A week ago, I wrote a column in Dezeen  about our competition entry of the Nine Elms to Pimlico Bridge: ‘A competition that we did not win and also did not (really) expect to’.

Since publication, there have been many comments: some supportive, some less so. On the whole, the reactions provoked by the piece are roughly in line with those predicted in the piece itself: unconditional embrace or outright rejection – praise or scorn.

There is however one persistent notion in the public sphere that I would like to set straight. The statement that we did not expect to win never meant to imply that we did not try. It certainly did not mean that we were not taking our own proposal seriously. (As was suggested by the blog CityMetric .)

We wanted to win this competition, but we wanted to win it on our own terms. We designed the (type of) bridge that in our view should have won.