Perspective Monthly March 2010

Britains Prince Charles has never been a great fan of modern architecture or modern architects, for that matter. His passion is fuelled in large part by his concern for the environment; he has long urged architects and developers to return to traditional building materials, such as those used in the construction of his model Dorset village, Poundbury. In this months Perspective, we see that some have taken heed of his words. At the Ecolodge in Egypt and the Pearl Fashion Academy in Jaipur, India, construction techniques and materials which have been in use for generations were applied.

The planet has been degraded and destroyed faster and with more long-ranging consequences in just the last 50 years than in the 500 before. As Prince Charles astutely observed, We must act now by using traditional methods and materials to work with Nature, rather than against her.