Glancey must simply be being wry; no one could be that silly

No photos, sketches or anything to provide any sort of visual so who-the-devil really knows what they are talking about. But what Jonathan Glancey writes in The Guardian on The Ali G of urban planning is enough:

Equally, though, there are those who find Alsop's wilfully bombastic, cartoon-like designs a relief from received notions of good taste and architectural manners. We live in an increasingly come-as-you-are culture, so why shouldn't our new architecture reflect this, rather than pretend that we are still heirs to crusty, civil-minded civic culture and boring old humanist architecture? Alsop, the Ali G of urban planning, aims to keep it real. (italics added - DS)

Well maybe neither Glancey nor Ali G are new urbanists? One would gather.

The article places this Ali G fellow as part of the 1960s' Archigram, which was fun and impressive when I was 21 but I think such gimmicks as buildings that move (not are movable but which actually have the power of locomotion built into them) lose their charm past 30. To paraphrase Churchill, "Not in love with gimmicks before 3, no heart. Still in love with gimmicks after 30, no head."

I am after 30. And even I, a proud wearer on the golf course -- no joke -- of the famed shirt with this magnificent crest

would be the first to point out that "Respect" is not the same as "Blind Adulation." We did some dumb things in the sixties. But in the spirit of my buddy Dubya: "When we were young and foolish we did some young and foolish things." Could Archigram have been an example?

Comments

[Anyhoo]

I'm not sure if you're aware that Ali G is a character in a comedy programme.

The premise of the programme is that the character attempts to be stupid, foolish and nonsensical, whilst interviewing people who expect him to be anything other than that. Basically it's a rather cruel show where the interviewee [normally someone of great repute] is led to believe that Ali G, and modern youth culture, is really like that. And very often, to disguise their apparent ignorance, they play along - which of course only leads to greater embarrassment when the programme airs.

To be described as "the Ali G of..." is possibly not a compliment. Ali G is the extrapolated version of a common perception of youth culture. The epitome of the MTV style. He's a boisterous idiot clad in most ridiculous extremes of fashion, with all thoughts permanently mired in slang.

So if Ali G is an idiot ensconced in an impenetrable form of ridiculous waffle, which no-one apparently questions: what does that make Alsop?

Glancey's article isn't exactly effusive in its praise for him.

Incidentally Alsop's website [http://www.alsoparchitects.com/] has the worst case of usability suffering through design, of virtually any website I've seen.

Sorry about the long comment, but I wanted to make sure knew quite how savage that article was being.

[Andrew Spicer]

Interview with the Sasha Baron Cohen -- aka Ali G

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=3613548