BILLITER BUILDINGS, re-inhabiting the City "the ghetto" of London

BILLITER BUILDINGS Re-inhabiting the City “the ghetto” of London.

Studio Londen: Power - Space and Representation

BILLITER BUILDINGS Re-inhabiting the City “the ghetto� of London.

Jans Bosmans

Thesis voorgedragen tot het behalen van de graad van Master of Science in de ingenieurswetenschappen: architectuur.

Promotor: Tom Thys Co-promotor: Jan Vermeulen

Academiejaar 2015-2016

Master of Science in de ingenieurswetenschappen: architectuur

Š Copyright KU Leuven Without written permission of the promotors and the authors it is forbidden to reproduce or adapt in any form or by any means any part of this publication. Requests for obtaining the right to reproduce or utilize parts of this publication should be adressed to dept. Architecture, Kasteelpark Arenberg 1/2431, B-3001 Heverlee, +32-16-321361 or via e-mail to secretariaat@ asro.kuleuven.be.

A written permission of the promotor is also required to use the methods, products, schematics and programs described in this work for industrial or commercial use, and for submitting this publication in scientific contests.

All images in this booklet are, unless credits are given, made or drawn by the author.

K.U. Leuven Faculteit Ingenieurswetenschappen

2015 - 2016

Master’s thesis file

Student:

Jans Bosmans

Title:

BILLITER BUILDINGS Re-inhabiting the City “the ghetto” of London.

UDC:

72

Abstract: The City of London, also known as the Square Mile, is visibly different from the rest of London. Over the centuries it has become one of the largest business and financial centres of the world. The money and the power concentrated in this particular part of London changed the social environment as well as the built environment. A business elite took the lead and the old townhouses made place for tall glazed buildings. During the week the streets and squares are dominated by men in suits while during the weekend the City empties completely. Only about 7,000 people are living in the City while 300,000 people are working there.

In this way the City of London became a different world, a ghetto, seperated from the main society. In this world a business elite is dominating and pushing away the ones who do not belong there. This is noticeable in the way they manage the public space and the streets. Many public squares are privately owned and are not accessible to everyone. A characteristic of a ghetto is that it is subjected to an administrative boundary. It is an area in which different political conditions exist. In London the economic activity is concentrated within the boundary of the City of London because of the political advantages they have there. But, the bussines elite that comes along with this economic activity is jumping over this line.

They are occupying the area outside the City boundary and pushing the people who live there farther and farther away.

The ‘Billiter Buildings’ project is a reaction to this threatening tendency and with its unusual program of housing it jumps back into the City.

The project faces the challenge to create a lively, high quality environment within the non-place, which the City has become. With its mixed use program of public functions, offices and housing, it meets the needs of its context and at the same time it proves that it is possible to live in the dense tissue of the City. All City-typologies from streets to squares and alleys, from buildingblocks to objects and towers are condensed in one single project.

Thesis submitted to obtain the degree of Master in Engineering: Architecture.

Promotor: Co-promotor:

Tom Thys Jan Vermeulen

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my promotors Tom Thys and Jan Vermeulen who made the outcome of this thesis possible. I admire them for the passion and knowledge they carry and I would like to thank them for sharing this with us, but also for their support, advice and guidance.

Secondly, I would like to thank Caruso St John, Sergison and Bates and Chipperfield for inviting us to their office and having a very inspiring talk. Also gratitude to all the other people who helped us and gave us information during our stay in London.

I also thank my readers, Tim Rettler, Ward Verbakel and Yuri Gerrits, for taking time to read and evaluate my thesis.

Finally, my gratitude goes out to all my friends, especially the ‘joepies’ and my studio companions, and to my parents for their patience and for their support during the year.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

1. THE CITY “THE GHETTO” OF LONDON CRITICAL READING A ghetto in one of the most beloved cities in the world, London 13-15 The current urban situation 16-17 Walking along the line 18-21

BUILDING REFERENCE Folgate Street, Spitalfield - Broadgate Tower 24-25

2. BILLITER BUILDINGS THE PROJECT Re-inhabiting the City “the ghetto” of London 30-31

URBAN FABRIC The City’s unique urban fabric 34-39

DESIGN PROPOSAL Streets, alleys, blocks and towers 42-45 Play, work, live 46-55 External expression 56-61 Community center 62-65 Offices 66-67 Apartments 68-71 Section 73

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PROLOGUE Studio London: Power - Space and Representation

THEME Cities have always been the place where values and ruling mechanisms of a society have been most apparent. The structure and organization of our built environment provides a multi-layered landscape that one can uncover. In each layer one can distill the ideas of those in power on how a society should be governed. This is expressed through the layout of streets, boulevards and squares, but also through the positioning of public institutions. In Brussels for example one can perceive this in the formal urban relation between the Royal Palace, the National Government and the Palace of Justice. This happens as well on a smaller scale.

Town halls, libraries and churches define local centers. And maybe even more important, with their architecture, they express specific relations with the citizen; controlling and oppressing, or friendly and opening-up.

The past decades have been dominated by important shifts in power. A combination of shrinking public funds and the need to develop a growth-economy that has become increasingly global, governments are now more and more reduced. As Noreena Hertz stated in her book ‘The Silent Takeover’, one can wonder if statepower slowly gets overpowered by the economical power of multinationals. In a time where non-globalists, glocalism and regional awareness test our current modes of building society, the spatial and architectural production that goes along with this new reality is highly under stress. With this studio we want to understand the driving mechanisms behind these invisible power actors. In a world without a moral distinction between good and bad, without a classical order as we know it, and in a world where everything is about identity, communication and perception, we discover new important challenges in the role of architecture.

CONTEXT London is chosen as the locale of our fieldwork and design research. The city’s enormous concentration of both new and old power-actors makes it the European paradigm of the global power city. Through time it has accumulated large numbers of embassies, banks, institutions, societies and global corporations in an urban fabric that remains surprisingly historic. A planning system that is highly favorable towards private development makes London a hot-pit for profit driven real-estate transactions, resulting in a layered, fascinating urban scene where the public realm becomes increasingly dominated by the private sector. This questionable condition combined with a strong tradition of great architectural production makes London not only the perfect ground for critical analysis but also a great inspiration for meaningful architecture.

STUDIO In this studio we want to investigate the mechanisms of how specific hidden power actors (from small lobby groups, clubs and embassies, to real estate organizations and large banks) produce space locally. Through research, fieldwork and mapping we will explore 2 areas in the London Metropolitan Area were a large concentration of power actors is dominating the urban realm.

(Belgravia & the City) Firstly the goal is to build-up a thorough understanding of the mechanisms used by these power actors and develop a personal stance or opinion in relation to their role in society. Secondly we will explore the architectural and spatial typologies that house these power-actors and investigate how they, with the means of architecture, represent themselves in the public realm. Following clear methodologies for architectural production we will develop precise proposals for spaces and architectural representation.

COLLABORATION With this design studio we seek to include a series of strong collaborations with local actors: the Greater London Authority, the local planning departments and representatives of power-actors. The site visit and documentation effort will be combined with a visit to relevant examples of buildings and spaces. Simultaneously we will offer students an inside view in the production of London architecture by visiting a number of renowned practices and universities.

The thesis studio is developed as a collective “research by design” unit. Students will address different aspects of the urban and architectural conditions of London leading to both an architectural and urban design project (with the emphasis on design), based on the premise that physical form and the experience of city life are inseparable and in dire need of critical concepts that can address current evolutions in power representation. Studio London depends on design as the tool to transform, derail, reinvent and crossbreed existing modes of operations and their associated physical form.

METHODOLOGY Research by design: The two semester Atelier is divided in several phases in which we explore different relations between design and research. The research project consists of a series of clearly defined products of different media: a text, a map, a photograph of a model respresenting an architectural space. Each of these products carry their own meaning and describe a part of the research carried out. The student is free to add a fourth medium, the ‘wild card’, to complement the research. The aim of this approach is not only to challenge existing way of developping a thesis project through linear story telling and replace it with a methodology that is based on analogy. It also aims to bring design more to the foreground. The goal is not to produce a booklet but a series of high quality products that are equally important. This methodology is then continued for the design project where students will again provide a text, a photograph of a model respresenting the design, and a set of of large drawings (possibly complemented with other material to support the main products. Both the research part and the design part form the thesis project.

Each of the thesis proposals can be judged as personal work. As a group, the work is an assembly of different products exploring a collective theme through various media and interpretations allowing the results of the studio to be displayed and curated in many ways.

by Tom Thys, Jan Vermeulen

1.

THE CITY “ THE GHETTO ” OF LONDON

CRITICAL READING Exploring the City of London as a ghetto

“It is the sometimes conflict, the sometimes marriage that makes the City of London the most fascinating city anywhere. It is the most interesting city of the world, because we have all these layers of change. Every time you do a new development, you dig up a piece of the past, its history. In London we have taken the old town and turned it into this central business district.�

- Peter Murray

A ghetto in one of the most beloved cities in the world, Londen.

THE CITY OF LONDON From the moment you arrive in London you notice that in the centre something different is going on than in the rest of the city. The urban fabric reveals that a specific business is concentrated in the historic centre, the ‘City of London’. The old town houses made place for tall glazed buildings and the open public space does not seem so public anymore. In fact, a large part of the open space is in hands of private developers and is designed and managed in function of the activity of the surrounding buildings.

The ‘City of London’ was the perfect spot for new developments because of their unique position in the democratic system of London. It has always been the centre of commerce of Great Britain and gained some privileges and freedom from laws over the centuries because of its wealth and power. They have their own political system, seperated from greater London.

After the bombing of World War II they started to rebuild ‘the City’ in a different, more modern way that responded to the commercial needs of that time. This gave them the great opportunity to become the largest financial centre of the world.

I started my research walking through and observing this so-called business district and I was immediately intrigued by the present tension. A tension I thought was caused by the fact that the public spaces are privately owned and controlled. Everywhere you go, you are watched by security men and cameras. Things like cycling, skating, taking pictures, having a picknick,.. are not allowed because they want to keep the place clean. It seems like only men in suits are allowed to come here.

But the more time I spent in ‘the City’ the more I started to understand and look at the things from their point of view. First of all, due to its high development standards, the local authorities are not able to provide the well-maintained public space and transport system ‘the City’ needs for its growth. So they transfer it to the private developers. Secondly, the firms want to attract young talented people, so the place needs to look clean and wealthy. Public space in ‘the City’ has only one function through the eyes of the private developers: creating a nice environment for workers, a place where they can meet for lunch.

After a while I started to realise that it is much more than the fact that a large part of ‘the City’ is in private hands. ‘The City’ is a different world, a ghetto, in which a bussiness community rules.

‘The City’ is not only politically but also socially separated from greater London. Reclaiming the public space, like a lot of people are doing by protests, would change the atmosphere in ‘the City’.

THE GHETTO A ghetto is a specific area where a particular group, different from the main population, is concentrated. This concentration or segregation results mainly from discrimination by a dominant society but also from the internal coherence of the minority group itself. On the one hand the dominant society treats a certain population group as inferior and excludes them from the life of the city by social, economical and political restrictions. But at the same time this minority group uses the ghetto as a way to develop and protect their own cultural identity.

The creation of a ghetto is all about perception; it is about how different population groups look at each other. Most of the time, prejudices together with fear from both sides will cause a conflict between two societies. This conflict results in a physically and socially separated life. The minority group start to create their own world with their own rules inside the ghetto, because they have no opportunities in the normal life of the city. People who are normally not powerful at all take the lead and start their own illegal economic businesses to survive. This is why a ghetto is most of the time described as a poor, lawless, drug-dealing area ruled by violence.

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Nowadays, the term “ghetto” refers to the African-American black ghettos in U.S. cities. These ghettos arose because of a suddenly large-scale inflow of black people in the cities. During World War I, the black people living in the Southern rural cities started to move to the Northern urban cities because of the many new work opportunities. But these black people were poor and unskilled so were forced to live together in the most deprived areas of the city. Ghettos came to existence when the white residents started to move out to the suburbs. They have always had these prejudices towards the blacks and were frightened by the sudden inflow. Black people were different and inferior and the white people were afraid to lose their social status when they moved in. The blacks had no opportunities in the normal city life; they were not able to find a job or to buy a house because of their skin tone. Social, economical and political restrictions forced them to live in a segregated area.

The social gap between the blacks and the whites is not only due to the fact that the whites have strong prejudices, it is also partly caused by the blacks themselves. The fear to step out of the ghetto into the dominant society as an individual who is ‘different’ and has a different lifestyle, is contributing to the formation of the ghetto. The black people feel much more comfortable staying in the black community where they are accepted and where they can develop and express their own identity.

‘The City’ is a place where specific economic activity is concentrated. Many insurance companies and banks moved to the ‘City of London’ because of the great opportunities they had there. In a certain sense they were legally obligated to concentrate in this area. The freedoms from laws and privileges ‘the City’ achieved over centuries resulted in a governance and legislation in favour of business. And, a planning system supporting private developments gave them the opportunity to build tall office buildings in a quick and efficient way. They do not have these advantages across the boundary of the City, so they are in a certain sense forced to stay and grow within ‘the City’.

But they also benefit from this concentration. Close relationships and connections are very important for the operation of this financial world; the faster the communication, the faster the trade. But also the exchange of information is safer when everything is concentrated in a closed community.

The concentration of this particular group, the economic activity and the business elite that comes along with it, is the result of both discrimination and internal coherence. On the one hand the main society excludes them from the life of the city by economical and political restrictions (the freedom they do not have). But at the same time this particular group uses the concentration as a way to develop and protect their own identity. As this discrimination through political rules is linked with the administrative boundary of the ‘City of London’, ‘the City’ is a ghetto in London.

Also in this case the area can in a certain sense be described as lawless. The concentration of economic activities transformed into a financial world, different from the normal world, where people who are normally not so powerful take the lead. A world where political power slowly gets overpowered by economical power. The local government of the ‘City’, the ‘City of London Corporation’, consists of members mainly chosen by the companies based in the ‘City’.

THE CURRENT URBAN SITUATION During my exploration of the boundary of ‘the City’ I noticed that the economic activity and its bussines elite has already grown far across this administrative boundary. All nice local coffee shops have turned into Starbucks and Pret-A-Manger’s. In contrast to a traditional ghetto, the small minority group has now become the dominating society and is pushing away the main society. Since living in the ghetto is nearly impossible, the most beloved city seems to disappear slowly. The ghetto is taking over.

The ghetto became an abstract phenomenon. Its border does not coincide with the administrative boundary of ‘the City’ anymore, so the ghetto is hard to identify. The sudden change of urban fabric reveals that the abstract ghetto is present, but the new developments, as a materialisation of the financial world, are not covering the whole ghetto. A large part of the financial world is hidden behind the historical layers of ‘the City’. And new developments across the border take the same appearance to compete with what is happening inside ‘the City’.

The social environment that comes along with it, on the other hand, is much larger than the boundary of ‘the City’. Because of the wealth and power in the ghetto, the real estate prices in its near surrounding rise exponentially. Middle class people can not afford the houses anymore and are forced to make room for the super-rich. The concentration of the financial business and so the ghetto is in this case indirectly a threat for the city as it is pushing away the social structure of the main society and widening the gap between rich and poor.

In order to counteract this invasive behaviour of the wealthy society, a modus vivendi should be created at the border of the ghetto. The administrative border of ‘the City’ should be a zone where the interaction between the two different population groups is in equilibrium. They both have their own lifestyle and habits separated from each other, but in this zone they enjoy each other’s advantages without one being dominant.

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THE CURRENT URBAN SITUATION

Boundary of the City/ghetto

Metro lines

Social environment (upper class)

Built environment

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https://vimeo.com/150418731

WALKING ALONG THE LINE Exploring the boundary of the ghetto

During our fieldtrip to London I soon started looking at the City as a ghetto. I only needed a few days of observation to understand the current urban situation, because I quickly experienced what I had read about the privatization of public space. I continuously had the feeling I was being watched while I was walking around with my camera and taking pictures. Because taking pictures is apparently not allowed in ‘public space’.

After formulating the statement of the City being a ghetto, I immediatly started focussing on the boundary of this ghetto. I was so intrigued by the present tension. I wanted to know how those two worlds were facing each other, in terms of built environments as well as in terms of the social environment. So I decided to walk the line, the administrative border of the City of London.

In contrast to the boundary of a ghetto, which is normally a dead place with almost no interaction between the two worlds, the boundary of this ghetto in London is very lively. There is an enormous flow of people continuously crossing this border. So I started observing what kind of people I met on my way, where they were going, what they were doing,.. Conclusion: they were almost all men in suits walking faster than the average speed with in their one hand a coffee and in their other hand their smartphone.

The built environment was more interesting. Sometimes it was really intimidating and frightening how those tall glazed monsters were overshadowing the small townhouses in some places. But at the same time I stood in the middle of a very fascinating new urban scene.

Remarkable is the fact that in some places the tall glazed buildings showed up at both sides of the line.Finishing my walk it became clear that the ghetto, the bussines community, had grown already far accros its boundary.

The set of photos on the next page are stills taken out of the video I made during my walk along the border. The video itself you can find online by scanning the QR-code.

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BUILDING REFERENCE Folgate Street, Spitalfield - Broadgate Tower

The border of the City, or the ghetto, is hard to identify. The economic activity, that used to be limited to the boundary, together with its social environment has already spread far across the adminstrative border. The built environment on the other hand can be identified as single spots of tall glazed towers that occasionally jump over the border.

This image is rather an exception. It is a place on the administrative border where the conflict between the two worlds is materialized and thus the border is visible. The financial business world is represented by tall glazed buildings and is bumping into the smaller human-scale world. This results in a fascinating urban space.

The small street of the human scale world is already a complex system existing of different layers itself. Firstly, you have the street with an interesting, dynamic perspective. A perspective created by a street that nods off and building blocks that stagger slightly relative to each other, so the corners stand out.

Secondly, you have the houses that take distance from the street with their small terraces, a widened sidewalk and the lampposts in front, which is a system itself within the perspective of the street. And further more, these houses each have their own facade; the positioning of the windows, the height of the cornice, the character of the groundfloor,.. All these elements create a human-scale world we all know and trust.

This rich historically grown tissue is now part of a bigger system. A system in which a tall glazed building became an extra layer in the perspective of the street. As a result a new urban space is created, a space that can be frightening and exciting at the same time.

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2.

BILLITER BUILDINGS

THE PROJECT Re-inhabiting the City “the ghetto” of London

The ‘Billiter Buildings’ project is a countermovement against the expanding of the ghetto. This expanding is a threat for London as a city, because the financial world has turned the City of London into a non-place. The amount of inhabitants is very low as living in the ghetto is unpleasant and stressfull. The business community took over, changed homes into offices and controls almost every single meter of the ‘public’ realm.

But also the lack of high quality open space makes the City a hard place to live. The development-oriented planning system allowed tall glazed towers to land in the middle of the rich historical tissue of the City. The objects transformed the open space into undefined residual space. These residual spaces have no true character and are designed in an artificial manner. The only purpose of these spaces is to attract young talented people to the business world.

To highlight the fact that the ghetto is crossing its border, the ‘Billiter Buildings’ project jumps back into the City with its unusual mixed program of housing, offices and public functions. The biggest challenge in the design of this project is creating a lively, high quality environment in the middle of this dense and complex urban fabric of the City of London.

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URBAN FABRIC Streets, alleys, blocks and towers

THE CITY’S UNIQUE URBAN FABRIC

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BILLITER BUILDINGS

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THE CITY’S UNIQUE URBAN FABRIC Streets, alleys, blocks and towers

The urban tissue of the City of London differs remarkably from the tissue outside its boundary. This is because the City is the oldest and the newest part of London at the same time. The area that is now called the City of London was once the old medieval town. The intersection of the Thames and the old Roman roads was the perfect spot for a commercial settlement, as the traders could use the river and the roads for their imports and exports to Europe. This centre of commerce started growing because of its great success, but never exceeded its walls. Even today, the boundary of the City still corresponds with the old Roman walls.

Because of the lack of space within the walls, new settlements popped up around this commercial centre. For example Westminster where the government was seated. In this way the City of London remained very powerful. It even has its own small governement, the City of London Corporation.

It extracted privileges and freedoms from rules and laws over the centuries by issuing loans to the governement in Westminster. This gave them the opportunity to grow and develop in function of its own needs, which are bussines oriented.

The built fabric of the City of London we see today is very dense and exists of numerous historical layers. The tissue is characterized by large streets, small alleys between the old mid-rise building blocks and towers which are standing like single objects in the tissue. There is almost no open space left, except the space around the tower-objects which is not really of high quality.

When you compare this urban tissue with the tissue just across the border, it is not surprising that almost no one is living in the City. The high density and lack of pleasant urban places together with the high property prices causes an outflow of inhabitants. Only about 7,000 people are living in the City while 300,000 people are working there.

The tissue outside the City boundary on the other hand is much more human. Although the property prices are also very high and a rich hipster community is living there, the urban tissue has a lot more to offer. Small town houses in combination with more open and more public space make the place pleasant and livable.

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Streets, alleys, blocks and towers in the City of London

DESIGN PROPOSAL Streets, alleys, blocks and towers

STREETS, ALLEYS, BLOCKS AND TOWERS The challenge of creating a lively, high quality environment

The site for the project is delimited by two large, busy streets (Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch Street) and two small, more quiet streets (Billiter Street and Fenchurch Buildings) of which Fenchurch Buildings changes into a small alley. Two buildings on the site are preserved of which the one in the middle is a listed building, 19-21 Billiter Street.

To create a pleasant, high quality environment in the extraordinary urban fabric of the City, all City-typologies are condensed in one single project. In this way the building weaves itself perfectly into its surrounding in the three dimensions.

First of all there has been searched for the perfect balance between being a buildingblock and being an object. Two large blocks are positioned on the site in a way that on the one hand the existing buildingblock is completed and on the other hand an intermediary square is created which is offered back to the city. On top of these two large blocks arise three small towers of different height.

Secondly, although the two buildings are completely different, there is a high level of harmony. This harmony is created by the construction of the volumetry and elevation.

Each block exists out of three layers: a double height base, a four-level height block, and one or two smaller tower-objects.

object

block

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PLAY, WORK, LIVE A new living concept to re-inhabite the City of London

The three layers of the volumetry are projections of the program. The double height base is a community center and commercial space. A small part of this base covers the triangular square and creates a more intimate outdoor space. These public functions are closely connected to the intermediary public square and contribute to the revival of the environment. It serves as a meeting place and encourages the interaction between the two worlds.

The four-level height block on top of this base is designed as offices with a high flexibility.

By including the program of offices in the project, it fulfills the needs of the surrounding context and a very diverse community is created.

The three tower-objects which stick up in the air are apartments. By lifting them from the ground level they rise above the dense, stressful world. More light, air and privacy is ensured.

In this way there is a fluent gradient of privacy from the public base to the private towers which creates a whole new living concept in the City of London.

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community center commercial space

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Site plan

Leadenhall St.

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Billiter Street Elevation

EXTERNAL EXPRESSION The Billiters Buildings seek to weave themself into the fabric of the City with their rich and layered tectonic façade. Just as the building’s shape, the façade emphasizes the tripartite division of base, middle and top. This classical division corresponds with the elevation of the adjacent buildings of the buildingblock. Also the façade as a representation of structure is a recurring characteristic of the surrounding buildings and gives a sense of permanence and weight to the building.

The elevations of both buildings are constructed in the same way. The pre-cast concrete elements are finely assembled so the privacy gradient and program can be read in the façade. The base is constructed with heavy, double height columns to achieve a more open and public expression. The towers on top on the other hand have a more light and sensitive expression to create a feeling of home.

The pre-cast elements are made of polished concrete to give the building a glossy appearance. They are carefully assembled to create a monolithic surface. The use of two layers of these concrete elements generate depth and rhythm in the façade. A third layer, the light bronze aluminium windows and panels, deviates from the tectonic rhythm and displays the internal activity of occupation.

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Elevation Leadenhall St.

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Elevation Billiter Square

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COMMUNITY CENTER The Community Center at ground level is designed as one large open space, double height, with a courtyard in the middle. The courtyard devides the space into smaller places and attracts light and air inside. The space is characterized by narrowings and widenings which create dramatic sight lines and light shafts. When you are in a certain space, you always get a glimpse of another space. This generates an interesting confusion. The smaller intimate spaces are part of a larger whole, which makes the space very fascinating.

The strong lines defining the spaces allow to put some elements which give the space an extra dimension. One of these elements are the structural beams. Large, three meter height, beams are crossing the space through the middle and create a second layer of division. The large beams carry the load of the facade of the levels aboves, so at the same time the shape of the office building and the apartment towers is projected in the space. A second element is the three winding staircases making the connection to three separated splitlevels.

Floor plan - Community Center

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1. Entrance hall - Community Center 2. Foyer / Exhibition space 3. Multipurpose hall 4. Internal courtyard 5. Time out zone (light shaft) 6. Cafe/Bar 7. Administration office 8. Entrance hall - Appartments 9. Entrance hall - Offices 10. Commercial space

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COMMUNITY CENTER The three winding staircases are each connected to another splitlevel. The first splitlevel is a reception hall with a kitchen that can be used for more private events like hosting a party, a wedding, a reception,.. This level is not only connected to the community center, but also to the office building. It has a separated entrance via the office lobby. The winding staircase goes further up and gives acces to the shared private roof-terrace of the office building. In this way the firms can make use of this reception hall and connect it to their terrace. For other events the acces to the roof-terrace and to the office foyer can be closed off.

The second splitlevel are clubrooms that can be used for smaller community activities like meeting, lectures, exercise classes,.. They have different sizes for different purposes.

The last splitlevel is the backstage room of the multipurpose hall. It contains four dressing rooms, a small kitchen and a common room. The multipurpose hall can be used for large social events like celebrations, ceremonies, balls,.. and for organising cultural and leisure activities like discussions, exhibitions, theater or music performances, yoga class,..

Floor plan - Splitlevels Community Center

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1. Winding staircases 2. Reception hall 3. Kitchen 4. Foyer offices 5. Foyer 6. Club rooms 7. Backstage dressing rooms

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OFFICES The office building counts four levels and each level is served by two circulation elements.

This generates a high flexibility. A typical floor can be hired by one firm or can be split up in two separated offices from different sizes. Also the workspace can be furnished flexibly because of the open plan.

Each floor has a shared wintergarden-terrace which serves as a meeting place for the two seperated offices and as a place to get some air during the break. A staircase integrated in the wintergarden makes a connection between the floors and leads to the shared roofterrace on top of the community center which in its turn is a meeting place for all the offices.

Floor plan - Offices

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1. Reception 2. Flexible workspace 3. Meeting rooms 4. Dining area 5. Shared wintergarden 6. Shared roof-terrace

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APARTMENTS The apartments this building offers, are very varied in sizes: studios, 1-bedroom apartments, 2-bedroom apartments and 3-bedroom apartments. Each floor has at least one apartment of each type. In this way a wide range of families is approached and a mixed community is created.

Each floor counts five apartments organised around a central communal staircase. The apartments have all an indoor terrace which is a transition element between the kitchen/ dining room and the living room. The indoor terrace is part of the room and can be used during many parts of the year.

All apartments have a ceiling height of 2.8m, except the apartments on the topfloor. They have a ceiling height of 3.6m. They are more luxuriously designed.

Floor plan - Apartments

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1. Studio 2. 1-bedroom Apartment 3. 2-bedroom Apartment 4. 3-bedroom Apartment 0 69

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Floor plan - Appartements

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Martin, I. (2015, Februari 24) The city that privatised itself to death: ‘London is now a set of improbable sex toys poking gormlessly into the air’. The Guardian, Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com.

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Minton, A. (2006) The privatisation of public space. RICS. Hillier, B., Grajewski, T., Jones, L., Jianming, X. and Greene, M. (1990) Broadgate spaces: Life in public spaces. Unit for architectural studies, Barlett School of Architecture and Planning, London.

Ramidus (2015) Future Workstyles and Future Workplaces in the City of London. City of London Corporation and the City Property Association.

Rasmussen, K. R. (2015) The Multi-Ordered Urban Area: A Ghetto. Phylon (1960-), Vol. 29, No. 3 (3rd Qtr., 1968), pp. 282-290. Clark Atlanta University.

Anas, A. (2004) Etnic Segregation and Ghettos. A Companion to Urban Economics. New York: Blackwell publishers.

Wirth, L. (2008) The Ghetto. The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Jul., 1927), pp. 57-71. Chicago, IL:The University of Chicago Press.

Morril, R. L. (1965) The Negro Ghetto: Problems and Alternatives. Geographical Review, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 339-361. New York: American Geographical Society.

Anderson, A. (2012) The Iconic Ghetto. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 642, No. 1 (Jul, 2012), pp. 8-24.

Marcuse, P. (1997) The Enclave, the Citadel, and the Ghetto: What has Changed in the Post-Fordist U.S. City. Urban Affairs Review, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Nov. 1997), pp. 228-264.

Schneider, F. and Heckmann, O. (2011) Floor plan manual housing. Basel: Birkhäuser.

Drawing 40 Leadenhall Street, design proposal, HENDERSON - Global Investors

http://40leadenhall.co.uk/our-proposals/

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