UNITED KINGDOM
The Conservative Party is planning to crack down on the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, CABE, if it wins the next election. Shadow ministers Ed Vaizey and Grant Shapps questioned the future of the tax-payer funded industry watchdog, after arguing that it and the new Homes & Communities Agency have objectives that are too similar. There should be a squeeze on resources, the Tories said, given the perceived doubling up of agencies.
UNITED KINGDOM
The international project to design a new £50 million Glasgow School of Art is being described as the ‘competition of the decade’, following an extraordinary amount of interest from practices, both internationally and in the UK. Rogers, Hadid and MVRDV are among 150 eager entrants hoping to get their pencils scratching for the Scottish art school. Entrants include 90 per cent of the firms short listed for the Stirling prize over the past five years and three Pritzker prize winners. A shortlist of between five and seven entries will be announced on 22 May 2009.
CATELONIA
The City of Justice building in Barcelona, the largest project to date of David Chipperfield Architects, was formally opened last week, with more than 10,000 people visiting during its opening weekend. The building combines the legal departments of Barcelona and the city of l’Hospitalet into an eight-building, 330,000m2 complex, where it was previously spread between 17 buildings across the two cities. Barcelona’s courts, office spaces and cells are communed in four buildings and are linked by a four-storey concourse.
