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In this month’s Wise Howell, Jeff looks at modern architecture – just how practical is it?
What is it about modern architects? It seems they can’t be content with designing attractive, comfortable buildings in sympathy with their existing settings, but have to produce something unique, completely different from anything built before. Should builders have an opinion on this? We are just the people tasked with turning the architects’ ideas into reality, but still…
I recently visited Moorfields Eye Hospital in London. Well, to be fair, I have visited Moorfields many times. Years ago, they saved my sight after a detached retina, and they still call me back in for check-ups. There is never any change in my vision, but I am always grateful for their care and attention.
One doctor even apologised for the fact that I had to wait for 25 minutes. Don’t worry about that, mate, I said, I’m getting world-class medical treatment for free. Just think of all the poor people throughout the world who have no doctors at all – or those people in the USA with no medical insurance who have to sell their homes to pay for life-saving treatment.
Anyway, walking out afterwards into the winter gloom of Old Street, with my eyes all blurry from the dilation drops, I was struck by the “M” building recently constructed opposite the hospital entrance. The façade of the building is what might be politely described as “eccentric”. There are no horizontal lines, and the roof and windows are at strange slants and confusing angles.
My first thought was that this building is most unfortunately sited for the patients emerging from an eye hospital. You come out of the door feeling disorientated anyway, and the first thing you see is a building that looks as though it’s sliding into the ground. I wonder how many patients have turned round and walked straight back into the hospital, saying, Doctor, I thought there was something wrong with my eyes before, but now you’ve made them worse!
I’m not the only one to find this building inappropriate. It was nominated in 2015 for the “Carbuncle Cup” – an annual competition to find the ugliest building in the UK, but was beaten that year by the “Walkie Talkie” close by in Fenchurch Street.
Anyway, researching the subject, I now find that this wonky building was not built opposite Moorfields Eye Hospital by accident but,
rather, its design was actually inspired by that location. The architects suggest that the façade “expresses the idea of the optical and the visual”. And apparently, the confusing angles “… create a visual effect of depth and movement that appear to contradict the building’s actual form”.
Yes, well, that’s easy for the architect to say. But maybe he should try recovering from eye treatment and finding his way home, and then appreciating his “visual effects”!
To read more of Jeff’s monthly Wise Howell insights click here.
