McCloud Shoots From The Lip
Okay, I absolutely promise that this is my last blog on Kevin McCloud for the rest of the year month week.
But as reported here, Kev’s company Hab (Happiness architecture beauty – and yes the lowercase acronym is intentional) got a bit of bad press over their decision to part ways with architects Wright and Wright.
In short, BD Online reported that there was a disagreement over fees and we reported that they reported it and, well, basically Kev wrote in (to them, not us unfortunately) and said it was all lies, damned lies!
Although, being Kevin McCloud, he put it far more eloquently than that: “We parted ways over one major issue: whether Wright & Wright was the appropriate practice to help us take the project forward.
“In 2008, Hab formed a partnership with Westlea Housing Association which is part of the housing group GreenSquare. Within the new partnership it became increasingly difficult to see a fit with Wright & Wright as project architect.”
The beleaguered property presenter turned developer also went on to comment, this time to Architects’ Journal, that he was a bit worried about presenting the Stirling Prize – an award for excellence in architecture – this October in light of the recent fuss.
“I’m only going to have to stand in front of 500 architects and say: ‘Hello I’m the guy who apparently doesn’t pay architects!’ ”
Still, he strongly rejected claims from Sandy Wright that he had been too idealistic in his vision without having the necessary funding to back it up:
“It implies a lack of business acumen. I’ve been in business for 15 years so I’m not unacquainted with employing and working with people. The important thing is collaboration.”
And good PR, apparently.
Related Tags: Kevin McCloud, Architecture & Design, Development, ArchitectureRelated Posts:
Posted by 
maybe they should change their name to Wrong and Wrong