The Urban Ascension by No Spam

The Urban Ascension Mamata Bora UCL The Bartlett School of Architecture MArch Urban Design 08-09 UD 1- Tutors: Jonathan Kendall / Yuri Gerrits

Acknowledgement I would like to offer special thanks to Prof. Colin Fournier and my tutors Jonathan Kendall and Yuri Gerrits for their guidance and encouragement throughout the year. Without their support it would not have been possible for me to accomplish this work. I would also like to thank all my friends and family for being extremely supportive and helpful.

Thank you all.

Declaration I, Mamata Bora, declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own and has been generated by me as a result of my own original research. I also confirm that every effort has been taken to indicate clearly wherever contributions of others are involved or wherever I have derived information from other sources. This work was completed under the guidance of Jonathan Kendall and Yuri Gerrits at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

Image developed by Mamata Bora

“When a man is tired of London he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” Samuel Johnson.

London is a global city with a capacity to dazzles every single person on earth no matter where he is from or what he is like! It has influenced the world for over four centuries and so far, its future has been a focus of discussion of all times. Looking back into history, we see how the world as a whole has undergone tremendous change during the previous century. Many changes were predicted, many were not. Many visions came true but many seemed to have failed. Future of a city still holds too many lose threads which could be followed through a logical thinking process to reach entirely different conclusions/ results. As science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein defines sci-fi as “realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method”.1 But as a designer one inherently gets tempted to provide solutions for the issues he/she identifies. So the project becomes not an urban fiction but a design proposal for a future city, with definite objectives based on a scenario. London is introduced to a series of skyscrapers growing alongside the major movement corridors of the city and intensifying around public transport hubs. This is treated as a solution to accommodate the growing population of the metropolis in a more sustainable way by increasing the density and vertically mixing land use in these skyscrapers in a three dimensional matrix where home, work and leisure are vertically interwoven into a single neighbourhood. The idea is tested on a site of 0.5 Sq. Km in the city of London. Moreover to achieve a level of diversity of spaces in the towers and in order to break the monotony of structure and ownership, a number of interconnected “public realms” in addition to the ground plane is created. In an endeavour to make the sky approachable/available to public, land is created in sky with the similar set of rules applied on ground which would also allow the built form of the city to mutate three dimensionally.

05 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future

Contents

Introduction to inspiration Urban fiction & Urban design Understanding London The city & height The city - Density/Land use/Mobility

07 08 10 12 16

The project Objectives Site Bishopsgate - city fringe Present day facts Historic context First Impression Study +15 Calgary, Canada Midlevel escalators, Hong Kong PATH, Torronto City of London Walkway Experiment Inferences

18 18 20 20 20 22 27

Proposal Land use Height

36 36 40

43 52

Mixing, Connectivity & Circulation Creating land in sky

Conclusions References

30 30 31 32 33 34

64 66

“The world has long harboured the dream of something. Today if it merely becomes conscious of it, it can possess it really.” Karl Marx.

Introduction to the inspiration The project has been inspired by a question by a simple inquisitive mind like everyone else – What tomorrow is going to be like? And it is driven by the reactions to present day quality of life in the city. If I may quote Aristotle in 3rd century BC; “A city should be built to give its inhabitants security and happiness” and Architect Richard Rogers in 20th century AD; “If you ask people what they think of cities today, they are more likely to speak about buildings and cars then streets and squares. If you ask them about city life, they speak about alienation, isolation, fear of crime or congestion and pollution than about community, participation, animation, beauty or pleasure.” I wonder what future would be like! If again I allow myself to dream and colour my imagination, with a very optimistic and benevolent approach, I would imagine a future where we will have cities powered by alternative energy, which would be economically local and culturally global, with no religion and scarcity of food where space will flow through as a continuous experience for all, where a city dweller would not long every evening for a fresh breath or a break from the everyday commute! There were numerous scenarios to be concerned about for generating ideas about a possible future. All of them were rising from the present trend in the society. Will we explore virtual world to its limit where we don’t have to move? Or will there be flying cars with extreme mobility? Will there be artificially intelligent robots to help us? Will cooking become an exquisite skill and normal eating be replaced by pills?? Alternatively, will there be floods, wars?? Will the same monetary system survive after it reaches its theoretical lending limits?

Image developed by Mamata Bora

Urban fiction & urban design

Future of cities have always coloured human imagination and has been mostly expressed through urban fictions, may it be a movie or a book. A city is a physical environment where everything comes together and movies can be a strong media to express such complex environments. But one would like to argue that future fictions are mostly guided by the experience of past and future remains a place of infinite possibility. Fictions follow a trend whereas time doesn’t. But fictions can be used as a platform of study for fundamental human behaviour individually and collectively. Because when a city is imagined without its immediate context, it makes the canvas clear of many layers of superficialities created by a complex existing environment. If we study the images of future predictions depicted through different fictions, we can see that most of them didn’t come true by their predicted time. When we dreamt about gigantic cities, we came across software technology. And everything followed. Hence, fictions can only be a medium of showing a direction of change but time is unpredictable. Therefore the project does not focus on the time aspect of the whole development. Moreover, since fictions are tinted with real experiences of past, every city demands its own individual story. The project tries to find out what could be changed in London? Radically?? How real that radical change can be?? It is an attempt to answer ‘why’. 08

Source : flikr.com

FUTURE AND FICTION?

Understanding London A city needs a reason to exist. Since the time of the Roman Empire London acted as a trading hub with global linkages and flourished as a city. After industrial revolution in nineteenth century, it became a city for the industries and a capital for the whole world with the British Empire expanding colonies in almost all parts of the globe. Again with the fall of royal colonies, it mutated fast to adapt to the requirements raised by technological developments. During the previous century London again re-invented itself as a commercial and financial centre of the world. Today, it is a global city. It acts as a production site for complex and centralised financial services and also as a centralised market place for such products. It is a result of today’s economy and rapid globalisation brought about by international borders melting and the connectivity made possible by technological development in terms of mobility. This rapid development made London one of the most unsustainable cities in Europe with an ecological footprint which is 298 times bigger than its geographical footprint. London as a city now has more than one issue to address in coming future to be a sustainable city which provides good quality of life for all without harming the environment. Issues which were found to be most concerning and interesting to be addressed were related to energy consumption, local food production, daily mobility in the city and accommodation and distribution of density.

“For four centuries now London has mutated a number of times to be able to be one of the world’s most powerful financial, commercial and cultural centres. But it has also grown up to be one of Europe’s least sustainable cities.” - Richard Rogers, Citites for a small planet.

Image developed by Mamata Bora

18th Century

Source : flkr.com

19th Century

Source : flkr.com

20th Century

Source : www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/08/london_from_above_at_night

The city - HEIGHT

The world has seen a tremendous growth in the third dimension of the cities during previous century. Wherever and whenever technology and economy allowed we have aspired to touch the sky. Starting from 91.5 m tall Philadelphia arcade building in 1900 we have built 452 m tall Petronas tower in 2000. London as a historic city has always focused its direction towards conservation and preservation of its glorious past. For one reason or the other London’s skyline always remained low thereby creating a special character of a global city with a low skyline. If we compare the skyline history of major cities in the world, we see that London remained with a maximum height of 111m till 1960 on the principle that fireman’s ladder wouldn’t reach higher floors.1 Though during post industrial phase, post world war and economic depression, when London emerged again as a financial centre for the globalised world, canary wharf development had a great impact on its skyline, the historic city mostly remained fairly low till the beginning of 21st century with medium rise or low rise built masses. An interesting observation is that, when London’s growth was restricted vertically during 19301970, its horizontal growth increased tremendously resulting into very high urban sprawl. The question that arise here is - are skyscrapers an answer to urban sprawl? Can London change its skyline and have high rise buildings without compromising its spatial character? How will the old and new coexist?

(http://homepages.ipact.nl/~egram/skylines_history.html)

Source : flkr.com

NO. OF BUILDINGS ABOVE 90M

‘20

‘50

LONDON

MAXIMUM HEIGHT

‘07 ‘20

‘50

NO. OF BUILDINGS ABOVE 90M

‘07

‘20

‘50

NEW YORK

‘07 ‘20

MAXIMUM HEIGHT

‘50

NO. OF BUILD- MAXIMUM INGS ABOVE HEIGHT 90M

‘07

‘80

‘07 ‘80

‘07

DUBAI

Source : flkr.com

Image developed by Mamata Bora

“The Sunday Times Magazine said last year that London was taking over from New York as the world’s financial centre. Glance at the skyline of cranes and girders, and you’re inclined to agree. And if there’s one thing a preeminent financial centre loves, it’s talk of new skyscrapers. As the economic graph goes zinging upwards, so do the plans of ambitious developers and their ever-eager architects. Nobody can ignore a skyscraper.”1

But the most controversial issue with skyscraper and London is the preservation of its history in terms of its strategic view corridors, and its street pattern. Presently the proposed tallest tower in the world is 1200m high Al burj in Dubai. From a global perspective it is clear that the emergence of theses skyrocketing towers in East and Middle East is also connected to the development of their economy due to globalisation based on oil market. London, on the contrary, has a past to hold on to and a future to leap towards. It has to be an approach of a sustainable growth for London while exploring a different type of skyline for the city.

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Timesonline : http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article1515003.

Are skyscrapers an answer to urban sprawl??? Can skyscrapers be designed sustainably to cater future needs of a city??

The city - density/landuse/mobility London has an average density of 45 persons per hectare and is considered as a very low density city. The density distribution in London creates a doughnut situation as the city is scarcely inhabited. As again density has a direct relationship with sustainability of urban environment, one of the major attempts of the project has been to bring back resident population to the city of London. According to a research conducted in University of West England, “The average commuter is spending more than 139 hours per year commuting, increasing substantially for Londoners who spend the equivalent of one whole month per year travelling to and from work.” 1

BBC news : (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ uk/5245860.stm)

Source : flkr.com

“People come out of one buiding and go to another to work. To be able to do so the use a commuting system. This system consumes energy and get overloaded during peak hours. One major chunk of the built mass – home remains empty almost all day and the other part of the city – offices remain empty during all night.” - Ken Yeang, Reinventing the skyscraper

The immediate reaction to such a situation is to reduce personal daily commute as much as possible. This raises the necessity of mixing uses and providing most of the civic amenities within walking distance to oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s home. Coexistence of different activities would not only allow people the ease of movement but also increase their quality of life by reducing the stress brought upon by daily commute. This intermixing of land uses is experimented on a vertical plane in the proposed skyscrapers. The city would grow higher to accommodate more density forming hills and valleys. Hills would be the linear strip of area along traffic corridors which would allow an environment within the skyscrapers to intermix uses as well as provide immediate access to public transport to facilitate movement at city level.

The project As stated before three major directions are identified to focus on for the development of the project. • Increase of density • Mixing of land use • Vertical growth with multiple planes of public realm

Objectives The objective of the project is to test an idea of a future London which has a fabric of vertically growing, mixed use high density towers, interconnected at different levels by public spaces.

Site A site is selected to test the idea and realise the objectives. As the scenario focuses on issues concerning accessibility, movement and density a highly accessible and compact site is selected within the city. The criteria for selecting the site were – • Its significance of its accessibility at city level and • Its importance as a place with which London’s future image could be very simply associwith SITE - ated BISHOPSGATE

Image developed by Mamata Bora

SITESITE IN IN PRESENT LONDON PRESENT LONDON

Image developed by Mamata Bora. Original model - The building center, London

Bishopsgate - the city fringe Bishopsgate was undoubtedly a site which provides the right platform for the idea to be experimented on. It has the potential to add value to the project mainly because of the following • It falls into the city of London and falls within the most accessible area in the whole city by public transport thereby supporting the concept of a place containing high density development as per assumed scenario. • It also forms part of the city fringe which adds difference in quality of space and adds interest in the project by adding variety and complexity. • The site already has an existing compact fabric extremely suitable for the experiment. • The site has already been experimented with new and contrasting forms of architecture, (e.g. the Gherkin) and the tendency is to break away from the traditional built form and typology. • It has an extraordinarily strong mental image globally created as far as future London is concerned. • It is the place where London’s all future towers are proposed.

SITE - PROPOSSED SKYLINE

Bishopsgate tower 288 M 20 Fenchurch street 160 M

Minerva building Leadenhall building 225 M Willis building 100 Bishopsgate Heron tower 246 M Gherkin 180M

Image developed by Mamata Bora

Present day facts • The site covers an area of proximately 0.5 Sq. Km around the east edge of the historic city of London. The roman road Bishopsgate running north south forms one edge of the site, which covers areas from both the boroughs of city and tower hamlets. • It shares the strength of the financial power zone of Bank and acts as the base of the service sector easily comparable to Canary Wharf. • Bishopsgate as a borough has a resident population of 48 while on an average day 300,000 people commute there to work. • The land use of the site is predominantly official while there are few housing estates and commercial activities towards the north which fall into the borough of tower hamlets. • The average height of the buildings is around 30m. • It is directly approachable by 3 underground stations – Liverpool street, Algate and Algate east. It sits in close proximity to the underground stations – Bank, Monument and over ground station of Fenchchurch street. • The site falls outside the flood risk area of 10m contour line.

LIVERPOOL STREET STATION

ALGATE EAST STATION ALGATE STATION

FENCHURCH STREET STATION

SITE

Historic facts

Being associated with the city of London since its foundation as a Roman city in the year AD 47, Bishopsgate has many stories to offer. • Bishopsgate was one of the original seven gates in London wall constructed during Roman period. It houses few historical churches dating back to medieval period. Being at the fringe of the city, the site was originally the location of many coaching inns for people travelling. • The site has London wall going through it east-west and dividing it into two parts. • It also houses the famous Mitre Square where Jack the ripper committed the infamous murder and more than 300 years old Bevis Marks Synagogue • Few churches like church of St Botolph, church of St Ethelburga and church of St. Halen with historic significance are present on the site • The road hounsditch was originally the ditch outside the wall of London. It still carries an identity as the boundary of the glorious city of London though there are no more walls that divide it From the historic maps, it is observed that the built form and typology kept on changing with time. It was burnt during the great fire as well as bombed once during the war and later by IRA. The major part of the built form typology belongs to the previous century, though there are century old structures also present in the site. The maps also distinctly show the street pattern and their growth which gives the site its unique characteristic in terms of space. It and is very well-known for the little alleyways connecting different buildings. From the historic maps it is also apparent how the fabric changed from individually owned fragmented plots to bigger building blocks in one century.

SITE IN ROMAN LONDON

Cripplegate Aldersgate

Moorgate

Newgate Bishopsgate Ludgate St. Pauls City of London

Image developed by Mamata Bora

Aldgate

Tower

CHANGE IN PAST 100 YEARS

1892

1938

Figureground

1892

2009

1938

Image developed by Mamata Bora. Source : Edina Digimap

Image developed by Mamata Bora

Offices Mixed use Residences Retail Institutions Transport Listed buildings

CURRENT LAND USEs

First impression Built form and feel of space The built form on site plays a very interesting role in creating the image of the financial centre. The first impression was of a space which is dominant and powerful as well as closed and unapproachable. The built form changed quite significantly from south to north where smaller spaces with low rise buildings are found. As more and more mid rise buildings are replaced by towers now, the space above ground plane is becoming more and more private, controlled and unapproachable.

Photograph by Mamata Bora

Land use The site creates an impression of monotony all around. At one point of time, only one type of activity goes on everywhere. As the use is singular, only one category of people uses the site and their activities also fall into a single pattern. For example, almost everyone comes out of the offices at the same time, the bars and pubs get alive only for a few after office hours, most of the site is absolutely deserted during holidays and during night. The north of the site gives more mix of uses thereby increasing the number of people on the street during different time period. The street pattern The streets are very interesting with every corner having a possibility of containing some surprising vibrant space within. Though most of the alleyways are completely deserted and dead during most of the time, they contain the spaces which come alive during evening and after office hours. Though the streets are well preserved and century old, there is no life on the street for a common person. Towards the north of the site, in tower hamlets, there is an existing street market where street life is much more alive and vibrant as compared to the southern side. Distinctively, street life and its vibrancy are related to the activity associated around it. Lack of open space It can be easily said that the site has almost no open spaces within it. Though there are a few open squares, but they are hardly used.

Photograph by Mamata Bora

27 Photograph by Mamata Bora

Photograph by Mamata Bora

Life is only at road level The site has a very compact growth with numerous medium rise buildings. It also has interesting narrow alleyways connecting different spaces. But all of this exists only at the ground level. This has been the most dominating impression, as it drove the project forward towards creating different levels of public realm in sky. The towers which look extremely appealing and inviting don’t allow anything to percolate through. Life exists only on one plane and towers act like vertical cul-de-sacs in the city where movement is very much restricted. This formed one of the major goals for the design proposal to take the ground high if the building is going high. An example of unsustainable development “We worked out in the square mile that they were wasting £17 million a year on their energy, that's 200,000 tonnes of C02". £17 million pounds is the same amount of electricity needed to power 105,000 homes for a year.” 1 A huge amount of energy is being used/ wasted in maintaining the high-rises when they are not in use or functional. People commute daily to the offices and commute back at night which is one more reason for being an unsustainable development as far as both environmental and social sustainability is concerned. Built typology and environment The site has built forms from almost all the periods. The streets don’t allow a resting place for the eye and creates and impression as if too many things are happening at the same time at the same place. Many buildings are not maintained well and are at a very poor state. Most of the buildings were redeveloped during last century with façade treatments belonging to the post war modern time.

BBC news : http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/

content/articles/2007/10/09/london_citylights_s12_ Photograph by Mamata Bora

w4_feature.shtml

The study of the site led to setting up of goals for the design proposal. This is where an attempt is made to amalgamate a top down theory to a bottom up process. •

To introduce different uses of space on both hori-

zontally and vertically •

To increase density to 300 people per hectare as

part of future super dense city •

To allow people to live and work and have all nec-

essary amenities for urban living within walking distance •

To change the spatial experience from 2d to 3d

by having multilayered public realm •

To impart permeability into the solid masses with

the help of the public realm •

To introduce green open spaces

•

To maintain the existing street pattern

Case studies A few cases of cities which have intended to have a public realm or connectivity at a level other than that of the traditional ground plane were studied to increase the understanding of the issues involved with such a proposal.

+15 Skyway Calgary, Canada (1970) +15 Skyway network is one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most extensive pedestrian skywalk system with a total length of 16 Km connecting 59 bridges. It is so named because the skywalks are approximately 15 ft above street level. Opening in 1970, the +15 network has expanded to include 59 enclosed bridges connecting dozens of downtown Calgary buildings. The central core of the system is a series of enclosed shopping centres, and the city's flagship departmental stores. New developments were required to connect to the walkway system; in exchange for this, they were offered more floor space. When not physically able to connect to nearby buildings, developers contribute to the "Plus 15 Fund", managed by the city, used to finance other missing connections. It has been identified with a decline in street life in the downtown commercial core. Street life is instead concentrated on streets or in neighbourhoods where there are no bridges. The possibility of limiting expansion has been raised to encourage more pedestrian street traffic. The +15 system bridges are integral with the buildings they serve. They are also a design requirement for new buildings under city planning bylaws. This may change in the future if the city begins to consider relaxing these bylaws. Presently, however, businesses and general public make extensive use of the +15 system - a system that has served to enhance the flow of human traffic. The +15 system has and will likely continue to provide both economic and climatic benefits now and in the future.1

Wikipedia : http://www.wikipedia/skywalks/+15 skyway/

30 source : wikipedia

Central mid level escalators, Hong Kong (1987) Hong Kong Island is dominated by steep, hilly terrain, which makes it the home of some rather unusual methods of transport up and down the slopes. Since it was officially opened to the public on 15 October 1993, the mid level escalators have played a very important role in transport in Western District. It links Des Voeux Road in Central with Conduit Road in the Mid-levels, passing through narrow streets. The escalators are 800 meters long with a vertical climb of 135 meters. It consists of twenty escalators and three moving sidewalks and daily runs downhill from 6:00am to 10:00am and uphill from 10:30am to midnight. The daily traffic exceeds 55,000 people, although originally forecasted 27,000. The total travel time is twenty minutes, but most people walk while the escalators move, to shorten their trip. Due to the geographical situation, the same distance is equivalent to several miles of zigzagging roads if travelled by car. Apart from serving as a method of transporting, it is also a tourist attraction and has restaurants, bars, and shops lining its route. There is an entrance and exit on each road it passes, often on both sides of the road. The proposal of the project began in November 1987, when the Government faced the problem of increasing vehicular traffic of mid-levels. Since the escalator system opened, most pedestrians gather at the elevated level whereas previously they gathered at the street level. This has opened up large tracts of intermediate levels above ("SoHo") and below ("NoHo") Hollywood Road, to pedestrians and commerce. Many restaurants have opened around all the elevated level, in the first or second floors of buildings already present.1

Wikipedia : http://www.wikipedia/ midlevel escalators

source : wikipedia

PATH, Toronto (1960)

PATH is downtown Toronto's underground walkway linking 27 kilometres of shopping, services and entertainment spaces. The system facilitates pedestrian linkages to public transit, accommodating more than 100,000 daily commuters, and thousands of additional tourists and residents on route to sports and cultural events. Its underground location provides pedestrians with a safe haven from the winter cold and snow, and the summer heat. PATH provides an important contribution to the economic viability of the city's downtown core. The approximate 1,200 shops and services, such as photocopy shops and shoe repairs, found in PATH, employ about 5,000 people. More than 50 buildings/office towers are connected through PATH. Twenty parking garages, five subway stations, two major department stores, six major hotels, and a railway terminal are also accessible through PATH. There are more than 125 grade level access points and 60 decision points where a pedestrian has to decide between turning left or right, or continuing straight on. The average size of a connecting link is 20 metres (66 ft.) long by 6 metres (20 ft.) wide. PATH does not follow the grid patterns of the streets above. In the early 1990s, signage for PATH was developed to provide pedestrians with better ease of use and functionality. The signage enhances PATH's visibility and identity, ultimately increasing its use, attracting more people to downtown Toronto, and drawing more businesses there. The City co-ordinates and facilitates the directional signage, maps and identity markers throughout the system. Each segment of the walkway system is owned and controlled by the owner of the property through which it runs. There are about 35 corporations involved in running PATH.1

Wikipedia : www.toronto/ca/path

City of London Walkway (1960) A thirty mile long pedestrian walkway was planned for the city of London during 1960’s as a realisation of the modernist dream to have vertically segregated pedestrian circulation routes. An experiment with high-level pedestrian walkways was carried out within London's central business district, the Square Mile. Though much walkway has been built, little was ever joined up and most remains unused. For the part that was implemented, the walkway experiment is considered as a failed experiment by the city council and LLC for various reasons – • There were no clear legal arrangements to make the police sure of their involvement on the upper level areas. • The fire brigade was concerned whether their equipment was satisfactory for the walkways. • There were concerns regarding the maintenance cost of the walkways and their reimbursement cost to the developer as per 1967 act. • The walkways were mostly deserted because most of them didn’t lead anywhere and even if they did, pretty obviously pedestrians preferred an alternate available street level connection. • There were no mechanical systems like lifts or escalators for people to move up or down. • The conservation act of 1974 made it more difficult for buildings to be connected. • The upper level failed attract services, front entrances and shops as they were built with minimum standards of size and finish by the builders. • As there were no direct routes, they were virtually abandoned and provided no relief to the traffic below.1

Wikipedia : http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t782043358

Source: www.informaworld.com

Inferences The case studies were analysed with a framework – • The vision which led to their construction 1. +15 Skyway in Calgary was intended to connect commercial spaces in the cities existing towers and new towers were required to connect to the existing network. 2. The Mid level escalators in Hong Kong had the functional vision to connect two different geographical levels to shorten car journey of several miles to only 20 minutes mechanical travel up. 3. PATH in Toronto was intended to connect all the basements of towers and form an underground shopping mall and also provide straight routes for people to use underground. 4. Skyways of London had a modernist vision of segregating vehicular and pedestrian traffic into two different planes thereby segregating two modes of transport. • Linking and destination 1. +15 Skyway connects commercial development in towers. 2. Mid Level escalators connects two different levels and has influenced commercial development alongside. 3. PATH is a complete underground connection system between various stores, hotels, public transport hubs and 2100 shops with different activities. 4. It wasn’t clear in Skyways of London what destinations they were connecting. It was more for the use of people in the offices than customers of a commercial development. • Authority and ownership 1. For +15 skyway, new developments are allowed benefits of extra floor space for connecting to the skyway and when physically unable to connect developers would have to contribute to the +15 fund managed by the city used to finance other missing connections. 2. Mid level escalators are planned and maintained by the government but has been constantly criticised as being “white elephant” in terms of cost. 3. In case of PATH, the owners of the property above control each section. Though the development was partly supported by authorities before, it was stopped later. 4. For the Skyways in London there was not clear attraction for the developers. They were rather required to put the skyway and it was considered as a waste of valuable space. • Advantages and disadvantages 1. +15 skyway is used by people as they link 111 buildings and provide protection in harsh climate of winter. But they are considered to be the reason behind the reduced street life on ground level. 2. Mid level escalators provide a faster and comfortable link as an alternative to a long and time taking car journey. The disadvantage is that it is still considered to be crowded and the road traffic which it was intended to reduce hasn’t been much affected. 3. PATH provides a very lucrative space for investors as this is considered as an underground shopping mall. It also gives straight routes to paths which are longer on the ground plane. Another advantage is again the protection from harsh winter weather. 4. London skyway was never fully realised and its development was always contradicted by change in laws and authorities. It provided an extra plane for movement which wasn’t lucrative enough.

The proposals for +15, Path or escalators in Hong Kong could be considered partly successful as compared to the skyways of London which is considered to be a disaster. If we see the significant issues behind failure and success of another plane of public realm they could be â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Destination For the use of any route, especially if it is an alternative to another one, it should provide a clear destination which is easy to navigate to. It should also have clear advantages over the alternate routes it is trying to substitute. Straight link The alternative route should be easier to take - meaning either it has to be straighter or mechanically equipped. Legal issues The management of such spaces play another significant role. The legislation should be clear for developers, investors, tenets or the user/ public to make sure no legal hassles are involved wherever maintenance, security ownership etc are concerned. Benefits for investors The provision of public space in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s private property should have economic advantages for the investors. Otherwise the spaces are not treated as a part of the project and are dealt with minimum possible care thereby degrading the quality of space and finally getting abandoned by prospective users. 35

Proposal The proposal is a result of a methodical approach to the goal which is been set. It is been followed up step by step with identified priorities and pre set goals to achieve for the desired environment. Two different issues have been identified to be focused on to drive the project forward Landuse Height

Land use The site is predominantly commercial with very few residential estates in tower hamlets. Only way to get to the site and use that land is by travelling from any other part of the city. The closeness and compactness of the businesses make it more economically lucrative place for more investment in office spaces thereby making it a concentrated centre full of offices. The advantage of this set up is obviously the nearness of businesses but the disadvantages are far more than them. Firstly it is highly unsustainable to have a zone completely dedicated to official use where all infrastructures is used only to support one social strata of people, during a particular period of the day thereby creating concentrated demands for power and also creating pressure on the public transport system. Moreover due to singular uses of the space, it develops a time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; use imbalance; meaning, during holidays and evenings/nights, the whole area become a ghost centre where again energy is invested to maintain safety and security in the area. There are two diagrams which explain the existing condition and the desired distribution of land use. In the desire diagram, for simplicity of discussion, life is divided very simply into four major activity zones requiring four different types of spaces â&#x20AC;&#x201C; living space, working space, entertainment/recreation/social space, maintenance/amenities space. Residences Mixed use

Commercial

Retail

Residences

Amenities Offices Offices

Roads Open space

Amenities

Roads

Built space

Open space

The calculations for the requirement of built-up space are Site area = 0.5 Sq Km = 50 Hectares = 500000 Sq M Projected residential population density = 300 persons per hectare Population on site = 15000 Assumed average household size = 2 Total house holds = 7500 Average area per unit = 150 Sq M Total housing requirement = 1125000 Sq M, which is approximately double the area of the site. [This calculation is done on the basis of few assumptions and desires – A desire to increase the density to achieve a hyper dense environment on site to follow the strategy A desire to provide more space per household – 150 Sq M – on average [An assumption is considered that most of the population living on the site would still be majorly working middle aged or single people. Therefore average household size is assumed to be 2] And these calculations lead us to, one of the goals of the project which is to mix land uses in site and introduce all other land uses required to live an urban environment. So if we follow the site built-up requirement strictly volume wise, we would require 2 layers each for each of the major activity zone identified.

LAYERING OF LAND USES ON SITE Secondly if we add height to the area, the site would be 8 storied high flat covered. As one of the criterions is to preserve the street pattern in the site, theoretically, it is been imprinted onto the layers. 37

STREET PATTERN ON SITE

IMPRINTED STREET PATTERN ON VOLUME

A criterion is decided again on the basis of accessibility that there would be more public activities where there is more accessibility which would reduce with the reduction of accessibility level. This again drives the land use distribution through and by pulling and pushing the planes of land uses, a more dynamic and flexible form is achieved.

Height On a different plane, the existing plot boundaries are theoretically extruded to create the massing guideline for the site on the basis of accessibility. Depending upon the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s accessibility level the heights four different height zones are created. This leads us to a form of a place of hills and valleys.

MONUMENT

BANK

FENCHURCH STREET LIVERPOOL STREET

ALDGATE ALDGATE EAST

HEIGHT AS PER ACCESSIBILITY

The forms are trimmed down to practical building shapes and a model of towers and low rise buildings is generated. The towers grow along the traffic corridor as per the initial strategy whereas the inner core of the site remains fairly low.

The highest towers are 400 m which is very low as compared to the present development. London is a low city and this has been decided to keeping in mind the integration of the new towers with the existing fabric. It is believed that putting a 1000m tall tower in Bishopsgate even after 50 years might make it a singular entity rather than a part of a whole.

MASTERPLAN SHOWING THE TOWERS ZONE The design of each individual tower is left to architects

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC ZONE TOWER ZONE

PLAN SHOWING CIRCULATION ON GROUND

Another filter of view corridors is added to the mass. Being very close the St. Pauls cathedral, the site is influenced by a number of viewing planes and forms the background at many view points. Calculations are done to reduce the height of the towers wherever required.

Mixing, Connectivity and the Circulation system for a continuous public realm “The desire is to make the space in air available for people and the attempt is to make them go up there.”

PRIMARY CIRCULATION SYSTEM - HORIZONTAL PRIMARY CIRCULATION SYSTEM - VERTICAL SECONDARY CIRCULATION SYSTEM - VERTICAL SECONDARY CIRCULATION SYSTEM - HORIZONTAL PRIMARY PUBLIC REALM SECONDARY PUBLIC REALM

The new development has public infrastructure to support vertical movement. There are two levels in the sky where new buildings would require to connect to adjacent buildings. These levels would be directly accessible from ground by public lifts located at 250 meters or at strategic locations (eg - where there is a major tube station or roads junction). These lifts would function like buses to take people up and down at intervals. Every building will have express lifts as well connecting these 3 levels (including ground) which will operate as per demand.

LOCATIONS OF VERTICAL TRANSPORT NODES

CIRCULATION DIAGRAM

For skyscrapers usually the towers are divided in 20 floors groups with fire zoning and lift separation. Taking 4m typical floor height, two levels of connection are provided at 80 m and 240 m height respectively. The upper 2 levels would act as green spaces with retail, entertainment activities and form a part of major public realm, unlike ground level which would be mostly hard-scaped due to lack of space and to maintain the quality which is presently existing on site.

GREENSCAPE The major two levels at 80 m and 240 m are parks and a part of the primary circulation system around which commercial areas would be encouraged to be placed. Residential and official use would be scattered throughout the building in order to promote different typologies. It is left for the decision of individual designers to decide locations of different activities and the ways to take the best benefit of the connections.

LAND USE REQUIREMENT

The land use requirement is decided as â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 20% for each (residential, commercial- (retail, entertainment), public- (infrastructure, services, amenities), commercial - (offices, light industries) with 20% floor space for green spaces. They can be parks, gardens etc depending upon individual designer. Developers would have to provide the connections and then they can earn incentives on putting more commercial uses.

LAND USE DISTRIBUTION

MASTERPLAN SHOWING CONNECTIONS @ 80M LEVEL

MASTERPLAN SHOWING CONNECTIONS @ 240M LEVEL

Creating land in sky Individuality and mutation One of the current crises in urban design is in the concerted effort to reconcile constant change and diversification one the one hand with a sense of order and predictability on the other. design of the towers could provide open or half determined structures in the three dimensional matrix which the user would finish. Design could encourage a greater level of intervention by the users and inhabitants. The strategy might be to provide structural supports in the high rise built form on which the user could build allowing for near infinite growth and change in vertical direction. This issue is directly related to the issue of ownership. We did find out the change of urban fabric in the site throughout the past century which is again related to ownership of property. One would like to argue that by allowing land to be created in sky, the ownership of the volumes can be fragmented and thus individual freedom and choice for the inhabitants can also be achieved.

MUTATION DUE TO CONNECTIVITY

MUTATION DUE TO DAY LIGHT

The strategy is to provide the connections and control the provision of public amenities in the skyscrapers. For example, the provision of neighbourhood shops and other local public amenities in open spaces and public atriums etc near housing within the skyscraper can be promoted. Thus it is hoped that there will be growth of public activities along side these spaces and the land use will get more and more mixed with the passage of time. The land use diagram is an attempt to show how it could be distributed throughout the tower to make more public places inside a skyscraper. The growth diagrams show how in future land uses would get modified as a result of user interventions and would allow the city to mutate in vertical direction as well. The section shows the spaces in the towers and explains how different activities can function together in a vertical environment.

SECTION

Conclusions “The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.” -Alfred North Whitehead. The initial attempt of this project was to dream about a future in the form of a utopia. An understanding has been developed that a city acts like a living organism constantly changing and adapting; sometimes developing and sometimes deteriorating. In such a dynamic situation, future of a city becomes a platform of infinite opportunity and is hard to predict. Also, a fiction for a city has to be as unique as its form which is developed organically as a response to the requirement of time and context. For example, Rio’s crime, Hong Kong’s high density, New York’s height, Tokyo’s intensity, Mumbai’s slum or London’s maze – all have their very individual characteristics to form the plot of a fiction with their essence.

While considering Londonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future and a radical change, this proposal focuses on the fact that London could be a city of skyscrapers and attempts to answer urban questions raised by it through the process. It is not because London needs skyscrapers, but because they can be an alternative to horizontal sprawl, low density, daily commute and many other urban issues that the city is facing. It can also be argued that the example of skyscrapers and megacity visions set by the trend of modernism needs to change. Due to the complexity involved in designing/managing and maintaining, skyscrapers have become the neglected baby of the family of forms. This change can be achieved by changing the way skyscrapers are designed and by changing the ownership of spaces inside them which would also allow greater variations of change and mutation by emphasizing individuality of ownership in a three dimensional matrix.

References Bibliography Richard, Ivor (2001) T.R. Hamzah & Yeang : Ecology of the sky, Australia, Image Publishing Group Yeang, Ken (2002) Reinventing the Skyscraper â&#x20AC;&#x201C; A vertical Theory of Urban Design, England, Wiley Academy Rogers, Richard & Gumuchdjian, Philip. (1997) Cities for a small planet, London: Faber & Faber Koolhaas, Rem et al. (2000) Mutations, Bordeau: ACTAR Maas, Winny. (2003) Five minutes city, Episode publishers Wachs, Martin, Crawford, Margaret (1992) The Car and the city : the automobile, the built environment, and daily urban life, University of Michigan Press Sassen Saskia (1991) The Global City, Newyork, London, Tokyo, New Jersey, Princeton University Press Hough, Michael. (2001) City form and natural process, London & Sydney: Croom Helm Lynch, Kevin. (1960) Image of the city, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Jenks, Mike, Dempsey, Mike. (2005) Future forms and design for sustainable cities, Oxford: ELSEVIER, Architectural Press Moughtin, Cliff. (1996) Urban design - green dimension, Bath: The bath press Hebbert, Micheal (1993) The City of London Walkway Experiment, London, Routledge

Presentations Wirz, Hans

(2009) New Tendencies (2009) Public Transport

Web Links www.skyscrapercity.com www.informaworld.com www.toronto.ca/path www.news.bbc.co.uk www.wikkipedia.org www.entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts www.london.gov.uk 60

Filmography Ridley, Scott. Lang, Fritz. Spielberg, Steven. Besson, Luc. Meirelles, Fernando. Boyle, Danny. Wimmer, Kurt. Wachowski, Andy, Wachowski, Larry. Spielberg, Steven. Niccol, Andrew. Wells, Simon.

(1982) Blade Runner (1927) Metropolis (2001) Artificial Intelligence (1997) The Fifth Element (2008) Blindness (2002) 28 Days Later (2002) Equilibrium (2002) The Matrix (2002) Minority Report (1997) Gattaca (2002) The Time Machine