Thursday 31 March 2011


I feel sad now... This should've been my 100th post but because I missed yesterday and the day before its only my 98th... Still my century is only delayed! It'll come round at the weekend!


So much has happened in the last couple of days it will need a while to process it all. But there is one thing that has gnawed at my mind since early Tuesday morning and that was the sight of Wembley stadium.


I see the new Olympic park twice a week as I go to a fro between London and Norwich - its been incredible to watch it all rise from the rather unattractive brown field site into a splendid new development that will attract the world to its doors. Shape and design is so important and yet so personal. I like the new Olympic stadium but I have to say that Wembley with its graceful arch is somehow more pleasing to me.


The shape and angle with which the arch traverses the stadium is just so elegant.


It is truly iconic!


I think many of the Chinese buildings erected in Beijing for the 2008 Olympics were equally immediately recognisable - who will forget the ice cube or the bird's nest?


In a couple of decades will folk instantly identify the stadium at Stratford... I'm not so sure. That's not meant as a criticism because I think its a remarkable building but its not the most beautiful structure in the park.


Being an icon comes with all sorts of pressures and burdens. You have to maintain that status. You have to somehow remain contemporary. You have to retain your appeal - whether you're a structure of a style icon...


Of course the photo is of an altogether different sort of icon!!

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