Champagne Supernova

Of course, in Alice’s wonderland of architecture there are many starchitects, but alas Alice isn’t one of them. Of course, I may poke fun those who, with a lot of shouting, fanfare, RIBA awards ceremonies and champagne, unveil their latest way of putting up a structure which looks almost, but not quite, nothing like a building. Odd really, that they have to make such a fuss of putting a roof over the heads of a thousand or so computer drones. Even odder, it has to be the shape of a penis, or a sponge (see below) or something they found on the bottom of their shoe whilst strolling to the new restaurant to eat something that is almost, but not totally, unlike food.

I am not totally cynical, however. One of my fave raves is a Starchitect - no, the word is too small. He is a whole nebula in one rather unpreprosessing elderly man, a Supernova of an architect. He is Frank Gehry. What? You’ve never heard of him? Shame on you, you who call yourselves fans of deconstructivism!

The picture above shows part of his pavilion for the 1992 Barcelona Olympic games. Looks like a fish? Well, yes. Didn’t I mention that the true megaliths of architecture never design buildings to look like buildings? So, of course! A fish.

Not content with that, Frank Gehry smashes up a load of Formica (that’s the deconstructivist bit) and forms it into – yes, another fish. But a bit smaller this time, and he puts a light bulb in it. Lo! A lamp! This is the architect ‘thinking outside the box’ – and as you know, this is very important to us modern thinkers.

Well, Frank was strolling along one day, looked on the bottom of his shoe as he sat on a bench in the sun, and came up with a new range of jewellery. Here it is. What do you mean, it looks like a fish? Are we still stuck on that motif? Where’s the universe – spanning imagination? Well, nothing like milking a good idea - sorry! Creating a brand!