Mr Akhmetov's new home takes upthe topthreefloorsofOne HydePark, a block of luxury flatsinKnightsbridgedesignedbyRichardRogers, acelebratedBritisharchitect.
The project was conceived, designed, constructed, and opened in four years, whereas the Heathrow terminal, from conception to completion, took twenty years. (That building, by RichardRogers, is a somewhat compromised version of his original design far better than the rest of Heathrow, but much less interesting than Rogers meant it to be.) These widely divergent timetables are not a matter of Chinese efficiency versus British dallying: the British, like the Americans, pay the price of democracy.