Auberon Waugh, like his father, was a specialist in insults. Evelyn heard that doctors had removed a benign tumour from Randolph Churchill (Winston’s father), and said it was a typical triumph of modern science to take out the only part of him that wasn’t malignant. Auberon was kind to his family and was probably kinder to women than men. Not sure.
Good idea for the Olympic ‘Village’. It would also be well suited to a police HQ.

Maybe the village would have been more suited to being transformed into the British equivalent of the AIS? (Australian Institute of Sport) [ https://secure.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0011/83585/varieties/Article.jpg ]

I am not sure how successful the Sydney Olympic development was post the 2000 games. More research needed…

Perhaps if you meet a Waugh and you were a female architect you might be glad of the prejudice!

I can see that living in London’s Olympic “Village” will be very attractive for some sections of the population. The development has much which can appeal to the age group for which it was designed: youngish, healthy, affluent, wanting exercise, liking views, enjoying restaurants etc. But calling the place a ‘village’ is preposterous and the ‘park path’ shown in the photograph could serve as London’s fourth airport.
There is a lingering hatred of ‘tower blocks’ in London because they were built as ‘social housing’ for the urban poor. This is what lies behind Auberon Waugh’s advice that ‘If you meet anyone in a pub or at a party who says he is an architect, punch him in the face’ (the Waugh family are remembered for their verbal pugilism but not for their feminist sympathies!).

Oh yes. The streets could be shaded with buildings or trees. But without the public transport which can only function at high urban densities it is necessary for rich people to have a high level of car access to their dwellings.
Re the Institute du Monde Arab, wouldn’t they have obtained a better degree of solar protection if they had used brise-soleil instead of internal shading?

My sense is that this approach could be used in a closely spaced Arabic urban environment both for climate control, privacy and moderating degrees of enclosure. I am sure that landscape architects could easily imagine a complementary appropriate response to the external urban environment which could blur into varying degrees of separation and integration.

Some suggestions…[ http://www.arabacademy.com/arabic-blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/300596_10150301752859901_291637344900_7655364_8024995_123.jpg ] and [ http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PfZ0wtFfrv8/UV3A3KjwWsI/AAAAAAAABPk/Onjd0PjgBi8/s1600/IMG_2017.jpg ] and [ http://www.couturetravelcompany.com/images/0/0/0dfe2fce-e8c8-4b8d-9a02-8876302be4e8.jpg ] and [ http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KiOaMfX5hMU/TmpzygvwVLI/AAAAAAAAA7s/8b4guwOn_cU/s1600/Screen-shot-2011-09-09-at-5.53.00-PM.jpg ]

The Institut du Monde Arabe has an interesting elevation and produces an appealing internal environment. But there is nothing Arab and little that is appealing about the external space it helps define and create.
I have been looking at the urban history of London’s Whitehall over the last 1000 years. It has evolved slowly, in the English way, and what survives is both surprisingly large and surprisingly small. But for the fire in 1691 I guess they would have kept the old Whitehall Palace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Whitehall

The approach to new architecture I am thinking of is similar to Jean Nouvel.[ http://www.architectureoflife.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Parisin-Yeni-Parizyen-Yapilari-17.jpg ] and [ http://images.france-for-visitors.com/images/large/institut-du-monde-arabe.jpg ]

John Lockerbie’s article is excellent and it is surprising that it appears as a webpage – rather than the book it deserves to be. Describing the past and criticizing the present is easier than point to a way forward. But one policy which should have been applied to most of Asia’s old cities is easily described: they should have been preserved. And they should still be preserved. The Chinese plan for ‘modernizing’ the old centre of Kashgar is seen, as anti-Muslim and anti-Uighar but, in reality, it is typical of almost all Asian cities.
Re the Gulf, it is easy to understand that living in air-conditioned apartment and traveling in an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned shopping centre has more appeal than walking on a hot humid dusty street to hot humid dusty shop.