Am off to bed in a second, but just wanted to relive my favourite moment of tonight's show. When Mr and Mrs Moneybags claimed they wouldn't be able to afford to take the wall down and rebuild it (liars) then were promptly clamped up by Kevin's reminders of their huge legal bills. It's a crazy crazy world

While not warming to Mr and Mrs More Money Than Taste (35 grand for a cooker is obscene...)the London Festival Orchestra were just pathetic. I'd love to think that smug bloke in the sweater (the one who blinked a lot) would be cringing in embarrassment at his misplaced arrogance and self-righteousness but I fear not....

Interesting project but didn't touch the heart. More of a salutory lesson in consertvation and neighbourly relations than an inspiration.

Each to their own but.....
£1.9 million for what? Something resembling Dr Evil's subterranean bunker with no windows and just glimpses of the sky above, and living surrounded by hostility and coldness.

When I finally have £1.9 mill to spend (nearly there now, only another £1.6 mill to go ), I'll be commissioning buyingagent to find me something a little more soothing for the soul - a home rather than a 'showcase'.

Both this week's and last week's couple have given me a salutary lesson in what happens when you have nothing else to focus on apart from yourselves - complete self-obssession and self-indulgence.

In the time between the first showing and the repeat last night I have had many dealings with musicians and their 'we are from another planet, obviously superior to yours' attitude just shone through! Musicians are never, ever wrong and if ever you disagree with them they will gang up and mock you.

I was on the couple's side last night even though not impressed with the glass walkway. But we are becoming spoilt, aren't we?

Just another ad. for a 'trendy' practice. Come on C4, weed them out.

There should be a difference between a 'party' wall and a 'boundary' wall.

How refreshing to see a Conservation Architect talking sense and not threatening a prison term.

I only caught the end of this but had read about the case in a copy of the mag. grand Designs.

Not sure about the argument on the wall - surely they were fined for not seeking planning permission before acting? I think the musicians thought that as they were right then why should they compromise at all? AND the brick painting to match came quite some time after the original furore.

In terms of the design - I may be an old cynic but I got the feeling that this 'space' was going to be used for fashion shoots and corporate cocktail parties - I mean this literally rather than just as a description of the design style.

I found it very telling that Milko is dead against commissioning artists because he feels that then the artist is 'in control'. (In fact many artists are reluctant to accept commissions precisely because they then don't have control of their own artwork. Me, I'm not proud and I have bills to pay ).

Does this give an indication of the way that they see the relationship between client and architect? That the one being commissioned is in control rather than the client paying for the job??

Will each to their own , I'm of the opinion that you can't take it (Money) with you when you go, so spend it while you can.

I for one was glad that they had won in a roundabout way against the LFO, who I felt were up their A**. Look at the state of the wall for goodness sake it was already a mish-matched and the bricks looked acceptable to me.

Good luck to em!!

quote:

Originally posted by dragonfly2:
Both this week's and last week's couple have given me a salutary lesson in what happens when you have nothing else to focus on apart from yourselves - complete self-obssession and self-indulgence.

Sorry if this means I lose my reputation as one of the forum softies, but I must disagree with you.

Last week's couple had a relatively modest dream and what they ended up with was personal but not pretentious. They had a real feeling for the part of London they lived in too.

Last's nights lot were completely different and indifferent to the needs and feelings of their neighbours. That wall was a calculated gamble. She's an architect, she knows that once a wall like that is up, the longer it stays up the harder it is for the heritage people to turn round and say 'pull it down'.

At first, I kind of had sympathy because I thought the wall looked ok, then when they said it would cost £25-£30k i.e. ~1.4% of the build cost to rebuild when you offset that against the legal fees they've had I just thought, is it worth it?

I just get the impression that there was just a full-on war like two bulldogs locked in combat.

Conservation officer was the only one speaking sense. Talk, resolve and move on.

As has been implied by forde, life's too short and you can't take money with you. I'd like to add, life's too short for arguments and bad feeling - money should buy you happiness, not lawyers. I'd hate to live there and be full of such resentment. It just wouldn't be a place that made me happy .

I agree Trish. Even Louise looked a bit gutted at the end when she was talking about the hostility which could never be resolved.

I agree with you too Jane about the look of the place - impersonal and officey. And as you say - £1.9m for what?

Milko was a nice chap, but Louise was pretty unbearable. I can imagine if I had been her neighbour I might have wanted to hack her off as much as humanly possible. And as El said, she obviously knew what she was doing by using the Fletton bricks, which makes the 'mistake' all the more annoying.

quote:

Originally posted by Elskid:

quote:

Originally posted by dragonfly2:
Both this week's and last week's couple have given me a salutary lesson in what happens when you have nothing else to focus on apart from yourselves - complete self-obssession and self-indulgence.

Sorry if this means I lose my reputation as one of the forum softies, but I must disagree with you.

Last week's couple had a relatively modest dream and what they ended up with was personal but not pretentious. They had a real feeling for the part of London they lived in too.

Last's nights lot were completely different and indifferent to the needs and feelings of their neighbours. That wall was a calculated gamble. She's an architect, she knows that once a wall like that is up, the longer it stays up the harder it is for the heritage people to turn round and say 'pull it down'.

I guess I wasn't talking so much about their developments but their general attitude of me first. I do agree with you that the first people seemed more aware of their neighbourhood but I just got a very strong feeling off them that they found it very diffcult to see anything from anybody else's point of view. maybe the similarity I saw was that both were professional designers (although in slightly different fields) and they are used to imparting their vision (which is the only way to see it). Not sure I'd want either of them as my designer/architect

I'm sure your softie reputation will remain unscathed!

Agree with the need to "weed out" things done purely as Architect's Portfolio projects. Just think what the tv advertising time would cost... I kinda suspect £1.9million might be cheap!
That said, all publicity is NOT good publicity. *I* wouldn't want to employ an archiect who was "surprised" by the 'sense of space' in a room ostensibly designed by herself!
The see-through walkway was simply silly and as Kevin mildly remarked there was an element of Prison about the use of wired glass in the (internal) windows - which they avoided for that daft walkway!
We had an excellent view of the "architect's" scheduling and budgeting abilities, and her smoothly effective conflict resolving negotiating skills. We may not have appreciated her purchasing skills, because the opportunity of product placement potentially brings favourable terms.

As for that wall. WHY were flettons used instead of the London Stock specified on the Party Wall Agreement? Was the architect not keeping on top of the builders, or was it a case of penny-pinching in an area that was out of the client's sight?
I gathered that the comic idea of painting the bricks was a suggestion of the "architect". I was left wondering, if you are happy to spend over a million on your pad, including thirty+ grand on a custom made cooker, and you're faced with soaring legal fees, but have still lost the first round in your case... would it be possible, or cost-effective, to persuade a conservation officer...? Surely not, but if the thought ocurred to me, it must have occurred to others...

They don't seem to like living there any more - it's now available to rent...

http://www.mcdlondon.co.uk/ (click on Projects, number 1).

quote:

Originally posted by camelCase:
They don't seem to like living there any more - it's now available to rent...

It looks as though the "architect" (and now letting agent) is giving that as the contact address though... Don't remember working from home as being part of the brief???
And inflation has hit the cooker - its a "£54,000" commercial cooker now!

I felt a bit conned by C4. So called new series.

Quite a smart development, I suppose if you have lived a busy/stressful day at work in London you perhaps want to turn your back on it all.
I'm off to live looking out to sea in Cornwall.

sSo they're not living there (or having dinner parties for 32 guests)?

I do wonder how a bitter dispute with the neighbours helpes the "zen calm". I wonder if that's why they're not living there?

Or was this all a nice big ad for the practice and their eideas with a nicely timed update on prime time TV with several million potential customers. C4 needs to be careful.

quote:

Originally posted by bridgette:
Or was this all a nice big ad for the practice and their eideas with a nicely timed update on prime time TV with several million potential customers. C4 needs to be careful.

Me thinks so too! Seems somewhat a waste to me, especially after spending 1.9 mil!! Incidentally, one could also check out, the aptly named theviolinfactory.com for more details - The floor plans are, IMHO, the best part, lol!

quote:

Originally posted by the_dougal:
As for that wall. WHY were flettons used instead of the London Stock specified on the Party Wall Agreement? Was the architect not keeping on top of the builders, or was it a case of penny-pinching in an area that was out of the client's sight?

Re the wall.
I could be wrong...(it has been known before, but this couple certainly had an eye for detail so I think they deliberately used cr*p bricks to p*ss off the LFO, because of the way they had been treated. After all, its not as if they will have to look at it.

Hmm, I'll publish floor plans on t'Internet, they'll look like a load of lines to most people, we won't put labels on or explain what each space is used for like "kitchen" or "bedroom" - this will undoubtedly make it easier for the layperson to visualise it

Oh and we won't give them any scale or measurements either. That's really helpful

Piccies are nice though. But after all that, they're marketing it as an "event space" with function rooms and presentation areas. That's quite sad, it doesn't appear to be a home - not what I thought GD was about really.

quote:

Originally posted by Baldricksbrother:

Re the wall.
I could be wrong...(it has been known before, but this couple certainly had an eye for detail so I think they deliberately used cr*p bricks to p*ss off the LFO, because of the way they had been treated. After all, its not as if they will have to look at it.

If that were the case then they've really cut their nose off to spite their face. I'd much prefer to believe that it was an honest and honorable decision to use flettons.

However, if it were a conscious (for conscious read vindictive) decision to use flettons then they probably deserve the aggro and the cost. I really, really hope this wasn't the case.

Some fights are worth winning, others just aren't.

However, unless they post on here, we're never going to know the reason. I still think it's terribly silly and has completely overshadowed the positive (regeneration, vision, architure etc) points of the build. Great shame indeed.

PS: I thought the brick painting was really funny btw. Sort of conservation graffiti

Forgot to mention, I think they should have been made to take the wall down. I mean painting colours on to a wall, how longs that going to last? also although the general sentiment here is sympathy towards this couple due to their neighbours being so difficult, we should remember we don’t have the other half of the story as seen from the LFO side.

I don't have sympathy BB, I don't know who has done what and why. So I'll save my sympathy until I know who to give it to, if anyone.

No matter what though, I don't think it needed to go as far as it did.

I also know what you mean about the wall, looked like chalk and would eventually weather away!