VISION OF BRITAIN, A

Rating:
Summary: An insightful manifesto that tells us a lot
Review: So much has happened in the years since this title came out that it's hard to remember what a storm The Prince of Wales' venture into architectural criticism caused. He seems to have made his peace with the profession now, but this is still an interesting and useful book that tells us as much, or more, about the author than it does about the art and science of building.

The Prince's opinions on architecture seem congruent with, for example, his more recent outspoken opposition to genetically modified food. As I've heard him described elsewhere, HRH seems to be a man not entirely comfortable with the twentieth (and now twenty-first) century. And a good thing, too: lots of discomforting things have come out of that century. While unpleasant architecture may not rank high on the scale of the twentieth century's crimes, one is reminded of Winston Churchill's saying that 'We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us.'

The Prince's central point is that modern architecture has lost sight of its surroundings. Rather than creating structures that harmonize with their location, using local materials and respecting the history of the site, many modern buildings seem determined to draw attention to themselves -- or rather, to their architects. Like any art, architecture is a matter of taste. But while you can hide a bad statue or painting, an ugly building is a blot on the landscape that's darn hard to avoid. My tastes must be very similar to HRH's, because when he described a certain library building, for example, as looking like a place where books are burned rather than preserved, I nearly stood and cheered.

It's hard to say whether the Prince's activism had, in the long run, any impact on British architecture or the architectural profession. But it was noble (not to say 'royal') of him to use his position to present a viewpoint that seems all too rare these days.