Plastic fantastic

Somebody was showing images yesterday of James Stirling’s plastic building for Olivetti in Haslemere.

Apparently the stripes were imposed by the planners, who wanted it to look a bit like a marquee, and a bit less scarily futuristic. Stirling’s intention was that it should be like a continuous extrusion, all in bright yellow, like the interior. Wow!

Farewell to the Polo

It’s amusing to read that designer Ian Pollard is trying to defend his Marc O Polo building in London, now faced with demolition. I remembering interviewing him about it when it was first built.

I asked him why it was called Marco Polo. He said the top was white, with a hole in it – like a polo mint. Such sophisticated architectural thinking will be a loss to us all.

A new profession?

A new professional group launched last night, the Workplace Consulting Organisation. Its members, who come from a range of disciplines, including architecture and design, psychology, technology and HR, want to provide a standard that keeps out charlatans and bandwagon jumpers. Especially in recession, people from many other disciplines are ‘offering’ this service, with little expertise.

Frank Duffy, the founder of DEGW, was at the launch, and many of those present had previously worked for him. Jeremy Myerson, professor at the Royal College of Art and expert on offices, gave an entertaining introductory talk in which he suggested that WCO should be renamed FED – Former Employees of DEGW.