Hostname: page-component-788cddb947-pt5lt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-10-10T05:07:32.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Searching for excellence: Ballingdon Bridge

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2007

Michael Stacey
Affiliation:
School of the Built EnvironmentUniversity of Nottingham University ParkNottinghamNG9 2RDUKmichael.stacey@nottingham.ac.uk

Extract

The act of making links hand and eye, and connects the intellect to physical change. A sculptor carving stone requires precision of thought before deploying manual dexterity. The challenge for an architect until the recent past has been to communicate such thoughtfulness, embodied in a design, to the people who will make the building and its component parts. Making architecture and the pursuit of excellence in the physical delivery of quality in built projects is a challenging and collaborative process [2]. It is not possible to legislate for excellence, however it is possible to create contexts in which high-quality architecture is probable. By comparison, John Ruskin in The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) set his aspirations low: ‘We may not be able to command good, or beautiful, or inventive architecture, but we can command an honest architecture’.

Type
design
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)