Last week's linkage
Apologies for lack of posts. I don't think anything really exciting happened last week - or maybe I'm just being cynical, because it was MIPIM and everyone was too busy grandstanding each other.
But it's hard not to be cynical when you read this sort ot stuff - Peel Holdings 'announcing' a new multi-billion masterplan of large perspex blocks on a Liverpool dockside, just so they can inflate their land values that little bit more. Let alone Bellway announcing that they have reduced their carbon footprint by a third - through offsetting in Ecuador. Right. (Surely a worthy contender for one of Mark's eco bollocks awards?)
Then there is more traditional MIPIM crap such as overinflated towers being sold as "the defined height of luxury" with foyers "crystallized by Swarovski" and waterfront living that is - oh, 500m from the waterfront? Enough of a distance to get yourself driven in of of the fleet of Rolls-Royces that comes for free. Ugh.
Foster waxed lyrical about Russia - more stuff along the lines of "I can't think of anywhere in the world that will do what we're going to do." What, spend that much money per sq ft? More prosaically, Farrells is 'creating one of the most vibrant and walkable cities in Europe' in - erm, Coventry (didn't MJP try to do that?) with a coloured perspex commercial mixed-use scheme, although the project director admitted that 'major issues still need to be resolved', including possible funding difficulties. Another effort to raise land values?
The only non-MIPIM stuff was that attempt to create a stir over the green belt, featuring the unlikely alliance of the Guardian and CPRE. Well, let's hope for a more exciting week this time round - though with everyone's belated hangovers kicking in, I doubt it. But at least you'll have a Budget round-up to look forward to...
But it's hard not to be cynical when you read this sort ot stuff - Peel Holdings 'announcing' a new multi-billion masterplan of large perspex blocks on a Liverpool dockside, just so they can inflate their land values that little bit more. Let alone Bellway announcing that they have reduced their carbon footprint by a third - through offsetting in Ecuador. Right. (Surely a worthy contender for one of Mark's eco bollocks awards?)
Then there is more traditional MIPIM crap such as overinflated towers being sold as "the defined height of luxury" with foyers "crystallized by Swarovski" and waterfront living that is - oh, 500m from the waterfront? Enough of a distance to get yourself driven in of of the fleet of Rolls-Royces that comes for free. Ugh.
Foster waxed lyrical about Russia - more stuff along the lines of "I can't think of anywhere in the world that will do what we're going to do." What, spend that much money per sq ft? More prosaically, Farrells is 'creating one of the most vibrant and walkable cities in Europe' in - erm, Coventry (didn't MJP try to do that?) with a coloured perspex commercial mixed-use scheme, although the project director admitted that 'major issues still need to be resolved', including possible funding difficulties. Another effort to raise land values?
The only non-MIPIM stuff was that attempt to create a stir over the green belt, featuring the unlikely alliance of the Guardian and CPRE. Well, let's hope for a more exciting week this time round - though with everyone's belated hangovers kicking in, I doubt it. But at least you'll have a Budget round-up to look forward to...
Comments
Everyone I spoke to eventually made some comment on how tall the women on the Kazan stand were and how little they were wearing.
The other question being asked was who stole the Wembley Arch from the Pipers London model.