To expect basic science from architects?

Back to the OP, the architect who designed this huge mirror building has done it before in America apparently. I think it was Arizona. So he's a complete numpty!

Flickety, architects are not just house designers. My husband designed hospitals, libraries, shopping centres, schools and houses, among other things. He was also responsible for refurbishment of almshouses, arcades, city halls, old people's homes, etc.
They do have to do a lot of engineering, and are responsible for health and safety on sites. Do you actually know any architects?

So did I. Actually he wasn't an architect when I married him, just a technician, but that means he was an architect who knew how buildings stayed up.
I do not think many people live in places that Corbusier or Richard Rogers designed.
Not many people know that it takes architects as long as doctors to train, but most of them get paid less than teachers.

I have something good to say about architects, I married one!! X

Saw the new library on the news and I said 'it's a square wedding cake' - two seconds later the presenter said it too!

jend, our dear soop will jave something good to say about her architect . And I will join her in a toast to him.

The new library opened in Birmingham yesterday. It replaced the concrete carbuncle monstrosity structure that was built in the 70s which is due to be knocked down yet some find that beautiful (!) and want it preserved. There's no accounting for taste.

Architects are just that, house designers. They are not builders or engineers and it shows. However they do have a power complex about dictating to us how we should live in their creations. Corbusier, or one of his mates, famously wanted to dictate to residents when and to what level they should raise and lower their blinds to make sure the external view was the view he wanted. Corbusier, also saw buildings as machines for living in. Says it all really

Some decades ago, when a comprehensive was being rebuilt in inner London. the architect failed to provide any cloakrooms for children to hang coats, change into gym clothes etc. This was not noticed until the design process was complete and the final plans were shown to the headmistress. It was the first thing she looked for - and found missing. They did cobble together a space for cloakrooms but I understood that they were always inadequate.

Anybody anything good to say about architects?

I remember working on some horribly expensive new flats in Falmouth. They were right on the water's edge, with wonderful sea views but that obviously hadn't impressed the architect because she hadn't bothered with windows in the kitchens. Obviously she wasn't a woman who did her own washing up!

Good gracious! How odd that nobody pointed out the potential for danger!

I know a school that had an atrium play area..was only used about 5 weeks a year as it was either too hot or too cold! partly funding as the budget did not stretch to blinds or extravagant radiators!

Oh those schools. Horrid. i remember during my probationary teaching year, twas the summer of 76. Standing in front of 30 13 year old boys, who were not allowed to take their ties off, playing fields outside turned to the colour of hay and sweat just running down my legs.
Yes this building would be potentially dangerous - someone who stayed still at the focal point could get a burn.

From someone who never finished school, but with a lot of common sense, I am constantly amazed by the stupidity of people with letters after their name or who have an 'oligy'

DH, a joiner, frequently had to point out that plans which looked great in the drawings were in fact, NOT constructable. They did not seem to think of the sequence of events in the construction process, particularly in relation to conversion, rather than new build work, with plans which assumed the removal of load bearing walls and lintels before their replacements could be built. On one memorable project he had to fit shower cubicles from a ladder, through a window, as otherwise he would have had to work from within the outside stone wall.

870s 70s

Elegran

A school in Norfolk that garnered several awards in the 60s or 870s had so much glass that the children were roasted in summer and frozen in winter. Probably before the days of double or triple glazing

You're right JessM. Melting cars - scary stuff. It's incredible and worrying that such a potentially life-threatening structure could be built.

It seems that some architects are keen to design grandiose buildings but do not always pay attention to how they work for those that live and work in them or their effect on the wider environment.

I did hear, long ago, about an English architect who designed a school for somewhere in Australia, and specified that to avoid too much hot dazzling sunlight, the large glass windows should all face North.

The story made me laugh, even if with disbelief at the architects' stupidity. You couldn't make this stuff up. It's worthy of a Poke entry.

My DH was a builder and often had to point out to architects that what they were drawing was impossible to build - he also had to frequently point out that some things were against building regulations! During our life together we built 3 houses for ourselves and never employed an architect.