| Father of the island
Architect Alan
Phillips has big plans for Brighton, discovers Ben Bailey
 It’s
a bloid,” says Brighton-based architect Alan Phillips,
“a cross between a blob and a void.” He is
referring to a huge nebulous shape at the base of a multi-storey
tower. This is his latest design for a building that may
soon grace the hitherto modest skyline of Kingsway, Hove.
Many residents will be angered by the prospect of another
such development on the seafront, but from a disinterested
perspective it is hard not to be impressed.
The “bloid” in question is purple and skewered
by a cylindrical glass elevator. Alongside this rises
a bizarre oblong beset by seemingly random geometric shapes.
It resembles nothing so much as a plasma-rifle aimed at
the sky. It also looks somewhat like a pen – a fancy
hi-tech pen, as used by architects. Could this be the
ultimate post-modern in-joke? Even if it’s not,
why here?
“There is a new zeitgeist in Brighton which is palpable,”
says Alan. “Everything’s rocking. Everyone
wants to live in Brighton, or work, or play. All the time.
It’s great! It’s the coolest city in the world,
I reckon.”
Alan is an architect who lives, works and plays in Brighton.
He first came here to study art in the Sixties and remained
in academia for 20 years as a professor of architecture.
After writing several books and building a house in France
for Bono from U2, he returned in 1997. He has since appeared
on ITV’s Room for Change and was a permanent fixture,
as it were, on Channel 4’s Grand Designs. Alan is
also set to feature in an episode of The Culture Show
on BBC2 at the end of this month. Not bad for a self-confessed
ex-hippy.
Brighton architects are currently having to reconcile
the dual demands of providing much-needed housing, while
placating the opponents of large-scale development. Now
that the Downs is set to become a National Park and given
the finite potential of westward-expansion, there seems
to be nowhere else to go but upwards. There is, however,
an alternative – obvious, yet seemingly absurd:
an offshore island. Alan has produced plans for a Pleasure
Island, composed of a star-shaped platform with flaying
tentacles, each bearing a number of bulbous multi-storey
buildings. Because the island would be outside the jurisdiction
of the City Council, it doesn’t even need planning
permission – although Alan realises it couldn’t
happen without the support of the city.
Alan Phillips Associates is currently involved with 30
projects in and around Brighton, yet the office is situated
in New England House. This dreary, outmoded Sixties tower-block
is an ironic location for the creative locus of such novel
designs. As it happens, the studio overlooks the chalky
rubble of the Brighton Station redevelopment – an
area soon to be renamed New England Quarter. The plans
for this include another high-rise tower, designed by
award-winning architects Allies & Morrison.
“Three million people come in and out of Brighton
every week by train,” Alan enthuses. “And
you’re going to have this beautiful tower to mark
the entrance, which says: new city, new century, new architecture,
new wealth, new vibrancy.”
New England Quarter is only one of many new developments
set to reshape our city. There are plans for major residential
building works at the marina and on Lewes Road, proposals
for an international ice rink at Black Rock and, of course,
the possibility of a football stadium in Falmer. The new
library in Jubilee Street is due to open soon, and there
are hopes of pulling down the notoriously dull Brighton
Centre. As many will know, the King Alfred Centre is to
be replaced by a host of gleaming modernist edifices,
courtesy of Frank Gehry – the man behind the Guggenheim
museum in Bilbao. The size of the original proposals have,
however, been reduced as a response to fierce local opposition.
Alan dismisses the argument that such buildings are little
more than monuments to the architect’s ego. “Gehry’s
work is so substantial that it will be more than that.
I think it could breathe as much new life into the King
Alfred site, as his Guggenheim breathed new life into
Bilbao.”
Despite also meeting resistance to many of his own projects,
Alan is determined to push things forward. There are three
things, he claims, which have created enormous potential
for Brighton: an optimistic council, a new century and
the fact that Brighton & Hove is now a city. “Getting
city status was exactly analogous with going from the
First Division to the Premiership,” Alan explains.
“With Gehry’s thing at one end, Wilkinson
Eyres freshening up the marina at the other and the island
in the middle, Brighton will be pretty safe as the most
creative, dynamic and vibrant resort city in the world.
At that stage you’ve won the Premiership.”
PLEASUREISLAND
Where will it be? A kilometre out to
sea, between the two piers.
How big will it be? 21,000 sq ft.
How much will it cost? £500 million.
When will it be ready? If it gets the
go-ahead soon, it could be finished by 2015.
What will be on it? Conference centre,
spa hotel, super-casino, housing, schools, shops, bars,
nightclubs, etc. Everything you’d expect, really.
How will people get there? The West Pier
will be rebuilt into a causeway for pedestrians and cars,
and a bullet-train will run beneath the causeway.
Is he serious? Yep.
copyright The Insight
2005
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