"In French we have a word for this – grotesque"

Readers question whether Philippe Starck has lost his touch, following plans for a "phantasmagoric" hotel with a house on its roof, in this week's comments update.

In your dreams: commenters couldn't fathom the thinking behind a 14-storey hotel with an 18th-century-style home on top, designed by Philippe Starck for the French city of Metz, this week.

Rthko felt the designs were misdirected: "This would make more sense as an art piece, or even a convoluted attempt at preservation by moving an existing historic building. But a new house simply built in an old style? It's baffling."

"Interesting concept from Stark but I think it would be stronger if it were a carefully dismantled, conserved and rebuilt historic house on the roof, surrounded by mature gardens. Rather than a faux pastiche," agreed Cityzen.

Matt had a theory: "This is a thinly veiled ploy to awaken gargoyles."

"It used to be jumping the shark, now it is jumping the Starck," joked Lloyd Atler.

Guest was one commenter who defended the project: "Geeze so many haters. I love this – time for architecture to break out of the box."

One reader turned to her mother tongue to express her thoughts on the plans:

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Fallen idol: readers reacted to the Cornell architecture school's decision to disown alumnus Richard Meier, in the wake of recent sexual harassment claims.

"If the AIA will not revoke his AIA membership then we should revoke ours!" exclaimed Jared.

"The profession is absolutely rife with sexism. There is more to come," warned 8ball.

"As long as it doesn't become a witch hunt. Certainly not condoning bad behaviour but it's all to easy nowadays to wag fingers at the past," countered W Manix.

Bernadette Oberholzer felt enough was enough: "It has always been way too easy for men to sexually harass women all over the world. It's not a witch hunt. Maybe we are just finally managing to stand up for ourselves and say no more!"

One reader suggested the profession was ultimately catching up to Hollywood:

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Take a bow: the unveiling of BIG's new bow-tie-shaped theatre for Albanian capital Tirana seemed to divide readers, with some feeling the project lacked innovation.

"Is it just me or this is just ugly?" asked A.

"For me, this actually comes across as a quite mature project," countered Paul.

MrA felt the project's success came down to good fortune rather than skill: "It's is surprising how BIG comes up with a five-minute banal design exercise and tries to convince the client. Lucky!"

"The great success is actually managing to sell a second-year student level design to a client as something amazing and innovative!" responded R2-D2.

"His projects are one-liners, easy to understand yet sensational. BIG designs Hollywood blockbusters with happy endings. He’s not lucky, he just knows what excites people," wrote an impassioned Vincentius.

One reader was more focused on a request for the architecture firm:

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Lonely island: architects Marshall Blecher and Magnus Maarbjerg teamed up to create a 20-square-metre floating events space in Copenhagen, but some commenters couldn't get onboard with the design.

"It took the involvement of TWO architectural firms from opposite ends of the earth to design that?" asked a disbelieving Jess Thinkin.

"Two young architects designed and built the island. I think that is a pretty decent effort!" responded JF.

"They must be pretty tiny events!" exclaimed Jeedkn.

"Could host a pity party," added 8Mismo sarcastically.

One reader felt the architects were overselling the design:

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