"Richard Rogers has challenged Prince Charles to engage in public debate over Britain’s built environment after claiming he knows of five developers who privately consulted him over their choice of architects because they fear his opposition.

The Labour peer and designer of the Pompidou Centre reopened a simmering row over the heir to the throne’s interventions in architecture by alleging in a new book that the developers consulted the palace “to check what would be acceptable”. Rogers believes Charles should keep out of the subject unless he is willing to engage in open argument."

Richard Rogers is about to fire a new debate with Prince Charles. The architect claimed in the Guardian newspaper that he knows of five developers who privately consulted Prince over architects, as they don't want to confront his opposition. 

In his new memoir, A Place for All People, Rogers writes: "I don’t believe that the Prince of Wales understands architecture. He thinks it is fixed at one point in the past (for him, classicism – an odd choice as it is not a style with deep roots in England), rather than an evolving language of technology and materials. But if he is not going to join in debate, it hardly matters whether his opinions are right or wrong. He occupies a privileged position, and he should not use that to damage the livelihoods of people he disagrees with.........Continue Reading

Top image: Richard Rogers, image © Andrew Zuckermann/Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners/RSHP. Courtesy of Pritzker Prize.

> via The Guardian