Classical Fantastical
£8.00
Architectural culture sneers at contemporary classical architects with ferocious contempt. Our dominant taste consensus mocks classical practitioners as derivative, pampered sell-outs. This miserly derision is idiotic, robbing the profession of a rich and varied vocabulary that is widely popular with the public. Classicists are daubed as elitists but really it is the latter-day modernists who are the aesthetic snobs. Wake up and smell the acanthus, it is time for a classical come back. Go classical or go home.
The Panel
- Elly Ward (co-chair) has practiced with numerous acclaimed design firms including Muf Architecture/Art, dRMM, FAT and Ordinary Architecture before setting up her own practice, Elly Ward Architecture. She is a graduate of the Royal College of Art where she also teaches Interior Design.
- Robbie Kerr (co-chair) is the youngest director of ADAM Architecture and possibly the youngest bona fide classical architect in the country. He is chair of the Young Georgian Group and is currently working on a scheme for Cuba amid the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Old Havana.
- Emmeline Quigley (proposition) is a graduate of the Glasgow School of Art, Royal College of Art and University of Arts London where she studied fashion before moving into architecture.
- George Saumarez Smith (proposition) is an architect and a director of ADAM Architecture. His recent exhibition at the RIBA Practice Space "Measure Draw Build" mixed his built work, large-format drawings and sketchbooks from the last 20 years.
- Steve Webb (opposition) is an engineer, stone fanatic and co-founder of Webb Yates Engineering. He was a senior engineer at Santiago Calatrava's architecture studio until 2003 while Calatrava was still cool.
- Neal Shasore (opposition) is an uncommonly well dressed architectural historian. He specialises in the early 20th century and is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool.