“The ordinary has become the universal currency of contemporary art… Contemporary British culture fetishises the ordinary, whether it’s Tracey Emin or Coronation Street, Reality TV and its stream of pleb-celebs, or the slightly condescending, awkward glory of Mike Leigh, Alan Bennett and Martin Parr… The odd thing is that while other arts increasingly revel in everydayness, architecture, the art that touches our lives in the most practical and everyday ways, remains in thrall to the gravitational pull of the ‘icon’.”