Please send letters for the website, clearly marked FORUM, to Julia Dawson at: julia.dawson@emap.com or The Architectural Review, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London NW1 7EJ, England. CHIPPERFIELD IN BARCELONA SIR: I would like to know how it is possible that an unimaginative and ill-proportioned house on a SIR: David Chipperfield’s City of Justice in Barcelona (January 2007, pp.46-47) may very well be expressively restrained but so is Rob Gregory’s initial review of the project. Star Architect designed does not normally present an obstacle to honest and forthright critique in the A.R. Even with the preliminary nature of the projects in this issue as 'on the boards', it is disappointing to simply read a description as one might find on the Architect’s own website rather than commentary on the likely success or shortcomings of a project. How about a brief note on the endless repetition present in the openings of the facades? Interestingly enough, this one-liner in pastel certainly presents a perception of impartially through a monolithic and uniformly blank façade but is that it? Will the barren and soon to be windswept plazas really act as a filter to gather people at the beginning and end of their judicial visit? In plan it appears they might but in elevation there is nothing convincingly shown which supports that statement.  This project has more than a few similarities to the bad planning of the 60’s; a Cabrini-Green for the legal set. Nothing uplifting here, just conform and wait your turn. Barcelona gets a faceless, placeless Garden City utopia. Justice isn’t just blind here. Justice may get lost and have to ask for directions. This is the first time I’ve felt compelled to write to the editor. I continue to thoroughly enjoy the AR and all of its editor’s commentary. It is the best monthly Architecture publication out there. Please keep up the good work!   Very sincerely, James Reid, AIA Associate