Don’t let a poor redesign mummify CABE

News

Peter Bill

29 May 2004

This report from CABE’s sponsoring ministry, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, will probably be out in three or four weeks’ time – a short but decent interval after a new chief executive is announced. Will it discover that Sir Stuart was saying: “‘ere John, I’ll get the design panel to nod through your scheme in Greytown if you stop competing with me for that land in Bluesville.” Of course not. It is a risible suggestion. But what the DCMS will conclude (in official language) is that CABE is a bit clubby; a gathering ground for like-minded talent, a place where everybody knows your name.

CABE will face calls to change…

That means Sir Stuart’s successor will have to be a member of the Great & Good, with some knowledge of the subject – but no conflicting interests. It means that the new chief executive will possess an older head than outgoing chief executive Jon Rouse – who has gone to run the Housing Corporation. It will mean that new commissioners will be chosen for their diversity of taste and not because they like modern architecture. In other words, it means a whole change of ethos for CABE. Good? No, bad.

Sir Stuart and the highly talented enthusiasts he recruited have done more to promote good design in five years than CABE’s predecessor, the Royal Fine Art Commission, did in its 80-year history. It is precisely because Lipton is a developer that CABE has flourished. It is precisely because he knows where the talent lies that CABE has become so influential. It is precisely because that talent has been willing to work for CABE that it has become a powerful arbiter of taste. So, let’s hear it for Sir Stuart.

…calls that should be largely resisted

The guardians of CABE now face a difficult balancing act. The ministers who agreed the organisation’s structure and remit in 1999 were well aware of the potential for conflicts of interest in a body filled with designers sitting in judgment on other designers. But this was still Labour’s bright morning. Even so, it was the right decision and remains so.

Yes, the DCMS will be right to conclude that the club – due to become a statutory body -needs to open its doors to strangers with differing views. It will be right to conclude that greater care needs to be taken to avoid apparent conflicts of interest. But this does not mean that CABE should become perfectly balanced, perfectly PC and suffused with the civil service spirit. For that spirit will turn quickly to embalming fluid — and the body will be mummified as the RFAC under another name: and rival developers who have carped about Sir Stuart will rue the day.

Carping always sounds so much cleverer than praise. So the news (p59) that Sir Stuart Lipton of Stanhope is considering giving up the chairmanship of the Commission for Architecture & the Built Environment will no doubt be followed by snide commentary on the suitability of installing a developer to watch over other developers’ developments: commentary that will be fuelled by a forthcoming official report into conflicts of interest at the five-year-old body responsible for promoting good design. This report from CABE’s sponsoring ministry, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport, will probably be out in three or four weeks’ time – a short but decent interval after a new chief executive is announced. Will it discover that Sir Stuart was saying: “‘ere John, I’ll get the design panel to nod through your scheme in Greytown if you stop competing with me for that land in Bluesville.” Of course not. It is a risible suggestion. But what the DCMS will conclude (in official language) is that CABE is a bit clubby; a gathering ground for like-minded talent, a place where everybody knows your name. CABE will face calls to change… That means Sir Stuart’s successor will have to be a member of the Great & Good, with some knowledge of the subject – but no conflicting interests. It means that the new chief executive will possess an older head than outgoing chief executive Jon Rouse – who has gone to run the Housing Corporation. It will mean that new commissioners will be chosen for their diversity of taste and not because they like modern architecture. In other words, it means a whole change of ethos for CABE. Good? No, bad. Sir Stuart and the highly talented enthusiasts he recruited have done more to promote good design in five years than CABE’s predecessor, the Royal Fine Art Commission, did in its 80-year history. It is precisely because Lipton is a developer that CABE has flourished. It is precisely because he knows where the talent lies that CABE has become so influential. It is precisely because that talent has been willing to work for CABE that it has become a powerful arbiter of taste. So, let’s hear it for Sir Stuart. …calls that should be largely resisted The guardians of CABE now face a difficult balancing act. The ministers who agreed the organisation’s structure and remit in 1999 were well aware of the potential for conflicts of interest in a body filled with designers sitting in judgment on other designers. But this was still Labour’s bright morning. Even so, it was the right decision and remains so. Yes, the DCMS will be right to conclude that the club – due to become a statutory body -needs to open its doors to strangers with differing views. It will be right to conclude that greater care needs to be taken to avoid apparent conflicts of interest. But this does not mean that CABE should become perfectly balanced, perfectly PC and suffused with the civil service spirit. For that spirit will turn quickly to embalming fluid — and the body will be mummified as the RFAC under another name: and rival developers who have carped about Sir Stuart will rue the day.