Novelty shouldn't be one of the main aims in architecture and yet today, perhaps more than at any other time in the history of this practical art, architects seem to be caught in a competition to produce the most unusual and eye-catching design within the budget of their brief. The building in today's photograph was one we passed on a walk through the Battersea district of London. A new Frank Gehry building is in the offing there, and the new United States Embassy that is currently under construction is displaying a most unusual exterior wall. Perhaps the irregular, rectangular tiles in shades of blue with white were the architects' response to the arms race in novelty currently under way in that location.
photo © T. Boughen Camera: Olympus OMD E-M10
