Young at heart

Never too old to rock and roll

Clear evidence of misspent youth was on display at the British Council for School Environments’ dinner last week – although not from the nation’s hoodies. Instead, it was the rather more soberly dressed Edukators that were responsible for the crowd gathered at Old Trafford football stadium. In case you don’t know, they are an industry rock band, fronted by Chris Liddle, the chairman of HLM Architects. At least the out-of-town venue should mean the ageing rockers will escape an Asbo for disturbing the peace …

Minister for inspiration

Margaret Hodge, the former construction minister (remember her?), moved last year to take on the architecture brief at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and it seems she’s embracing the post with slightly more zeal than she did her last one. Hodge has signed up to be an “inspirer” for a Cabe education scheme. The minister will take a group of children around Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’ Barking library next month and, presumably, inspire them. Ironic, since she didn’t have time to do much of that as minister for construction.

Credit: Scott Garrett

Our man in Tirana

For any company looking to expand overseas, it’s nice to receive a warm welcome. And it seems that few countries are more hospitable than Albania. My fellow Building scribe Richard Steer, the senior partner of Gleeds, tells me that, during his recent stay there, soldiers with Kalashnikovs and a blue-lighted escort (no, Mr Cartoonist, it wasn’t that kind of escort) accompanied him everywhere he went. At least he didn’t have to worry about his wallet disappearing.

Saucy old Will Alsop

Sex! Now that’s got your attention, perhaps you’d like to hear about the latest debate organised by the RIBA. No, wait, come back, it really is about sex. The debate, entitled “This house believes there should be more sex in architecture”, has Will Alsop proposing the motion and Jonathan Meades opposing. We expect much talk of seductive forms, silky cladding and elegant curves from Alsop and erection puns from Mr Meades. If that doesn’t put you off, see you at Building Design Partnership’s HQ in Clerkenwell at 6.30pm on 5 March.

He’s got the whole world in his hand

Regular readers of my musings will be familiar with the love that Bovis Lend Lease’s Julian Daniel has for Hull City FC. Well, now it seems that Daniel has found a way of combining this with his love of gadgets – namely his BlackBerry. “I use it for Google Earth to find parking spaces at away games,” he explains. Reckon I’ll just stick with the old Hansom cab.

Lest we forget

Just in case you had somehow missed out on the news that Heathrow’s T5 is to open on 27 March, I have just the thing to keep the great day at the front of your mind: a halyard (that is, the tape that holds ID passes around your neck) emblazoned with “T5 5pm 27 March 2008”. These handy aide-memoires have apparently been handed out to everyone feverishly working on getting the terminal finished on time. No excuses now, lads.

Strange bedfellows

What better way to spend Valentine’s Day night than watching architects and developers get to know each other better at the RIBA’s speed dating event. I know the two professions have their differences, but I hadn’t realised they communicate in different languages. I was told that what architects call a “living area” developers refer to as a “lounge”, and what architects refer to as a “high-quality finish”, developers call “a cost overrun”. Boom! Boom!