Thursday 20 November 2008

Deptford's building inspires


The Laban Centre tops the list in today's Telegraph of 'the 50 most inspiring buildings in Britain'. It is described as 'more assured work' by Herzog and De Meuren than Tate Modern; its 'translucent skin strikes a knowing relationship to the industrial sheds ... The interior ... is of such spatial variety that it brings to mind a city in miniature'. That's the good news.

The bad news is that they couldn't resist the tired old characterisation of Deptford as a 'down-at-heel corner of the capital'.

Image by Celie on flickr, under a Creative Commons licence.

5 comments:

rashbre said...

The building exterior looks almost like a watercolour. Good to know that Labanotation for dance is still going strong.

Anonymous said...

The Daily Telegraph stuck in the past? Shurely shome mishtake?! And much as I like the Laban Centre, I certainly wouldn't put it first.

CarolineLD said...

I suspect (hope) the first place was an attempt to generate controversy and appear original. Although the whole list is a little odd - probably because it doesn't seem quite certain what it's a list of and wobbles between 'inspirational buildings' and 'buildings which define the nation' - surely two different things!

Philip Wilkinson said...

I agree it's an odd list, but surely the Laban Centre is only first because it's the most recent. The list starts with the modern buildings and ends with Stonehenge.

CarolineLD said...

Ah yes, you're right. That makes more sense!