Rafael Viñoly

See the full gallery on Posterous

It was terrible - in terms of the British Constitution if nothing else - when Prince Charles's letter-writing got the Qatari Royal Family to drop Richard Rogers' design for Chelsea Barracks. Our Prince's desire to protect the loyal citizenry from those modernists like Lord Rogers, with their monstrous carbuncles, was not just over-reaching personal preference. It was symptomatic of a folksy merrie-old-England philistinism that infects this country still. Even Cool Britannia did not get rid of it.

I am so pleased, then, that Dundee is building something outstanding with the new V&A by Kengo Kuma. (http://VandAatDundee.com/your-future/PDF/KengoKuma_full.pdf) And Aberdeen is planning something bold - we don't know what yet - in Union Terrace Gardens.

Fortunately, Charles doesn't own all of London. Rafael Viñoly, a favourite architect of mine, whom I have drawn a sketch of in pencil, has designed something bold for 20 Fenchurch St in the City.

Cole Porter

Sitting in the car in Kincorth, waiting for Niamh to finish her reporter's incursion into the community council, I am listening to Cole Porter songs and have drawn a sketch of him in biro from a photograph of him on the Internet.

From "Let's Do It", I think the best lyrics of all the improbable lyrics are these:

Sturgeon, thank God, do it,

Have some caviar, dear.

In shady shoals, English soles do it,

Goldfish, in the privacy of bowls, do it,

Let's do it, let's fall in love.

Sent from my iPad