Hansom: Known unknowns

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Could the Serpentine pavilion architect BIG be about to take on an even more high-profile commission? The practice of Bjarke Ingels is already working on Google’s headquarters in California with Thomas Heatherwick and the rumour is that it might be about to do the same for the firm’s headquarters in London at King’s Cross. That project is officially still being designed by Stirling prize winner AHMM. But asked whether he was in discussion with Google about King’s Cross, Ingels replied: “I can’t say more.” Hmm.

Room with a view

Two families in Brazil will have the comfiest seats going for Rio’s Olympic Games this summer after refusing compensation to relocate. The families have found themselves fenced inside the £1.7bn Olympic park by the developers and are now ensconced inside a property that will overlook the games’ aquatic centre and velodrome. Rio’s council is vowing to evict the families and the city mayor Eduardo Paes has made a court application to remove them from the site.

We are not amused

Could royal displeasure have forced the hand of the Livingstone brothers to revise plans for the revamp of Hilton Park Lane? Plans from architect Hopkins have been submitted to Westminster council for a “refreshment” of the 28-storey tower to reduce its visual impact. The 1963 structure towers over the back garden of Buckingham Palace, which is said to have irritated the Queen so much she has never attended a function there. I suppose it would stop you stripping off for a spot of sunbathing.

Space invaders

The debate on tall towers has once again reached the pages of the Evening Standard. Last week we noted chairman of think-tank New London Architecture, Peter Murray, thinks it is “inevitable” more tall towers will go up in the capital. Not so, says Duncan Wilson, the boss of Historic England, who hits back: “Tall buildings in the right places can make exciting contributions but they should … not be springing up in the wrong places.” Wilson calls the towers “hopelessly generic”. Meanwhile, in the letters pages of the Financial Times, a reader objects to the executive director of the Garden Bridge Trust claiming the bridge “will use currently unused space”. John Howkins writes in to take umbrage with Bee Emmott’s stance. “Space above a river is not unused,” he writes. “It is free air, open space, a public resource, giving views. For an individual to claim that the public’s view of the Thames is ‘unused’ and ripe to be closed off for private development is appalling.”

Sound and fury

London’s Ministry of Sound nightclub in a formerly grungy and unloved corner of the capital’s Elephant & Castle area has long been on the frontline of the battle against gentrification. The nightclub fought an Allies & Morrison-designed block of flats nearby in 2013 and successfully obtained improvements, including acoustically sealed windows to shield residents from the noise. Now the dance mecca has objected to a 40-storey SOM-designed “cultural quarter”, fearing an influx of residents three doors down could force it to close. The Ministry has instructed acousticians to model SOM’s scheme and the impact the club would have on it. Presumably they’re hoping that the known risk of the development being bombarded by din will be enough to deter the developer from going ahead.