Architect Amin Taha has been served a demolition order for his stone-framed 15 Clerkenwell Close housing block in London, which is shortlisted for a Dezeen Award, and has already won an RIBA Award.
Islington Council issued the order to demolish the six-storey building, because the natural stone used on its facade is not fully detailed in the planning documents.
Taha ? who was the architect and developer for the project, and also lives in one of the flats ? has launched an appeal against the order, which will be heard in March 2019.
An order has been issued to demolish the block at 15 Clerkenwell Close
It is the second enforcement notice issued for the building. An initial order to demolish the building was issued in 2017, following confusion caused by the council only uploading some of the planning documents to its online portal. Decision based "entirely on opinion of the councillor"
Taha believes the decision to issue the demolition notice is part of a campaign led by the chair of Islington Council's planning committee, who has a personal dislike of the building.
"[The decision is based] entirely on the initial opinion of the councillor and a handful of neighbours," Taha told Dezeen.
"It has now escalated from an error in not uploading the stone approval ? so that it was evident for anyone who cared to look ? to the mistaken first demolition notice, to the now face-saving second notice entirely driven by someone's opinion that it's ugly."...