Below, we have rounded up the 30 most influential architects in London, complete with examples of the architectural works which have put them on the city and world map.
View from City Hall. Image Courtesy of City of London
The City of London has released new visualizations showing how its fast-changing skyline will look by 2026, as 13 schemes are currently under construction or due to begin construction in London’s Financial District.
The City of Westminster, England has announced the shortlist for its first People’s Choice Award for the city’s best building from the past decade.
In an effort to engage the public in a debate about what makes a great building, the Westminster City Council asked a panel of architects, developers, councilors, and planners to shortlist 12 designs to be voted on by people who live and work in the city, as well as by visitors. Buildings for the shortlist were chosen based on its use of materials, purpose, and impact on the surrounding space.
"Brilliant architectural design should be recognized for all the fantastic benefits it can have in terms of health and wellbeing, sustainability, and the simple pleasure we all take from having such striking buildings lining our routes home, to shop and to work," said Cllr Robert Davis MBE DL, Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council. "The best people to ask about the impact these buildings have are those who see them day in, day out, and so I am delighted that we have been able to engage the public in a debate about what makes a great building and to promote design excellence."
The 12 shortlisted projects for the Westminster People’s Choice Awards are:
Eric Parry Architects’ 1 Undershaft has been granted planning permission from the City of London Corporation’s Planning Committee, which will allow the 73-story tower to become the tallest building in the London Financial District and the second tallest building in the UK, behind only The Shard.
Winner: New Ludgate. Designed by Fletcher Priest Architects and Sauerbruch Hutton. Image
New Ludgate, a retail and commercial development located two blocks east of St. Paul’s Cathedral in downtown London, has been named the City of London Building of the Year 2016. The complex consists of two new buildings, One New Ludgate by Fletcher Priest Architects and Two New Ludgate by Sauerbruch Hutton. The award was given in recognition of “the buildings that support the ambitions of the City of London in delivering a world-class working environment, by evaluating both the quality of the architectural design and the impact the building has had on the city street scene.”
London-based Eric Parry Architects have unveiled a design proposal for a 73-storey office tower in the heart of London's financial district. Named '1 Undershaft', after its street address, the building will be one of the tallest in the city (standing at 294.6m) competing only with Piano's Shard (306m). Having been commissioned by Aroland Holdings (Singapore), the tower will contain 90,000sqm of internal space and feature "a new public square at its base" and "the capital's tallest free public viewing gallery at the top," according to Parry. It will stand in place of the existing 'Aviva Tower'.
Work has begun on the demolition of the UK city of Birmingham's former Central Library, designed by home-grown Brutalist architect John Madin. The move by Birmingham Council to not retain the structure of the library, in spite of ideas and petitions put forward by numerous public groups (including one titled Keep The Ziggurat), has been widely met with disappointment among the architectural community. The BBC recently compiled some of the most interesting ideas for reuse which included, among others, transforming the concrete structure into a new English Parliament, an international trade centre, and an enormous space for rock climbing.
Madin, who passed away in 2012, had at least three of his major Modernist projects demolished during his lifetime. His design for Birmingham Library had been met with criticism from the likes of the city's Director of Planning and Regeneration of the time who described it as a "concrete monstrosity." Prince Charles famously described it as "looking more like a place for burning books than keeping them."
See photographs of the former library under construction and in use after the break.
Inhabitable Models presents the work of three practices -Eric Parry Architects, Haworth Tompkins, Lynch Architects- who find their common ground in an engagement with London, as a city of found fragments. Perhaps uniquely among world cities London exists as a series of largely unplanned, independent, layered fragments which nonetheless come together for a host of legal, political, and economic practicalities. In responding to this conception of London, each practice seeks to resist the temptation of “hallmark” architecture in favor of one which is contextually sensitive and rigorously place-specific. Indeed, the practices’ appreciation of the fragmentary and unplanned applies both to the London that they find, as well as to the London they leave behind.
.jpg?1498063231 "Tate Modern's Blavatnik Building (Switch House) / Herzog & de Meuron © Iwan Baan")
DSDHA.jpg?1488946187 "South Molton Street Building / DSDHA. Image © DSDHA")
