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The UK's Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove has approved the planned demolition of the Museum of London building and Bastion House near the Barbican. The go-ahead makes way for the revised Sheppard Robson and Diller Scofidio + Renfro-led scheme that would deliver a new office... View full entry
The revised Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Sheppard Robson-led scheme at the Barbican in Central London reportedly gained planning approvals from the City of London’s planning body. The news came last week (April 17th) after UK Housing and Communities Secretary Michael Gove remanded an Article... View full entry
The City of London Corporation has revealed new images depicting the 2030 skyline of the Square Mile ahead of the completion of a planned cluster of tall buildings that are expected by the end of the decade. The plans depicted include the 11-building ‘City Cluster’, which strategically closes... View full entry
One of the most important renewal projects in recent memory is a step closer to being realized in central London. The city’s development corporation has officially revealed its competition shortlist of design partners for the highly-publicized Barbican Centre revamp. Five teams were... View full entry
Architects and designers from multiple Perkins&Will studios worldwide have developed design solutions to address how urban spaces, workplaces, and/or daily life may change in post-COVID London. As part of the firm’s annual Phil Freelon Design Competition, these proposals explore ways parts of... View full entry
Henning Larsen is making its first foray into London with a mix-used project a few short steps from Buckingham Palace. The new building will sit atop a reimagined foyer space tying the 470,000 square foot office development to a market, full-service gym, garden terrace and retail establishments... View full entry
Southwark council declared that its New Architect Design Services Framework was a “first-of-a-kind” attempt to engage with a new generation of diverse designers. As councillor Leo Pollak put it: “It is the framework some architects have been waiting for all their years.”
It turns out that black architects will have to wait even longer.
— The Guardian
Writing in The Guardian, architecture critic Oliver Wainwright highlights the long-standing barriers Black and other minority architects in the UK face with regards to attaining public building contracts. Wainwright finds that while the 2010 Equality Act compels localities to improve how... View full entry
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has announced a plan to move London's city hall facilities from their current location within the Norman Foster-designed "glass gonad" building to the Wilkinson Eyre Architects-designed Crystal building in the city's Docklands district. The Foster building is a... View full entry
An adaptive reuse project designed by global architecture firm Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) that would retrofit an existing 1980s office block in London is moving forward following approval from the City of London Planning & Transportation Committee. The project, located at 81 Newgate Street... View full entry
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.
— The Guardian
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... View full entry
It emerged...that the property developer Argent was using the cameras “in the interests of public safety” in King’s Cross, mostly north of the railway station across an area including the Google headquarters and the Central Saint Martins art school, but the precise uses of the technology remained unclear. — The Guardian
Residents in the King's Cross district in London have mixed feelings concerning the use of facial recognition CCTV in the area. “For law enforcement purposes, there is some justification, but personally I don’t think a private developer has the right to have that in a public place,” one... View full entry
In a defeat for Foster + Partners, London mayor Sadiq Khan has rescinded municipal approval for the 997-foot Tulip tower the architects had proposed for the city's Square Mile high-rise district. Architect's Journal reports that a spokesperson for the mayor's office said that the... View full entry
The City of London’s new tallest building, PLP’s 22 Bishopsgate tower which completes next year, has reached its highest point
The 62-storey skyscraper for French investment manager AXA IM – Real Assets and development partner Lipton Rogers officially topped out at 294.52m AOD (above ordnance datum) or 278m above ground.
— Architect's Journal
The new 22 Bishopsgate tower (formerly the Pinnacle/Helter Skelter) now stands taller than its nearby City of London neighbors, the Cheesegrater and Heron Tower, but can't quite reach the height of the Renzo Piano-designed Shard near London Bridge.Rendering of 22 Bishopsgate in its urban context... View full entry
They were planned after the second world war to whisk people above car-choked streets in the financial district, but remained unpopular and half-built. Now, pedestrian walkways are being reimagined for a 21st-century city — The Guardian
The "pedway" made its structural debut as a solution to providing a walkable, streamlined path for pedestrians in London's car stricken streets. However, what was devised as a plan to create an efficient walkway system, turned into an under appreciated and underwhelming concept. Examples of... View full entry
Designed by the former Foster + Partners architect Ken Shuttleworth’s Make practice, 1 Leadenhall will have 540,000 sq ft of office space, as well as 50,000 sq ft of shops and cafes on the ground, first and second floors. A public terrace will overlook the roof of the adjacent Grade II-listed Victorian market. Construction is due to start next year and the building is expected to open in 2021. — The Guardian
1 Leadenhall, so named due to its location next to the historic Leadenhall Market, will be 182.7-metre (600ft) and 36 stories high. The £400m skyscraper is one of the several new towers being built in the surrounding area, including 1 Undershaft that will be the second-tallest building in... View full entry
