Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers, Christopher Wren; the four most famous architects in the world; three British; two deceased.
That’s just to get your blood pressure up if you are a fan of Chipperfield, Palladio, Higgs et al. In this vale of tears good architecture is a consolation. You know the drawing room of Europe (Piazza St Marco) so here are two other spectacularly satisfactory bits of urban architecture; first Flemish Baroque.
The magnificent square in Arras was built in bits and pieces in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Place Stanislas was built in the middle of the 18th century to wow visitors to Nancy, something it still does today.
In modern times rarely is there an opportunity to conceive and create such satisfying grand design. When an opportunity does present itself it’s a balls-up. I’m thinking of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire and Poundbury in Dorset. But star-chitects are designing eye-catching stand-alone buildings from Bilbao to Berlin and Barons Court.
Richard Rogers designed the Maggie’s Centre in the grounds of Charing Cross Hospital in 2008 and fourteen years on it looks pristine. An iconic building on my doorstep.
Thank you for all three of those examples. I am ashamed to say I did not know any of them. They do indeed make the world look better (only man is vile).
I chose both squares because I have been to them and they are not as well known as, say, the Piazza Navona. On Monday my mobile office was operating in Leicester Square – what an architectural dump, slightly improved by grassing in the central area.
Maggie’s Centre is even better inside. A walkway to the door passes alongide bluey glass ameliorating the passing traffic and introducing you to the calm of the building. A large, welcoming kitchen, a small courtyard, smaller rooms for meetings or to just sit, and then terraces at the top. The way the light falls into the building is wonderful. Maggie’s is the recipient of a Hammersmith Society award,