The conflict between the Architecture Foundation-backed Antepavilions and the local council has exposed the tension between architects and the planners they should cherish, says Joseph Henry.

The current kerfuffle between Hackney Council and the Antepavilion project shows that architects still don't understand the role of planning and why it is a vital tool in designing and securing a high quality built environment for all.
The glee with which architects are enjoying the spectacle of a developer (Shiva, which organises the iconoclastic Antepavilion series in collaboration with the Architecture Foundation) ignoring planning requirements made me ponder what their reaction says about our profession. Maybe the accusation towards the Hackney planners that they don't have a sense of humour or get irony could apply to me too" Although I would present Sound Advice as evidence on the contrary. Clearly, floating statuesque sharks in a canal aren't the most egregious architectural addition to London this year ? one view of the City of London or almost any trip to a housing scheme outside of Zone 2 will prove this point.
The planning system isn't perfect and there are many intelligent ways of exposing its contradictions. Check out the Sub-Plan publication by David Knight and Finn Williams for an example of what I mean. But this battle is not one of them. For a start, the sharks were not a sophisticated way of commenting on the "authoritarian working of our planning culture&q...