Bath's Holburne Museum and Dyson Centre scoop top architecture prize

“VikingX: Your question seems to have left a bit of a vacuum OR was that the answer!”

“Does anybody remember how much of the reported cost of £6.1 million the Dyson Centre for Neonatal Intensive Care cost actually came from Dyson?”

“@DaveF - that's interesting because I adore the Aaron Evans designed performance arts building at the other end of the tech but in that setting I think the Roper building is ponderous and out of place. I can imagine settings where it would work well and in isolation I quite like it but I think it's wrong where it is. If you really want to see some great modern buildings, look at the David Morley English Sports Village at the Uni - that giant pergola completely distracts the eye from the workaday but highly efficient sports centre itself. And then there's the new East builidng up there - my only concern with that is its durability but otherwise it's stunning.

But truly - if you just keep your eyes open, there's plenty of really good modern stuff around. But nearly all by local architects, who understand the setting, the materials, the scale etc. But NOT Cavendish Lodge or SouthGate! Eeek to both of those!”

“"vessel for the storage of nuclear waste."

A good analogy.

It was only a couple of weeks ago that it dawned on me what the Western Riverside development reminded me of:

http://tinyurl.com/ch4b6cw

Pripyat with Chernobyl in the background.

To those that are bound to post saying Bathonians don't like modern architecture, want to keep it as a museum etc; well I quite like the new Tech College Roper Building. Haven't been inside it, mind.”

“I really like the exterior but I agree about the interior- it looks like Lovejoy's lock-up.”

“Sorry- that should read it does LOOK a bit like a junk shop. Moral - don't suddenly add extra bits after you've proof-read the original.”

“Whatever one's personal views about the aesthetics of a builidng - and it would be dreadful if we all thought the same - the most important thing about a building is - does it do the job asked of it? This one patently does not, for the following reasons.
1. There is a bizarre waste of space with the curtain wall standing a good metre outside the inner walls, so the museum does not have anything like the space it could have.
2. This has led to the mezzanine looking very cramped and cluttered - it does a bit like a junk shop - and the exhibition room being positively claustrophobic.
3. I think this problem may be due to English Heritage, who thought we were all too dim to recognise when we went from an old builidng to a new one, but none of the floors in the old building are on the same level as those in the new. This has resulted, at mezzanine level, in a trip hazard of a ramp. As far as i can see , this is not Parry's fault, who I think designed a long gently sloping ramp but what got built was a short sharp one.
4. The use of plate glass where the public does not expect it has resulted in at least two accidents, one where the lady had to be taken to hospital because she was severly concussed.

None of this adds up to good design.”

“I think the builders had the drawing upside-down.”

“It somehow reminds me of a Victorian water station. Looks entirely Utilitarian. An unsuitable design for a museum extension and nowhere near elegant enough.”

“Sean_OP

So if you are so keen on Bath to branch out with new architectural design, you'd be perfectly at ease with this tin box on stilts attached to the front of the Holburne.

Personally I feel the design would be better suited to a vessel for the storage of nuclear waste. Then it could be buried hundreds of feet underground.”