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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2009
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Architect: Crunch Will Topple 'Wow Factor' Buildings

Architect believes financial meltdown will cause building 'mood shift'

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(Newser) – Attention-seeking skyscraper projects are likely to be early victims of the financial crisis, architect David Chipperfield predicts in a Bloomberg interview. "Wow-factor" buildings like London's "Shard of Glass" have proliferated during years when there's been plenty of money around, but a shift in mood is likely to see new projects taking a turn for the sensible, the architect argues.

The competition to create iconic buildings has been "liberating for the profession," but it also "produces a lot of rubbish," said Chipperfield, whose own work, including the recent transformation of Berlin's bombed-out Neues Museum, is often more low-key. At the Neues he's attracted some controversy by keeping some WWII damage visible rather than re-creating the original.

General view of the newly constructed staircase of the 'Neues Museum' in Berlin prior to the topping-out ceremony last year.
General view of the newly constructed staircase of the 'Neues Museum' in Berlin prior to the topping-out ceremony last year.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
This computer-generated image released earlier this year by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron reveals their
This computer-generated image released earlier this year by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron reveals their "Project Triangle" building.   (AP Photo/Herzog and de Meuron, HO)
David Chipperfield poses in the newly constructed staircase of the Neues Museum in Berlin prior to the topping-out ceremony of the building's reconstruction last year.
David Chipperfield poses in the newly constructed staircase of the Neues Museum in Berlin prior to the topping-out ceremony of the building's reconstruction last year.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
David Chipperfield poses in Berlin's 'Neues Museum' prior to the topping-out ceremony of the museum's reconstruction.
David Chipperfield poses in Berlin's 'Neues Museum' prior to the topping-out ceremony of the museum's reconstruction.   (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
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It's an architecture of excess, a consequence of there being too much money around.
At a time when people are worried about other things, those things become really irritating. - British architect David Chipperfield

I am highly suspicious of doing the extraneous and the superficial, of doing things for effect, of doing things that look silly after a few years. - David Chipperfield

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