Controversy is red flavoured

Old Trafford has a new box. It’s big. It’s red. It has no discernable point. I think it’s fantastic.

One of the best things about modern architecture is amusingly attaching funny names to new developments. It refreshingly demeans the serious and arty pretentious work of people that have spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort on a sizeable undertaking.

I love modern architecture. I especially love the brand that pisses on its ‘historic’ surroundings from a great height. Take a look at your average ‘attractive’ street in any major city, and you will see an angry mix of contrasting style in different periods. ‘Modern architecture’ in a hundred years ago was slammed against more established buildings. People moaned. But then those people died and then the art become an accepted part of the landscape. A horizon that must never be touched again.

People, especially those that are well-informed, talk rubbish about architecture. People object to new buildings simply because of the change. What is your reaction when a website with which you are familiar changes its design? That’s right. You hate it. You need to think a bit, and work out new ways to find the stuff you like. Then you accept it.

This is how our urban environment works. Designs, over which we have no influence, are thrust upon us either before or after we are born. Good designs survive. Bad designs are replaced. Over-stylised Victorian terraces remains; concrete carbuncles are dynamited.

The Point has that magical, 'floating' quality - that strange sense of a large object levitating above the ground. The lines are clear, and interesting. It is, despite the reactionary instincts against the new, beautiful.

Top work Old Trafford.