“The word extravagance really sums up the problem as an unrestrained construction of the unnecessary. Aesthetically we’re now capable of nearly anything, but it seems that the majority of form-based architecture is mere decoration. It tells us nothing of the time we live in, and we are no better for having seen it. Formal extravagance places architecture in the realm of sculpture, but architecture is more than that.”
Jargon etc
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“A lack of precision in a regulation always gives more discretionary power to the regulator. It is a fundamental bureaucratic principle that all those that are in power will always seek to extend their power. But this is about people’s property for god’s sake.”
The Architects’ Journal
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"Lonsdale House is not heritage listed on the state register but it was listed as grading B by the City of Melbourne on their planning scheme and it was part of the heritage overlay. Morally they [the council] had an obligation to protect the building ... and they just rolled over and wouldn't protect it.”
The Age
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“The wax museum is an attempt by an architect known for sharp-elbowed, go-it-alone buildings to knit one of his designs into an increasingly crowded urban fabric. It is iconoclasm as infill.”
Archinect
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“But the best things are always ruined. That's a basic principle of urban life, especially in Sydney. Nature we do OK, but in the artefact department, we generally go for the tacky, the so-so, the fake and the half-hearted. It's like we're congenitally excellence-averse. Like we think ignorance really is bliss.”
Sydney Morning Herald
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