The Babylon Times
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
ARCHITECTS AT WAR! By Archana Moorthy & Isabella Marques Castro “ I believe in the power of imagination to remake the world.” - J.G. Ballard
The war of ego rages on, destroying the fabric of London
T
he world has changed so much since its inception and here we are today still waging wars and battles. As cities begin to grow more and more vertically, the human race is turning against a certain species among them; this species consists of those who we call architects. London, the capital of the United Kingdom, was once a beautiful and charming city. But recent developments of its skyline has transformed it into a victim of a creative war. The war is waged between the young and the old, the moralists and the immoralists, the idealists and the egoists. It errupted and will continue to destroy the city around it until it destroys the Victorian wonders
in entirety. So, what next? Are we going to give the construction of our new city to the wise and experienced or to the young and quixotic? Well the answer lies very much in the balance of the two. The contributions of the experienced are definitely not to be ignored and their potential should not be boycotted. However, creating a new city by only looking back to the past does not sound like a good solution either. Instead the answer lies in balance, the principle nature relies on. The best way to create a new city is to look back at the past and reinvent it. In the following pages of this weekly newspaper, the unbuilt towers of London
1
have been unearthed, researched, manipulated and transformed to create a new version of the city a space that allows for the iconic towers of ego, yet also strives to make architects collaborate to prevent future wars. This new city is what we call Babylon. Once a nickname for London, it has now become its future. Like the biblical Tower of Babel, the city draws its inspiration from London’s forgotten fictions. It is made from thrown away drawings and scraps of paper. This newspaper will document, and at times, catalyse the changes in the city. We hope you enjoy the journey and read on to find out more about Babylon.
£1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
ÂŁ1.50
THE CRYSTAL PALACE TOWER By Archana Moorthy & Isabella Marques Castro
The Crystal Palace tower, was imagined as a memorial to the late Prince Albert in 1861, where the parts belonging to the original Crystal Palace were recombined to form a tall thin obelisk, reaching 304 metres high into the Victorian sky. While it showed foresight for the glass and steel structures of today, the lack of technology at the time prevented it from ever leaving the draughtsman’s table. After the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace did not seem to have taken a place in the heart of Londoners. They wanted to reclaim the space occupied by it but also keep the memory the great exhibition. A competition was floated and designers, visionaries and architects were called forward to invest ideas on the crystal palace. 2
The artist, Mr. Burton, proposed to take the horizontality of the crystal palace and convert it into a vertical tower which would use the same modular principles that the crystal palace worked on. He proposed a 1000ft tall tapering tower that would house all the materials and machines from the exhibition, and provide a viewing platform, from which Londoners could view their city from 1000ft above the ground. Mr. Burton also included elements from the then popular Victorian style, like turrets, chimneys and clocks. His proposal remained an idea due to lack of technological advancement but like its predecessor, it has the potential to be a space to exhibit and communicate the new wonders of Babylon.
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
3
£1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
ÂŁ1.50
MILLENNIUM TOWER VS. THE GHERKIN Babylon City witnessed the much awaited boxing match between The Millennium Tower and The Gherkin on 13th July 2013 at St Martin’s Street.
For the first half of the match, The Millennium Tower, standing at over 382m tall, overshadowed The Gherkin. The Millennium Tower crushed The Gherkin for the first 15 minutes. Officials from English Heritage cheered for The Millennium Tower, whilst Heathrow officials supported The Gherkin. Norman Foster sat silent, suddenly interested in the battle in which he was both winning and losing.
The game completely turned in the second half. The Gherkin began to fight back, punching The Millennium Tower very hard. English Heritage officials suddenly dropped their support from Millennium Tower. It is widely speculated that this was due to pressure from the Heathrow Airport Authority.
It has been reported that after the match The Gherkin received a threatening call from an unknown number. The caller claimed that they are en route to Babylon, where they will soon arrive to become the next greatest tower ever. The question is will this threatening call become a reality?
By Medha Bansal & Dhruv Khurana
4
Stay tuned for more...
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
£1.50
VERTICAL HOROSCOPES By Medha Bansal & Dhruv Khurana
MILLENNIUM TOWER Don’t be proud of the fact that you are the tallest, for you have a very high chance of not being built. The wind is not your good friend and might take a toll on you. 2007 will prove to be a depressing year as someone tries to replace you. Just keep your approach simple and don’t worry too much.
MANSION HOUSE SKYSCRAPER 1967 will be a great year for you and if you will be built you will be considered one of the great buildings of London.You might quarrel with a famous person. The 1980s will be a problamatic time for you. Be confident and strong enough to overcome all these problems.
SELFRIDGES TOWER 1918 will be a creative, and somewhat constructive, year for you. You may face problems with your size. Your future will be decided by the finances of yourself and others. Start saving now.
THE REFORM TOWER 1831 will be a lucky year for you and your construction. The following year may be disastorous, and there is a threat that may stop your growth.
THE CRYSTAL PALACE TOWER Ups and downs are quite possible in your life. 1861 will be a lucky year for you. Something constructive will happen, but due to obsolete technology there may be some problems.
THE PYRAMID You have great potential to store. You are as silent and calm as the ocean, but all through your life people will associate you with negativity. You are often misinterpreted, but your glory will be celebrated in some part of the world for years to come.
5
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
£1.50
THE SELFRIDGES TOWER AND THE LEGACY OF MR. SELFRIDGE By Derek Ho & Bai Yusof
The Birth of the ‘Retail Babel’ During a visit to London in 1906, Harry Gordon Selfridge noticed the UK retail industry lagging behind, especially when compared to the department stores in US. The built part of the Selfridges store was designed by an American architect, Daniel Burnham, who also designed the influential ‘World’s Columbian Exposition’ in Chicago in 1893. The Selfridges department store was built in phases, in the neo-classical style proposed by Burnham. The proposed Selfridges department store was much larger than the actual built form that we perceive today. Mr Selfridge received a commision from The Portman Estates and Marylebone Council to build the unbuilt tower of Selfridges. He employed Philip Tilden and Sir John Burnet to manifest his dream ‘Retail Babel’. The proposed tower was 450 feet tall standing on top of the built part of the Selfridges department store. Besides the image on the right, Tilden also proposed four variations of the tower, but none of them were approved by him.
and Company in Chigago. After twenty-five years of hard work, Mr. Selfridge was eventually apointed as a junior partner in one of the largest stores in America.
Harry Gordon Selfridge circa 1880
Although the ambitious vision remained on paper, in the end, Mr Selfridge was still fascinated by the idea of building his Retail Kingdom. From 1919, Tilden drew a series of fictional images to portray his ambition in the picture of a huge castle. Rise of the Retail Giant Harry Gordon Selfridge was born in Ripon, Wisconsin in the United States. He delivered newspapers and left school when he was 14. In 1876, Mr. Selfridges’s ex-employer wrote a recommendation letter for him to work in the Marshall Field
6
In 1906, Mr Selfridge travelled to London with his wife. Here, he recognised huge potentential for this city of culture and commerce to expand his business industry. He therefore abandoned his retiremaent plan, and decided to invest 400,000 Pounds to set up a new department store at the western end of Oxford Street, opposite Bond Street tube station. The department store was called Harry G. Selfridge and Co.
The Selfridges Tower proposed by Philip Tilden and Sir John Brunet in 1918
The Selfridges store prospered during WWI and continued to be profitable until the mid-1930s. With the Great Depression after WWII, Selfridges ran up 250,000 Pounds of debt and was forced out by the Selfridges board in 1941. In 1951, Selfridges was sold to Lewis’s chain of department stores by the Sears Group owned by Charles Clore.
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
By Derek Ho & Bai Yusof
7
ÂŁ1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
ÂŁ1.50
MASTHEAD Editors-in-Chief Manijeh Verghese Madeleine Kessler Elena Palacios Carral News Editors Archana Moorthy Isabella Castro Marques Editorial Team Abby Liu Tanvi Gupta Gossip Editors Derek Ho Bai Yusof Obituaries Eva Ibanez Fuertes Patricia Moericke Prieto Comic Strip/Horoscope Editors Medha Bansal Dhruv Khurana Advertisements Douglas Lee Nishigandha Sakhardande With special thanks to: Bodo Neuss Edward Bottoms Johanna Agerman Ross Stefan Jovanovic Katerina Scoufaridou Johannes Schick Natasha Sandmeier Catarina Sampaio Cruz Anny Stephanou Yasmin Verghese Uma Verghese Meha Verghese Stella Bella Steele Chee-Kit Lai Squire and Partners The National Theatre The BBC Angel Lara Moreira Henry Cleaver
The Reform Towe was sadly never b because its archite Richard Trevithic passed away in 18
8
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
ÂŁ1.50
The best way to create a new city is to look back at the past and reinvent it.
er built ect ck 832.
9
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
£1.50
MANSION HOUSE SKYSCRAPER Prince Charles vs. Mies van der Rohe By Abby Liu & Tanvi Gupta
Prince Charles as the Nutcracker
What the Mansion House Skyscraper would have looked like had it been built
In 1967 German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe drew up a design for a new building at Mansion House, similar in aesthetic (if not scale) to his celebrated Seagram Building in Manhattan. Though delayed for many years, the project was all set to go ahead in the mid-1980s. The appalled Prince Charles inveigled upon Lord Palumbo, the project’s backer, to nix it, a tactic he has become rather familiar with. The Mies van der Rohe design was indeed abandoned, but it’s debatable whether the classicallyminded Price was happy with the playfully postmodern building by James Stirling that went up
in its stead: No. 1 Poultry. Where the cartoon cruiseliner of James Stirling’s No 1 Poultry now stands, jutting its cheeky prow towards the Bank of England. Labelled “a glass stump better suited to downtown Chicago” by the Prince, the tower would have been an intelligent use of the site, freeing up space at street level for a new public square. Imagined as a place for festivals and exhibitions, this piazza would have been framed by the grand facades of the surrounding buildings, opening up views of Mansion House, Lutyens’ Midland Bank and the Wren church of St Stephen Walbrook.
10
Mies cries over his “cracked” tower
The postmodern building by James Stirling at 1 Poultry that took its place is a slice of the postmodernist pizza that takes uses a pastiche of historical styles and colourful materials to generate architecture. The complete opposite of Mies’ vision.
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
11
£1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
£1.50
THE REFORM TOWER By Nishigandha Sakhardande & Douglas Lee
In any case, the monument provided an ideal advertisement for an engineer anxious to reestablish himself in nineteenthcentury England. The Reform Bill was a measure, which marked the end of Georgian LaissezFaire and beginning of a long period of optimistic reform. The structural engineer and architect of the Reform Tower, was a Cornish man named Richard Trevithick. He returned from South America via USA, where he had been acting as engineer for some particularly deep Peruvian silver mines. This experience of designing the Reform Tower seemed to widen his structural horizons.
The elevator mechanism of the Reform Tower
A National Monument in honour of the Reform A 1000’ high monument was designed to celebrate the Reform Act. It was a structure that was proposed to commemorate the Reform Bill of 1831.
The plan of the Reform Tower The news of the proposal of the Reform Tower spread far and wide through public social media like newspapers and other pamphlets. Richard hoped that the people would not just approve but also celebrate this monument in memory of the Reform Bill. The great measure of reform having become the law of the land, it was proposed to commemorate the event by
12
the erection of a stupendous column, exceeding in dimensions Cleopatra’s Needle, or Pompey’s Pillar and symbolical of the beauty, strength and unaffected grandeur of the British Constitution. In furtherance of this great object, a public meeting is proposed to be held, of which due notice will be given, to set on foot a subscription throughout the United Kingdom, limiting individual contributions to two guineas, but receiving the smallest sums in aid of the design. The following noblemen and gentlemen have signified their approbation of the measure:- His Grace the Duke of Norfolk, of Somerset, of Bedford,; the Right Honour able Earl of Morley, of Shrewsbury, of Darlington; Lord Stafford; Sir Francis Burdett, M.P., J.E. Denison, M.P., A.W. Robarts.
The grandeur of the Reform Tower is evident in this render, where the architect compares it to the pyramids of Giza as a scale reference. It also signifies the Egyptomania prevalent at the time.
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
Details Of The Building
Structural Feasibility:
The Bottom: • 2” thick in 1500 pieces of 10 ft sq • An opening in the centre of each piece 6 ft in diameter, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the wind, and lightening the structure • Flanges on every edge on their inside to screw them together. • Each cast iron square would weight about 3 tons, all screwed together with sheet lead between all joints. • Whole weight would be about 6000 tons. • Proportion of cone to its height: same as general shape of spires in England
With the use of a circular foundation of 6 ft wide foundation, erecting this kind of structure seemed rather unfeasible.
Cost & Time of erection of the monument Time: • Use of a steam engine of 20 horse power • Lifts 1 square of iron in 10 mins • One square could be finished in 1 hour • 1500 squares would require < 6 months
Structural Stability: The wind loads would have been considerable and without any modifications in the initial design, the structural stability of the building was at doubt. Due to the death of Trevithick, the dream of building the Reform Tower collapsed. AND IT WAS UNPOPULAR BECAUSE…. The unusual form of the monument and its political reminders, caused interest to wane quickly in the project. Yet, it was an evidence of the spirit of structural pioneers “The golden tower rising through the mist and smoke of London was a glorious one and one which only the 19th century could have produced.”
Costs: • £7 a ton • Whole expense of completion £80,000 AND THEN THERE WERE PROBLEMS WITH THE TOWER…..
13
£1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
THE PRIMROSE HILL PYRAMID By Eva Ibanez Fuertes & Patricia Moericke Prieto
14
£1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
By Eva Ibanez Fuertes & Patricia Moericke Prieto
15
ÂŁ1.50
Unit 1
Tuesday, 15 July 2014
16
£1.50