Due to traffic congestion on the M6, top international Architect Will Alsop arrived 1½ hours late in Worcester to deliver his lecture, aptly titled "Glad to be here".
Sid Glazzard, Chairman of The Worcestershire Society of Chartered Architects, nobly held the fort for over an hour entertaining the audience, to an impromptu repertoire of appropriate stories and quips, which was very well received by an audience of over 250 architects and allied professions together with The Mayor of Worcester a number of district and city councillors and students from The Birmingham School of Architecture.
Will Alsop finally arrived at 9pm and following a six hour journey, immediately strode into the auditorium and delivered a brilliant lecture and film presentation demonstrating current schemes his Architects are working on in Canada, mainland Europe, and the UK. Principle amongst these projects is the £225 million museum, office and residential scheme called the "Fourth Grace" in Liverpool, the European city of culture. Other schemes in Walsall, West Bromwich and Stoke on Trent had local interest but Alsop's plan to turn the Yorkshire mining town of Barnsley into a Tuscan hill town raised many eyebrows.
Alsop criticised the planning process for assuming it protects the environment from bad buildings whereas, he claims, it only guarantees dullness and deprives the public of creative and exciting buildings which, given a choice, they would vote for.
The event was sponsored by Technical Indexes, an information system for the construction industry, Steve Delavante, area manager said "Technical Indexes are proud to have been associated with such a prestigious event, Sid Glazzard turned what could have been an unmitigated disaster into a superb evening and was great entertainment value. Will Alsop was inspirational and informative, however his quirky approach to buildings and townscape clearly shocked some in the audience but even his detractors recognised his brilliance."
