The cost of beauty

By Ranjita Biswas

A few days back a small news item caught my eye: ‘Star architect to pay Venice Euro 78,000 over bridge too fragile for tourists’. Apparently the glass and steel bridge that was opened to the public in 2008 is facing multiple problems. The architect , an Italian court said, did not foresee or ‘neglected’ to take note of, that Venice’s great tourist explosion and their luggage needed a sturdier design for the bridge. Should he have taken advice of local people who were familiar with this problem?