I was astonished to read in Specifier (9 September) that one of the North London Waste and Recycling Centres is described as 鈥渁n absolute Rolls-Royce of a job鈥�.

It may be from the single perspective of an acoustic engineer but it is, in all other respects, a disaster. It is an overblown, crude crinkly-tin apology for a building. At a time of growing awareness of climate change and the need for recycling, this is a brand new public facility that manages to make you feel depressed while recycling, when you should feel inspired. It is a lost opportunity, inside and out, to make a 21st-century temple.

Robin Nicholson, Edward Cullinan Architects

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