Are tall buildings necessary for London to remain a competitive world city?

From 1801 to 1851, the population of London grew from under 1 million inhabitants to 2.25 million. This was due in large part to immigration, both from other countries and from the countryside of England. Hundreds of thousands of people were moving to the newly industrialized cities and towns to find work, having been squeezed off the land because of the enclosure of farms. There was also displacement of the working-class within the city of London because of a number of construction projects. There were street improvement schemes in which tenements were razed in order to widen the passages. The transformation of part of the city into a non-residential district devoted to finance

Rapid urbanisation has caused a variety of problems, including transport congestion, lack of sufficient homes and living conditions, sanitary and health care issues, and crime. For all these problems, city planners have attempted potential solutions, each with varying degrees of success. Cities including London, Manila and Mumbai have several of the aforementioned problems, and have each tried their own potential solutions. This essay will discuss how successful these schemes have been in resolving these issues.

Well known in cities at the time were the City Beautiful movement and the city practical, however, social issues were merely pushed to the side. Wirka (1996) explains that “both are undoubtedly important movements in the history of planning” (p. 57), however, she goes on

It can also be argued that urban consolidation has only been moderately effective in Sydney as population density remains fairly low for such a large city. For these reasons, it can be seen that the city’s urban consolidation strategies may need to be reviewed.

Greater London, located in the south-east of England, is the top administrative subdivision covering London, England [1]. It has been covering the City of London and all 32 boroughs since 1965 which was when the administrative area was officially created [1]. It is the largest and most populated city in the European Union with an area of 1,579 km² and a population of 7,512,400 (mid 2006) [2][3][4]. For the remainder of this document, Greater London will be referred to as London.

High Density is viewed as a key strategy to manage urban growth and is becoming an increasing feature of city plans; our very own city is an example of this.

a) Many office buildings were built, including Canary Wharf. Large newspaper companies were attracted to the Docklands, away from Fleet Street because of the new Canary Wharf building. This is one of the tallest buildings in England, at 800ft high and boasting 50 stories. Companies were attracted to Canary Wharf because of the quality of it with air conditioning, deep floors, and open office space. Building space in London was short and expensive.

City skylines can be easily recognized for their unique architectural features, such as sharply pointed steeples, dramatic heights, and distinctively shaped buildings. In the United States, the skylines of New York, Chicago, and Seattle show familiar features, such as the Empire State Building, the Sears Tower, and the Space Needle respectively. Buildings in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia are also acclaimed for their quaint style and “Southern Charm.” Many of these notable architectural works of art, referred to generally as historic buildings or historic structures, would cease to exist without the hard work of preservation societies. These societies, as well as the notable architecture they preserve, provide educational lessons outside of the traditional classroom for today’s youth. For these reasons, the nation’s historic buildings need to be preserved and restored to their original glory. More state and city governments should follow the federal government’s lead and provide tax incentives to encourage builders to remodel, and thus preserve historic buildings, preventing the demolition of iconic landmarks.

London Docklands A Case study of: q Urban redevelopment / Urban regeneration q Economic decline and regeneration q In migration into an area and its impact q An urban planning scheme Where are the London Docklands?

His first comprehensive city plan was La Ville Contemporaine (the Contemporary City) a project to house three million inhabitants designed in 1922. This was Le Corbusier’s first attempt to reconcile man, nature and machine (Fishman, 189). The city starts at the center with a transportation hub for busses, trains, cars and planes. Surrounding this hub there will be an organized cluster of 24 60-story skyscrapers. These glass and steel skyscrapers are cross-shaped. Each individual skyscraper is to be set within a large rectangular green space. The skyscrapers house the “brain” of the city. The city is beautifully geometric and symmetrical. Placing the skyscrapers in the city center reinforces the emphasis on capital as a means of creating a successful city. Because of the shape and mass of each skyscraper, they have more usable space than an entire neighborhood but also relieves density and congestion because of the organization (Frampton, 46).

The mixture of buildings of different conditions are necessary to public life because it otherwise would be neither interesting nor fascinating. But the main reasons are because they ensure low rent yields, encouraging the growth of small enterprises. Large swatches of new construction would only prevent income since not many would afford it, and the demand for it would not be as large as it would need to be.

to the City and in 1799 the West India Company began to build docks on

Designing a city from scratch is a remarkable thought experiment but ultimately fails at implementation because we always approach it from the perspective of “how can we create a new city that solves problems of existing cities.” It’s less a process driven by design and more by critique. Urban living has paved its way into modern society, yet the vision for a city has changed over time. Large settlements need planning to grow; yet differences in minds is what leads to the modifications of a city, in return makes a city so unique. Alterations in opinions are what thrives urban life, still these differences are what skews the view of how others see a city compared to myself. They say the eye of the beholder deems beauty; this could explain

With reference to one property development site within the City of London, critically appraise the extent to which that development delivers successful modern property development whilst at the same time respecting the historic sense of identity of the City of London as identified by Glinert.

First of all, to start building a city an urban pattern has to be established, this will make the city look much more organized and well thought. A pattern can be chosen from a whole list of working patterns for a city. Establishing a grid is a common way of equally distributing the city. However, we want to keep in mind, that important buildings, such as businesses, and government buildings must be accessible to the public, but separated from the rest of the city. We have great examples of grids such as New York City, in New York, United States, or Mississauga City, in Toronto ,Canada. Although, when building from scratch it is not possible to leave aside what has already been built, a city indeed has to adapt to what is already existing, as well as to the new global economy, social and political trends, and new issues that arise in the new era, this also changes the structure and tradition of building and forming urban patterns. Using the existing patterns, combined with new ones, both patterns can collide and make new forms in city blocks. Results vary from city to city, but the essence is the same in all of them; old and new patterns coming together to create unplanned shapes, a new form of Urbanism, based on new and old patterns, aiming to satisfy the needs of the modern world. A great example is New York