architecture: annexe
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Wherever one hears of a new cultural project - museum, opera house, science centre - those promoting it talk in hushed tones about lottery funding. The secret to getting big money is, first, to be able to influence the committees that decide where millennium money is going. If not, promoters face what amounts to a... lottery. The second part of the secret is to have a good scheme by a good architect on board. This does not have to be a famous name: a pounds 28m arts centre for Milton Keynes has just been awarded pounds 19.6m. The design is by Blonski Heard.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, however, is going down the big-name route with a proposed pounds 42m extension planned for its Boilerhouse Yard; the V&A's shortlist includes Sir Norman Foster, Nicholas Grimshaw, Michael Hopkins, Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind, architect of the up-and-coming and extremely dramatic Jewish Museum in Berlin. The extension will house galleries, an education centre and an "orientation facility", whatever that is.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Millennium Commission might consider a retro-active payment to Simon and Maureen Ormerod, the Cornish couple who built their own "super energy-efficient and sustainable" house underground in a former quarry in Wadebridge. North Cornwall County Council has sensibly granted the pounds 20,000 house retrospective planning permission. As a healthy antidote to the Neo-Geo and Joke Oak rubbish that will be built across Britain well into the next millennium, the Ormerod's house takes some beating. Now, what about burying every British superstore underground as a millennium project: that would be worth paying for.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments