Last Saturday (on its last leg as it closes on the 15th of August) I visited the long awaited " We made 2012" … Long awaited by the professionals behind it, many of which felt that was not fair to not be credited for their contribution.
I felt, and I might be controversial here, that the exhibition did not delivered the message either as it featured only a selection of the best known projects at a very high level. ( To be fair, I would imagine that it may have something to do with the license that practices and businesses have to apply for in order to be allowed to be credited, but never the less, it felt odd and full of gaps. )
As a Spanish person (architect) who "lived" the success of Barcelona, I was able to understand and apreciate the extent contributions that the emerging smaller local practices delivered as much as I was to look at star architects’ contributions. The parks, housing and small projects were as much part of the olympic legacy as the feature architectures and this gave Barcelona a true sense of purpose. I kind of missed this in London.
On the other hand, it worries me that a great opportunity such as this to shift focus from ones own contribution towards showcasing the existing opportunities in the construction industry to the younger audience has also been missed. The younger me, who was inspired by Barcelona, would have been left cold by London on the basis of a lack of understanding of its design contribution, for instance, to the individuals involved. Large practices are not everyone’s dream, specially anyone who may like to get involved in the nitty gritty, I therefore feel that the smaller scale work should also have been featured to give a balanced view. But maybe it is just me!
See on www.buildingcentre.co.uk
