Hansom

A Stirling effort
To celebrate their second Stirling Prize win in succession, Chris Wilkinson and Jim Eyre hosted a bash at their office in London's Old Street last week. The practice, which scooped the award for its Millennium Bridge in Gateshead, generously invited hundreds of friends – many from the press – to help them work their way through several dustbins full of chilled champagne. But what was Wilkinson getting at in his speech? "The press – we love them and hate them," he said, before enigmatically adding: "Please don't knock us down."

Of course my journalist colleagues adore your work, Chris, so we're not quite sure what you mean. Perhaps that we'll crucify you if you fail to make it a hat-trick next year …

Call of nature
The Eden Project has gone earth-mother mad. First it commissioned a statue of Eve made out of soil and turf; now it has built a bus station and toilet in the shape of a "generously curvy woman", according to the latest press release.

The rammed-earth structure was designed by two artists, Jackie Abey and Jill Smallcombe, who worked with specialist contractor Back to Earth.

"We've had a lot of fun with the design and ended up putting the ladies' loos in the head and the gents in the breasts," gushes Smallcombe, who adds: "Actually, the breasts are larger than we had planned, to accommodate more loos."

The assassinated city
Trent Concrete managing director Mike Downing's recent holiday to Cairo brought back bittersweet memories. In 1981 his firm thought it had clinched a deal to supply thousands of precast concrete homes for a new city to relieve the densely populated Egyptian capital. Downing says the procurement process was on track until the project's benefactor, President Sadat, was shot dead by Islamic extremists.

Unfortunately for Downing, President Mubarak was keen to distance himself from the unpopular Sadat and cancelled the project and Trent's lucrative contract. Bad decision, says Downing, who tells me that Cairo's population is now a stifling 18 million.

Gozo journalism
I hear that David Crewe, executive director of Rethinking Construction and chief executive of the Housing Forum, is to retire soon. But what will he do with his spare time? Since he is the proud owner of a house on the Maltese island of Gozo, he could be planning to get away from it all. Hope the house is Egan-compliant, David …

Shaken but not smashed
The party season is upon us and hosts are trying to outdo each other with the originality of their invitations. Last week I told you about the novel invite to Sir Stuart Lipton's birthday bash: a London brick with a message attached.

Since then, other interesting designs have been flooding in. A do held by Buro Happold was advertised by some cunning paper engineering, and law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner has been sending out beer bottle-shaped flyers.

But the prize for the best gimmick goes to architect Assael, which went to the trouble of sending out hundreds of Martini glasses safely cocooned inside inflated, transparent plastic pillows printed with details of their knees-up.

More tea, Victor?
Property tycoon Victor Wang has just splashed out on a little gem. The owner of Parkview has bought Toyo Ito's delightful Serpentine pavilion (Building, 19 July), which graced the lawns of Kensington Gardens over the summer. I hear Wang intends to move the glass and steel tea house south of the river to a home in front of Battersea power station, which he is about to start converting into a leisure centre.