Archinect - News

London to regulate wind design for new skyscrapers

2019-08-20T09:00:00-04:00

Tougher building rules for skyscrapers have been drawn up by the City of London because of concerns that a high-rise, urban microclimate will generate winds capable of knocking over cyclists and pedestrians. Developers will have to provide more comprehensive safety assessments of how proposed buildings will affect people on street level, with more robust testing of roadways and pavements using detailed scale models in wind tunnels and computer simulations.

After a series of high-profile skyscraper design controversies, including documented incidents of pedestrians being knocked off their feet and cyclists being pushed sideways into the path of vehicles due to strong skyscraper-generated winds, London is moving to regulate the wind-driven impacts of new high-rise towers in the city.

Moving forward, the city will require tower projects to meet a tougher set of wind regulations at the start of the design development phase, according to The Guardian. Those tests will be coupled with later “micro-level” examinations of a given tower’s design that will test the magnitude and degree of wind generated by the forms of new skyscrapers, as measured from “36 wind directions, using separate consultants for computer and physical simulations,” according to The Guardian.

Under the new rules, the speed of downdrafts created by new towers will be capped at 18 miles per hour. Measured speeds at that level and above will be classified as being “uncomf...

UK's second tallest tower's resemblance to a sex toy raises controversy

2017-09-28T13:56:00-04:00

Peaking at 236 metres high, One Lansdowne will be taller than any Canary Wharf tower block and only eclipsed by The Shard, which is 95 floors and 310 metres.

The British are notorious for giving funny nicknames to their buildings. The construction of the One Lansdowne has not yet started, but Londoners have already noticed the tower's resemblance to a Rampant Rabbit sex toy.

Platinum Rampant Rabbit Vibrator

Image CZWG Architects

The asymmetrical horse-shoe shaped complex is composed of two towers of 68 and 41 stories, linked by an 11-story podium. The towers will host affordable housing units, apartments, a hotel, a gym, commerces and office spaces. At 775 feet high, it would be the second tallest building in the UK.

Image CZWG Architects

Croydon approved the design but the plans need to be approved by the mayor of London before construction starts.

Image CZWG Architects

Future sustainable skyscrapers will be made of...wood?

2016-05-18T12:29:00-04:00

Proponents of the material, called cross-laminated timber, or CLT, say it can be used to erect buildings that are just as strong and fire-resistant as those made from steel and concrete. Those qualities have helped excite the passions of architects and environmentalists, who think it could unlock a greener method for housing the world’s growing population, and timber producers, who hope to open a U.S. market for the value-added good.

Right now the structures are mainly proposals, but CLT could be the principal element of a 100-story tower nicknamed "The Splinter" in London as designed by PLP Architecture, while there's an ornamental 40-story timber tower in Stockholm on the boards, as designed by Anders Berensson Architects:

These aren't your grandfather's skyscrapers:

'Can of Ham' skyscraper coming to London after all

2015-01-21T14:03:00-05:00

Mace has been appointed to a pre-construction deal to build the much delayed ‘Can of Ham’ project at 60-70 St Mary Axe, Construction News can reveal. [...] The project was granted planning approval by the City of London in the summer of 2008 but immediately hit delays as the global financial crisis took hold [...]. The Foggo Associates-designed project will join a cluster of iconic towers in the centre of the City, including neighbouring 30 St Mary Axe, commonly known as the Gherkin.

Previously

London's traditionalist architects come back swinging in their fight against skyscrapers

2015-01-05T13:39:00-05:00

In a warren of rooms inside a 400-year-old townhouse on the Essex-Suffolk border, a counter-revolution against the most dramatic rebuilding of the London skyline in decades is gathering strength. Eschewing computer power for sharp pencils and tracing paper, father and son architect team Quinlan and Francis Terry are drafting classically inspired designs for some of the capital’s most prominent sites in a fightback against plans for hundreds of new skyscrapers.

London skyline campaigners' dismay as Unesco ignores risk to Westminster

2014-08-12T13:40:00-04:00

The march of London's skyscrapers looks set to continue unchecked after the UN watchdog charged with protecting sites of international importance delayed a move to place parliament – which is being obscured by a rash of new towers – on its endangered heritage list. Unesco was due to put Westminster on its List of World Heritage in Danger when it met recently in Doha, Qatar.

London's skyline needs more tower blocks, not more luxury flats

2014-04-23T13:13:00-04:00

Whenever a campaign wants to stop some new development it will use the phrase "tower block". This isn't what the developers would call them – they prefer "stunning developments" or "luxury apartments". There is a national campaign afoot against new towers, specifically against the astonishing 230 mostly residential ones planned for the capital. Inevitably, the campaign has referred to tower blocks and "the mistakes of the 1960s" knowing this is emotive language [...].

Boris Johnson must build a proper case for transforming London's skyline

2014-04-14T15:49:00-04:00

Dear Boris, Let's agree that towers can be beautiful. Let's also agree that London needs new homes and plenty of them. It may well be that many of the 200-plus tall buildings now proposed can play a useful role if, as you say, they are "sensitively managed, well designed and in the right place". London is not Amsterdam nor Vienna, cities whose inherited profile is retained at all costs. But neither, as you once put it, should it be Dubai-on-Thames.

Does London need a 'planning revolution?'

2014-03-31T13:52:00-04:00

Britain’s decades-long planning “chaos” has left London a city of great individual buildings, such as the Gherkin and the Shard, standing in a sea of “woeful” architecture, the Government’s design czar said today. Marylebone-based architect Sir Terry Farrell called for a “revolution” in the planning system, to end the culture of Nimbyism and put the creation of well designed places to live, work and shop at the heart of policymaking.

Farrell 's remarks certainly aren't limited to contemporary architecture in London: “If you dump yourself in any town centre and look at what the end of the 20th century and start of the 21st century has brought, it is woeful.”

Better a small house than a skyscraper that signifies nothing

2014-03-24T13:38:00-04:00

The White House may be the centre of great power, but it is not in itself that big or that shouty. It’s just a nice, white house, rather elegant, with a fine sweeping drive, but utterly dwarfed by the US Treasury next door – a fact that is, in itself, a bit of a clue to the relative significance of wealth in American society. [...] If the White House gleams simply because of the influence of the man inside it, the rest of the Washington complex is designed to make its case for significance.

London's glittering spires: Nearly 250 high-rise developments planned

2014-03-13T14:40:00-04:00

Up until recently Canary Wharf was the only place for skyscrapers in London. [...] Now it seems that London is going to receive a more cohesive skyline, with a new study produced by the New London Architecture (NLA) thinktank suggesting that at least 236 tall buildings (those over 20 storeys in height) are currently proposed, approved or under construction in the capital.

London's Current Obsession: Its Own Identity Crisis

2014-03-12T14:54:00-04:00

Is London in danger of losing its soul? The question may sound melodramatic, but this is just what many of the British capital’s commentariat have been discussing over the past few days. [...] Barely a day goes by without a local news story about the phenomenal rise of London property values. In just the past few weeks, we've learned that price levels are "approaching madness." [...] London buyers start to bid consistently 25 percent above the asking price.

A global property trend for architecture as logo

2014-03-10T18:29:00-04:00

London’s 200 new towers are something different. Virtually every one contains “luxury” apartments. This new residential upsurge in London is echoed across the Atlantic in New York – as property in both cities becomes a global reserve currency. New York, once the city of the commercial skyscraper, has become the city of the condo tower and the penthouse. But where does that leave commercial architecture?

London future skyline is put on ice

2012-11-19T12:38:00-05:00

At least six landmark projects - worth hundreds of millions of pounds - have been put on ice or cancelled altogether. These include the 172m (564ft) 100 Bishopsgate skyscraper, on hold until developers secure enough advance tenants to make it viable. Also on hold is the so-called Can of Ham, on St Mary's Axe.

Can of Ham

2008-08-13T09:02:00-04:00

Plans for the City of London are looking like a salad, perhaps that is the subliminal inspiration for the nicknames attached to its buildings. We have the gherkin, the cheese grater and now the can of ham. Building >>