"Schumacher may not have expressed himself perfectly, but his ideas are worth consideration"
Was Dezeen columnist Phineas Harper right to tell architects to ignore Patrik Schumacher? Readers have been asking that question in this week's comments update.
Censored: Harper said the architecture industry was wrong to keep providing the Zaha Hadid Architects founder with a platform to share his controversial ideas, as he did at the World Architecture Festival earlier this month. But not everyone agreed.
"Schumacher may not have expressed himself perfectly but, as a highly acclaimed architect of vast experience, his ideas are worth consideration," said JayJay.
"Sneer if you will, but many of us in the profession would take his word over that of an 'architectural politician'."
"Schumacher may not be in possession of the writing abilities of the above author," replied HintOfBrain. "That is beside the point."
"He (Schumacher) anyhow surely showed his true colours, that's what lies at the core of the above criticism. In a nutshell, leaving all housing programmes to free-market forces is like removing the barbed wire fence around the flock of sheep and then sending invitations to the neighbourhood speculator wolves to dinner."
However seedhub felt that Patrik deserved to be heard, whether people agree with him or not.
"I fully support Schumacher's right to voice his opinions. I also fully support the right of others to criticise Schumacher's opinions, or to ignore them outright," they said.
Austin Williams concurred:
Will.i.wear? readers weren't convinced by these wireless headphones inspired by the shape of vinyl records, launched by music producer Will.i.am.
"Inspired by vinyl records? Really? It's a plain circle," said Paulo.
Aaron Rogers agreed: "Vinyl record inspired shape? It's also a hub cap, dinner plate, frisbee, clay pigeon and coin inspired shape. Ludicrous," he said.
But torototoro was impressed by one of the features.
"That magnetic necklace closure thing is a rather good idea though – careless people like me would lose a pair of Apple Airpods within a few hours of purchase," said the commenter.
Blake took a more cynical view:
Bodybuilding: Coop Himmelb(l)au is just showing off with its new Shenzhen museum complex, according to commenters.
"Pfeww, that's an awful lot of architectural muscles being shown. It reminds me of bodybuilding culture; I guess if you're into it, it must look great," said Dikkie Smabers.
Others felt the project showed more of the same ideas from the Austrian studio, which is led by architect Wolf D Prix.
"Everything this firm does is so... laborious," said StoneyElephant.
Berklyn agreed: