In this week’s comments update, readers are discussing a school in Canterbury completed by Walters & Cohen with a material palette of flint, oak and limestone.
Located alongside an entrance to Canterbury’s cathedral precincts, The Rausing Science Centre was designed to balance a traditional material palette with a “crisp and contemporary” approach.
Walters & Cohen clads Canterbury school building with snapped flint
“What a thoughtful and pleasant design”Â
Readers were impressed.”Beautiful execution and attention to detail – magnificent!” wrote Jerry Dickman-Wilkes.
“What a thoughtful and pleasant design,” agreed The Truth. They went on to say that “this sort of respect for scale, context and materiality is not often seen in contemporary additions.”
“Fancy that – a handsome, compact, efficient building, constructed of quality materials, with no arbitrary angles”, commented Karl. Also a fan of the design was Souji, calling it “very nice, a step in the right direction”.
One reader who wasn’t so sure was Chris, who interjected “I dig the materiality, but it looks like a village building shoehorned into an academic campus – odd.”
Adamo Faiden creates Buenos Aires skyscraper as a “geographical feature”
“Back to the essentials! Beautiful and simple details”
Also providing plenty of fodder for the comments section this week was a skyscraper with a green-pigmented concrete facade and a series of cantilevers, completed by local studio Adamo Faiden in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Johan thought the building was “quite elegant and a lovely shade of green” and that it “works very nicely with the historic warehouses.”
“Back to the essentials! Beautiful and simple details,” praised Matheus Seco, adding “what a superb building!”
But not all commenters were quite so smitten, with Idracula deciding “from a distance, graphically interesting…up close, pretty banal.”
Also unconvinced, Souji called it “oppressive and inelegant”, concluding “meh, more of the same mediocre stuff we are used to.”
Meanwhile, commenter John-in-Melbourne was “not sure it fits in with the landscape around it”.
Snøhetta showcases “transformative” Ford headquarters building in Michigan
“Trying to please everyone and exciting no one”
Readers were largely unimpressed by Snøhetta’s headquarters for automotive company Ford in Michigan, which features an engineering-focused central building.
“Clean! Bright! Umm and sterile,” commented Rickboxer. “How about even a dab of colour somewhere?” they asked.
On the same page was Alfred Hitchcock, arguing “it’s nicely polished, but it’s like Ford’s cars – trying to please everyone and exciting no one.” They branded it “middle of the road stuff”.
“A mess and a bore”, contributed Souji, while JZ thought “it feels massively generic”.
Comments update
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On a similar note — I love how honest and practical this is. Will try it.