精东影视

Sunset clause

Mark Anderson, who appears elsewhere in these pages, was remembering one of the first jobs he was involved in with the consultant he had set up, MGAC, in Washington back in the mid 1990s. He was in Great Falls, Montana, and apparently there鈥檚 not much there. He was a bit peckish, asked the hotel where he could eat and was told to take the road out of town. Which road? 鈥淭here鈥檚 only one,鈥� came the reply. He took it, saw a white light in the distance, assumed it was the restaurant he was told about and, relieved, pulled in. Alas, it was just after 7pm so the venue was shut. Not like being back east, I suppose. 

Slimline tonic

There was a good turnout, I hear, at T&T Alinea鈥檚 bash at 8 Bishopgate recently. It was rescheduled from last year because of a pesky tube strike 鈥� which then got cancelled. I couldn鈥檛 make it. Shame. I鈥檇 have liked a good nose around. Wilkinson Eyre鈥檚 tower is a lot slimmer than its rather bloated neighbour at 22 Bishopsgate 鈥� and in comparison with Rafael Vi帽oly鈥檚 supersized Walkie Talkie, at 20 Fenchurch Street, is positively svelte. Are we about to see a rash of slender, tall buildings popping up in the City, I wonder? 

Architects get films made about them that win gongs at glitzy awards ceremonies. Builders get Auf Wiedersehen, Pet

Waffling on

Maybe some have read all 13,000 words Zaha Hadid principal Patrik Schumacher penned about the death of architecture, but I must confess I鈥檓 not one of them. Here鈥檚 why. Architecture, he wrote, 鈥渉as self-dissolved, eroding its intellectual and professional autonomy under the pressures of anti-capitalist politicisation and woke virtue-signalling鈥�. He won鈥檛 win any awards for writing in plain English, I feel. Which is perhaps why he chose to publish his thoughts in the Kh艒rein journal, published by the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory at the University of Belgrade.   

Starchitects on screen

I wonder who would play Schumacher if his 13,000 words ever made it to celluloid? Which leads me to reveal the not so hot news that Adrien Brody won a best actor Oscar for his portrayal of an architect in The Brutalist, reviewed in these pages last month. It鈥檚 funny: architects get films made about them that win gongs at glitzy awards ceremonies. Builders get Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. It was great, mind. 

Eye off the ball

Reds10鈥檚 chief executive Matt Bennion might be a Chelsea fan but rugby is more his game, he says. He had a season ticket for England games at Twickenham but got a bit fed up with what he was seeing 鈥� 鈥渢he biggest load of pap鈥� is how he put it to my scribe 鈥� so he wrote to them, telling them that he wouldn鈥檛 be renewing it. Of course, England has started winning again. Typical. Still, the Rugby Football Union wrote him a very nice letter after he told them the bad news. 鈥淏asically, they said 鈥榳e鈥檝e sold your ticket on鈥�.鈥� How thoughtful. 

Capping it all

Sticking with the egg chasers, one former Scotland rugby captain, Kelly Brown, has been appointed director of Places for People Scotland. He won 64 caps before retiring in 2017. Anyway, the news has allowed me to write that I鈥檓 sure he鈥檒l try and tackle Scotland鈥檚 housing need as best he can. He did, after all, score a try at his debut back in 2005 so the signs are good.