Rory Sutherland Rory Sutherland

Why has London Bridge station been shortlisted for an architectural prize?

London Bridge station has been shortlisted for the Riba Stirling architects prize. The jury said its “impressive” new concourse had “significantly improved the experience of those who use it daily”. That’s nonsense, says The Spectator’s Wiki Man, Rory Sutherland:

In the shadow of the Shard, not far from Borough Market, is a £1 billion public artwork, an allegorical sculpture entitled ‘What is wrong with the world today’ by the reclusive wunderkind Netwór Krail. It was officially unveiled by the Duke of Cambridge last year.

The reason you may not have read about this monumental piece is that most of the press coverage failed to notice this structure was a landmark in experiential art. They mostly used its banal official name: the new London Bridge station.

Next time you visit this ‘station’, I urge you to appreciate this installation for what it really is — a brilliant, scathing commentary on the modern age. It artfully combines spectacular engineering and technological achievement with an overweening disregard for the everyday comforts of those who use it. Were Brian Sewell alive, it would have awakened him to the greatness of conceptual art.

Like all great artists, Krail relishes contradictions. So he has improved much of the original station and it would be churlish not to applaud the brio with which, through canny use of engineering, he has improved its banausic aspects. More trains flow through it, thanks to additional platforms and tracks. There are more and larger entrances to a huge and awe-inspiring concourse from which parallel banks of escalators whisk the viewing public heavenwards to platforms above. All this is tremendous.

But just as you are thinking maybe this is £1 billion well spent, Krail plays a masterstroke. The building exploits a spectacular wind-tunnel effect, so that in winter it is easily the coldest place west of the Urals.

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