Went to see the Laban Dance Centre near Greenwich with Juan earlier today. This has be the best project by starchitects - Herzog & de Meuron that I have seen soo far {ofcourse as you might have guessed I have seen many : ) }. Though the Tate Modern is great to, it's not really a new building.
I loved the external skin of the building, it's colours, it's lightness.
The first building that I saw by them was the Forum in Barcelona and till date remains one of my biggest disappointments. I felt that they got too many things wrong in that building, the worst of which was the external texture of the building, which seemed almost like a rendering error in 3d max.
The Laban Dance Centre on the other hand is a much better design and the materials and finishes are well executed. Even a similar rough texture (as in the Forum) used in the Entrance Foyer is of a much better scale and provides a good contrast with the sleek outer skin.
And the finishing touch to the building is its detail of the building lands - almost hovering over the landscape.
Like at the Tate the landscape is done by Vogt Landscape designers, also from Switzerland. Check out their website - http://www.vogt-la.ch/en/
(I have to say their new book is a great way to understand their work, the website doesn't do them justice)