Tonight:
8°c
Classic architects back Prince Charles over barracks
Will Hurst and Jack Lefley23.04.09
THE row over the Chelsea Barracks scheme deepened today as an influential group of architects broke ranks to back Prince Charles.
The Traditional Architecture Group supports the Prince's intervention into the scheme designed by Richard Rogers.
It comes two weeks after president of the Royal Institute of British Architects, Sunand Prasad, called on the heir to the throne to stop meddling in the £1billion scheme and allow the "properly constituted and conducted" planning process to proceed.
In a letter to the Sunday Times last weekend high profile peers of Lord Rogers including Norman Foster and Zaha Hadid said the Prince of Wales was skewing a democratic planning system.
But today TAG - which represents about 50 firms and is affiliated to the Royal Institute of British Architects - leapt to the defence of the Prince who proposed an alternative plan by neo-classical architect Quinlan Terry.
Charles, a regular critic of modern architectural trends, argued that Lord Rogers's glass and steel building would look inappropriate next to Christopher Wren's Royal Hospital.
Reports that he had been successful in persuading the owners of the Chelsea Barracks site - the Qatari royal family - to consider ditching the plans in favour of a more traditional brick and stone structure caused outrage in the architectural community.
TAG today insisted the Prince was speaking on behalf of unrepresented locals who are "excluded" from the planning.
The group has also hit out at government design watchdog Cabe - which supports the Rogers proposal - and announced a campaign against what it claims is the modernist domination of the architectural establishment.
In an interview with Building Design Magazine, published tomorrow, TAG's chairman Ali Sagharchi said: "We would like to see major schemes submitted to local public vote that will inform planning committees about local opinion." He added: "We recognise that this idea would need to be developed but believe that specialist design reviews and the increased complications in the planning system have diminished democratic accountability.
"Cabe has no public input and is, in effect, an architectural closed shop dominated by modernists."
Architect Robert Adam, a favourite of Prince Charles and member of TAG, said the public's favourable reaction to the intervention of the Prince showed a resurgence in traditional design.
Cabe declined to comment but Mr Prasad noted he and TAG were calling for more democracy in deciding major applications.
Reader views (8)
When are we going to see the Richard Rogers scheme viewed from the same angle as rhe Quinlan Terry scheme? Only then will we be able to make a true comparison!
- Gavin, London
Now one thing for sure: Prince Charles is not involved because of big money. He probably expressed his point of view in the most neutral and natural manner....while on the other side I bet big money was circulating to clinch a good deal !
- Terry. B, Toulouse, France
Well done Charles, lets get these idiot architects out of our lives and let the people have want London, not a 1960s communist building. Time for Rodgers and the plastic design mob to get lost.
- Tony, London UK
Quinlan Terry has designed some splendid buildings - far from boring they are highly imaginative and very attractive - just look at the ornate villas on the Outer Circle at Regent's Park or the new terrace on Baker Street or the brand new block of classical offices on Tottenham Court Road next to the Dominion which are nearly complete.
Prince Charles is speaking for the average man and woman in the street who feel powerless when confronted by the arrogant architectural elite who impose their incredibly boring and unispired modernist taste on the places we love - against the will of the people behaving just like Medieval War Lords!
- Thomas, London
I really don't think anyone thought Prince Charles was expressing a unique opinion or point of view.
- Trunk, US
Full support and backing for these brave architects and His Highness, London is a historic City and its time we stopped trying to make it look like an inhuman Middle Eastern metropolis
- Henry, London
Quinlan's architecture is quite boring (see the development by Richmond bridge.
Surely there must be middle ground between Rogers and Terry?
- Nick, London
Wow. This story just runs and runs: soon it will be a West End Musical!
- Roz, Chamonix, France
