Stirling prize is "barely" concerned with life of buildings, architects turn a "blind eye" to unethical practices and the Barnes Design fails urbanism.
"This is, in fact, my issue with the Stirling prize: it's all about instant appeal, the latest buildings. By its very nature, it is barely concerned with the life of buildings and their architects years down the line. I'd certainly be happier with the idea of the Stirling if it was awarded either for a building that had proved its worth, or one that had done the most to make some place - a street, a village, a town, a city - substantially and measurably better."
Guardian
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"Architects seem to have the attitude that they are designers, and don't want to be troubled by politics, or they are running a business and - god forbid - don't want to jeopardise their fees. Architects are turning a blind eye to ethically out-of-order practices on construction sites in other countries, which are being run basically on slave labour and where you just know that people are going to die. A lot of this goes on with tacit approval."
BD Online
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"Designers know how to make buildings that dazzle us visually. Yet they're often so intent on satisfying their client's complex organizational needs, they forget about their obligations to city life. The Barnes design, by New York's Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, gets an 'A' in aesthetics and an 'F' in urbanism."
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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"Somewhere there is a real culture here, but I can't find it. The whole place could be a melting pot of cultures and characters. Yet they remain separate. The potential for cultural fusion is palpable but it is a generation or two short. It will require a lot more than money. It will require the imagination to realise that not all things can be bought complete, contained and fully formed."
The Age
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"By comparison, the Stirling's shortlist, though not bare of fine architecture, seems largely an exercise in constrained worthiness, tainted this year by pathetically huffy charges of manipulation concerning the judging panel."
The Independent
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