London Lessons for High Density Cities

London has been one of the world's leading cities for many centuries and has effectively handled the delicate balance between density, financial success, liveability and sustainability (as we've known it thus far).  So, if history teaches us anything, it's likely London will stay that way for some time to come and can teach us a few lessons.


So, when London starts making plans for the next 40 years involving higher densities, greener city centres, economic prosperity and employment vitality, I'm interested to see what is possible.  After all, London has been a pioneer of city innovations like urban transport, congestion zones, electric city cars and bicycle sharing.

That why the exhibition called The Developing City running at The Walbrook Building (a Foster + Partners’ designed building on Cannon Street) from 21 June to 9 September this year is a must see for all high density urbanophiles.   It displays top  architects’ visions of the City of London in 2050 by featuring 40 scale models of recent and proposed schemes in the City.  Plus 3 teams of architects (Gensler with Eric Parry Architects, Happold Consulting, Buro Happold, LSE, Royal College of Art, Siemens and RWDI; Woods Bagot with Brookfield and Hilson Moran; and John Robertson Architects with British Land, Land Securities and Arup) are displaying their ‘Visions for 2050’ in response to various drivers of change, including governance, climate change and banking regulation.


You can find out more about the exhibition here and here.


See you in the old (but soon to be renewed) dart sometime soon.


Francesco ...