildings which we can, yes, enjoy, but not at any price. To this end, we need to re-establish architecture in the schools of building and colleges of technology where students will learn the practical business of putting buildings together - another area where we should direct young people away from the abstractions of university to the much more relevant schools of practical design.
Ian Ferguson,
High Corrie, Isle of Arran.
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