london eye

Mapping out the London Eye as a product fixed in a local and global production of space, culture, and tourist industry.

Urban Design, 2016

David Mathewson examines the current state of tall buildings in London, their rapidly increasing numbers, as well as the lack of a strategic framework for the placement or clustering of tall buildings in London at the level of the GLA. While this presents the capital with a number of policy challenges, it also provides an opportunity for a Greater London strategy to consider the future of tall buildings and the longterm shape city's skyline, presenting the prospect of improving existing vistas and utilising lessons from other cities, potentially improving the quality of life for city residents.

The skyline of London is composed of historic monuments of national and international importance, punctuated tall buildings built during postwar building booms, particularly since the 1960s. Currently, some of the tallest commercial and residential buildings are under construction and the emerging skyline is intended to reflect London's premier world city status, as a stable global capital that balances finance and culture within an integrated society. Its skyline image has been managed since 2000 by the Mayor of London through the London Plan. This paper will consider the historical, intellectual and policy basis that has permitted – indeed encouraged – the introduction of tall buildings into central London since 2000 by focussing on the design of the Heron Tower, located at the northern edge of the Eastern Cluster of tall buildings in the City of London, and discussions regarding its visual impact on St Paul's Cathedral. Drawings explore the visual impact of the City's tall buildings on a famous view of St Paul's from Waterloo Bridge, and highlight the subjectivity of visual interrelationships experienced locally in the context of the persuasiveness of global finance.

The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies, 2019

London has long played a multifaceted role within the United Kingdom. According to John Eade: From its origins as a port it has faced outwards maintaining trade networks radiating across Continental Europe and further afield. As the capital of an emerging nation-state it faced inwards. Within the capital there was another tension-between the City of London whose mercantile elite looked outwards and tried to maintain its privileges against the Church and a monarchy based not far away at Westminster. An expanding empire further increased these tensions as City of London investments in overseas markets encouraged the development of local industry and business elites who began to compete with British businesses and challenge imperial controls.

Best practices for a great city at eye level, quality of public space and human scale urban development in The Netherlands. This is an addition to the original publication from 2016, The City at Eye Level, Lessons for Street Plinths that has a more international focus.

IABSE Congress, Stockholm 2016: Challenges in Design and Construction of an Innovative and Sustainable Built Environment, 2016

A new landmark bridge is proposed over the river Thames in the centre of London near the Houses of Parliament and the Palace of Westminster. The project was conceived of as “Garden on the Thames”, an exemplary garden with one “gate” on the North Bank and one on the south, and hence doubling up as a footbridge. The bridge will connect Temple Underground Station on the North Bank to the National Theatre on the South Bank.Two piers are formed within the Thames as the predominantly steel structure arches over the river with the outer cantilevers resting lightly on landings on both banks. A novel use of a layer of cupronickel bonded to the steel is used to provide a unique finish and durability to the steelwork. Above this, a garden is planted in soil depths varying from 0,5m to 2m of soil. Pedestrians will be able to enjoy this as they stroll and rest on benches enjoying tranquillity in the heart of the city.

British Art Studies, 2020

In the poem London, he's among people, close enough to read their faces and see what he describes as "Marks of weakness, marks of woe" (Fig. 1). This isn't a faceless multitude, an anonymous crowd. What he notices, what he feels, is individual suffering folded and multiplied.

Architectural Design, 2012

London today has become 'a laboratory and testing ground' for neoliberal capitalism, attracting investment from the Middle East, Russia, India, the Far East and Australasia as well as the US. Murray Fraser describes the urban impact of economic globalisation in the capital, while exploring ways that it might potentially be countered.

Archaeological Report

2014

Brings together short, accessible and engaging opinions from leading practitioners and theorists in the built environment. Looking to both the past and the future, it raises important and often emotive questions about the design and development of our cities with a particular focus on London (ISBN: 978-0-9927950-0-9).