Peckham's ugly progeny

Previously, I wrote about Will Alsop's Peckham Library, which I saw as part of this year's London Open House (item '6.' in the post).  I said that I suspected it must have been an influential work, because the building seemed to embody the defining characteristics of a whole era of British architecture (circa 2000-2010) and it dates from early on in that period (2000) and won the Stirling Prize - ie, it would, therefore, have certainly come to the attention of all of the architects of that generation.  The example set by Alsop wasn't a particularly edifying one: as innovative as the Library may have been, it set a dismal trend for half-arsed gestures towards 'friendliness' (outbreaks of curvilinearity, brightly coloured panels and a general lack of gravitas) and a commitment to the sort of fun-less 'fun', in the form of tiresomely wacky spatial organisation and funny-shaped roofs, that, wrapped up in appropriate jargonese about 'place-making' and 'aspiration', one can all too easily imagine receiving a hearty bureaucratic seal of approval.

At any rate, I can't resist posting about something I saw whilst out cycling this weekend which seems to ape the stylings of Peckham Library more literally than I would have imagined anyone would dare, let alone care, to.  Note the light-green (presumably, as with the Library, patinated copper) cladding to pick out a rectilinear board of a first floor facade, the use of pilotis to mark out a forecourt at the front, and a supposedly mischievous element of non-orthogonality in the roof-line.  The building in question is an extension to primary school, St Polycarp's, in Farnham, which, apparently, was designed by an outfit called Re-format and completed in 2012 at a cost of £1 million.  Since only a short while later (in the last couple of years), perhaps in small part due to the devastating criticisms of the likes of Owen Hatherley from 2010 onwards, the whole design philosophy fell dramatically out of favour, this very recent building manages already to look very dated.  As well as shit.  

St Polycarp's RC Primary School, Farnham (2012)

Peckham Library (2012)