The Shard,the Cheesegrater, the Walkie Talkie… and there are more towers to come. So how accomplish we judge what’s blight and what’s glowing?Tall buildings in London, and say various forms of official policy on the matter,should be well designed and in the just place. Well I never. Who could possibly disagree with that? Hands up all those who want badly designed skyscrapers in the erroneous places.
Yet, if you survey the hundreds of plans for towers at various stages of planning and construction in London, and it’s hard to find those elusive beings that occupy both or even either quality,projects that are unequivocally Well Designed And In The just Place – let’s call them WDAITRPs. The Walkie Talkie? No on both counts. The St George tower in Vauxhall, and the Strata in Elephant and Castle? Ditto. The Shard? Arguably one but not the other.
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Source: theguardian.com