Prince Charles Monstrous Carbuncle in Architecture

PRINCE CHARLES is taken to court about his meddling with a foreign government to stop them investing in a project in London. Evening Standard piece: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23846189-revealed-panic-at-sec...

Modern architecture in Britain needs your support. Write to info@inst.riba.org ---and express it. That's the Royal Institute of British Architecture. Prince Charles is using his Royal connections to put pressure on developers not to hire modernist architects. Recently Prince Charles intervened directly with a foreign monarch to destroy the chances of a modern design in London's Duke of York Barracks, Chelsea.

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: Here we revisit Prince Charles' Monstrous Carbuncle story. That's when he firt intervened to scupper the chances of a modern project for the National Gallery of London extension. He called that design a 'mosntrous carbuncle in the face of a much loved old lady". The monstrous carbuncle turned out to be his own creation. It has now been largely forgotten by the proponents of 'traditional' architecture, which is in essence a return to the past by imitating the style of greco-roman buildings very popular during the British Empire in 1800 to1940. SUPPORT MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN BRITAIN.

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[bangorcottage]

Thank Heaven for Prince Charles. I wish we could have stopped the Royal Ontario Museum from building it's Crystal monstrosity addition. Not only do "ordinary" people like myself think it ruined a beautiful classical building, but art critics have named it one of the ugliest buildings of 2009! Where was Prince Charles when we needed him to stop it? Long Live Prince Charles!

[blastm4]

@bangorcottage I agree. Ugly as hell. But what can you expect from Toronto - a city which caters to developers and a-holes like brad lamb who buy up heritage sites and let them rot until they collapse so they can build a condo.

[newsreeldemocracy]

@blastm4 ONe of the purposes of buildings is to attract attention. You don't do that with replicas unless you are in Las Vegas.

[newsreeldemocracy]

@bangorcottage Of course conservatives should have their buildings too, but please just put them out of sight.

[mindvox626]

Funny how you tried to find the worse possible camera shots for your propaganda and it still looks better that Roger's monstrosity!! Your case is so weak, you obviously have never been challenged on this issue!! Nobody in the world cares about Roger's bullshit design. And nobody envies the modern vandalism that that has plagued London.

[somewhatdisapointing]

i refrain from supporting modern archictecture has not worked. Just look at all the building we have created over the last 60 years. Then take a look at some fine victorian and georgian buildings. You decide

[samthelima]

@newsreeldemocracy I didn't say that I wanted to tear down the Opera House, or that it's not a great SYMBOL for Sydney, just that it's not a good building. It's only 37 years old and it already needs a one billion (with a B) dollar restoration.

[newsreeldemocracy]

@samthelima You see what I mean? Some people even try to knock the Sydney Opera House but forget that Sydney is identified all over the world with that design. It's like the Tour Eiffel. The French did that with great panache and the English are still reeling. They only managed Blackpool

[newsreeldemocracy]

@mindvox626 I only tried to photograph the building from every angle. The problem was that every angle was awful.

[newsreeldemocracy]

@jd7x7jd Good try. The people that peddle traditional architechture do so for a reason. They want status quo. But societies evolve and so should their buildings. Apart from that, we should stop building like the Greeks and the Romans did. There is no Empire now.

[samthelima]

@newsreeldemocracy

The Sydney Opera House is HORRIBLE as a building. It was 14 times over cost and took 10 years to build. It's great as a huge sculpture for the harbour, but really not well done in any way as a functional building. But that's beside the point.

I would also take the opposite perspective, that the occasional modern building is alright, and looks best in a context of traditional buildings, but most buildings should be traditional.

[jd7x7jd]

Prince Charles is right. Three reasons:

1. traditional architecture harmonises with nature

2. traditional architecture harmonises the human spirit

3. every field of human endeavour, outside the visual arts, remains resolutely tradtional; music above all -check out youtube for the evidence