Category: london

Having a lunch at Duck and Waffle, Heron Tower in London

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Looking at Heron Tower on the street (The image is taken by Networking City)


Some days ago, I went to Heron Tower near Liverpool Street Station in London.
This 46 floors and 230meter remarkable high rise building,
which is designed by KPF with structure design by Arup, was built in 2011.
Duck & Waffle restaurant is located on the 40th floor of the building.

Looking down toward Liverpool Street (The image is taken by Networking City)

The bar on the 40th floor of Heron tower (The image is taken by Networking City)

The interior of Duck & Waffle (The image is taken by Networking City)

The ‘Duck & Waffle’ at Duck & Waffle (The image is taken by Networking City)


My friend recommended this place because I can see an incredible cityscape of London, although the menu is pricey.
Not only the beautiful scenery of London but unusual food, which is crispy fried duck and fried-egg covered a waffle with maple syrup, are there.
The interior design of the restaurant is not looking good as much as some photos on their website.
It feels like rather refined, but some materials such as yellow wave ceiling do not make a nice combination altogether.  

However, looking down 30 St Mary Axe (or Gherkin) designed by Foster and 122 Leadenhall Street (or Cheese Grater) by Rogers just beside them was a strange and exciting experience. It gives a reason to go there.

Looking at 30 St Mary Axe and 122 Leadenhall Street (The image is taken by Networking City)

I recorded a film image in a high-speed elevator of Heron Tower.
The feeling of coming down from the 40th floor to ground level by the elevator is similar to that of dreaming flying dim London air but immediately returning to desert reality.

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2013, Cityscape, Herontower, highrise, KPF, london

Having a lunch at Duck and Waffle, Heron Tower in London

Posted on by

Looking at Heron Tower on the street (The image is taken by Networking City)


Some days ago, I went to Heron Tower near Liverpool Street Station in London.
This 46 floors and 230meter remarkable high rise building,
which is designed by KPF with structure design by Arup, was built in 2011.
Duck & Waffle restaurant is located on the 40th floor of the building.

Looking down toward Liverpool Street (The image is taken by Networking City)

The bar on the 40th floor of Heron tower (The image is taken by Networking City)

The interior of Duck & Waffle (The image is taken by Networking City)

The ‘Duck & Waffle’ at Duck & Waffle (The image is taken by Networking City)


My friend recommended this place because I can see an incredible cityscape of London, although the menu is pricey.
Not only the beautiful scenery of London but unusual food, which is crispy fried duck and fried-egg covered a waffle with maple syrup, are there.
The interior design of the restaurant is not looking good as much as some photos on their website.
It feels like rather refined, but some materials such as yellow wave ceiling do not make a nice combination altogether.  

However, looking down 30 St Mary Axe (or Gherkin) designed by Foster and 122 Leadenhall Street (or Cheese Grater) by Rogers just beside them was a strange and exciting experience. It gives a reason to go there.

Looking at 30 St Mary Axe and 122 Leadenhall Street (The image is taken by Networking City)

I recorded a film image in a high-speed elevator of Heron Tower.
The feeling of coming down from the 40th floor to ground level by the elevator is similar to that of dreaming flying dim London air but immediately returning to desert reality.

Continue reading »
2013, Cityscape, Herontower, highrise, KPF, london

BSP Seminar – Compact cities or garden suburbs?

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Dr. Nicolas Falk presented for Bartlett School of Planning. Image is taken by Networking City
In this year, Bartlett School of Planning run BSP seminar series over the semesters. On 6 March 2013, Dr. Nicolas Falk, Director of URBED (Urbanism Environment Design), provided a presentation the title of “Compact cities or garden suburbs?” at Central House of UCL.
Because I was bit late, I could not watch all his presentation. He suggested simple but well-summarised planning keywords and showed relevant examples over the European cities. For example, he argued there are five key elements to reach Smart Growth. The five keys can be represented as 5C: community, connectivity, character, climate and collaboration. And he mentioned the meaning of the community with examples such as  ‘Schools as community hub with Houton, NL’ and ‘Places for all ages with Reiselfeld, Freiburg, Germany’.
Connected city, Five finger strategy and Redefining Greenbelt were mentioned as the future direction for smart growth in the UK as the conclusion of the lecture. In particular, he had expressed the negative feeling against current Greenbelt policy. According to him, the greenbelt of London is little bit old-fashioned and the greenbelt has been a strong obstacle to expand development areas and connecting between London and other cities. Although he said Redefining Greenbelt as one issue of the future direction, all three items should be accompanied with the reorganisation of London’s greenbelt. 
During his lecture, some questions were emerging by myself. Is really Green belt the obstruction of smart growth? Is there smart growth? If possible, how are different process and method needed compared to typical urban development? How can it work in high density?
I think there are two reasons why the questions were come up.
In the first, he emphasised the term of ‘smart’ and ‘smarter’ several times in his lecture. However, the term, smart, has been considering with the development of technology in our built-environment while his suggestions and examples were more familiar with sustainable urban planning and design.
Secondly, the key issues what he argued are too abstract and vague. We know community, connectivity, character, climate and collaboration are crucial factors. People might want to listen from him how we can achieve those factors, what kind of process, the roles of stakeholders and so on.

One of his lecutre slide. Image is taken by Networking City
There are good materials of urban design, field research and regional study on the homepage of URBED. They have run urban design and architectural design studios at University of Sheffield, so we can find the links of interesting students’ works. Also, they published ‘Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood’ in 2010 what includes some contents of today’s lecture.
 
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london, seminar, urban design, urban planning, URBED

BSP Seminar – Compact cities or garden suburbs?

Posted on by

Dr. Nicolas Falk presented for Bartlett School of Planning. Image is taken by Networking City
In this year, Bartlett School of Planning run BSP seminar series over the semesters. On 6 March 2013, Dr. Nicolas Falk, Director of URBED (Urbanism Environment Design), provided a presentation the title of “Compact cities or garden suburbs?” at Central House of UCL.
Because I was bit late, I could not watch all his presentation. He suggested simple but well-summarised planning keywords and showed relevant examples over the European cities. For example, he argued there are five key elements to reach Smart Growth. The five keys can be represented as 5C: community, connectivity, character, climate and collaboration. And he mentioned the meaning of the community with examples such as  ‘Schools as community hub with Houton, NL’ and ‘Places for all ages with Reiselfeld, Freiburg, Germany’.
Connected city, Five finger strategy and Redefining Greenbelt were mentioned as the future direction for smart growth in the UK as the conclusion of the lecture. In particular, he had expressed the negative feeling against current Greenbelt policy. According to him, the greenbelt of London is little bit old-fashioned and the greenbelt has been a strong obstacle to expand development areas and connecting between London and other cities. Although he said Redefining Greenbelt as one issue of the future direction, all three items should be accompanied with the reorganisation of London’s greenbelt. 
During his lecture, some questions were emerging by myself. Is really Green belt the obstruction of smart growth? Is there smart growth? If possible, how are different process and method needed compared to typical urban development? How can it work in high density?
I think there are two reasons why the questions were come up.
In the first, he emphasised the term of ‘smart’ and ‘smarter’ several times in his lecture. However, the term, smart, has been considering with the development of technology in our built-environment while his suggestions and examples were more familiar with sustainable urban planning and design.
Secondly, the key issues what he argued are too abstract and vague. We know community, connectivity, character, climate and collaboration are crucial factors. People might want to listen from him how we can achieve those factors, what kind of process, the roles of stakeholders and so on.

One of his lecutre slide. Image is taken by Networking City
There are good materials of urban design, field research and regional study on the homepage of URBED. They have run urban design and architectural design studios at University of Sheffield, so we can find the links of interesting students’ works. Also, they published ‘Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood’ in 2010 what includes some contents of today’s lecture.
 
Continue reading »
london, seminar, urban design, urban planning, URBED

World City Living and Working Densities: Poles Apart?

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One of the most recognisable visualisation techniques used by LSE Cities in the Urban Age publications is the 3D density map- an intuitive and engaging way to represent built form, and enable comparison of very different city environments across the globe. I’ve been producing 3D density maps in my own research for around five years … Continue reading →

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agglomeration, density, global cities, Hong Kong, london, LSE Cities, New York, visualisation

Urban Age Electric City Conference

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I recently began a new job at LSE Cities and have been working for the last month on materials for the Electric City conference in London, taking place on the 6th and 7th December this week. The conference will be exploring smart cities and disruptive urban tech from a sociological slant, and includes talks from … Continue reading →

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Conference, global cities, london, LSE Cities, Smart Cities, sustainability

Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects – Alternative way to consider the future of our school

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Image is taken from Zaha Hadid Architects / The main entrance of Evelyn Grace Academy

Last September, during Open City event in London, Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton was included in the list of the event and it was a nice opportunity to visit recent Zaha’s work. Hundreds of people came to the school and agreed it is an unusual architecture and special experience. After the visiting, it was thought that writing an article about Evelyn Grace Academy would be worth to understand new trend of education buildings in UK and Zaha’s approach for the type of architecture. Therefore, when Korean Institute of Educational Facilities asked to contribute an article about recent UK education building, it was easy to decide topic of the article.

Through the article, there are three main arguments to look deeply at Evelyn Grace Academy. Firstly, from the point of urban policy, this building should be understood as a flagship project in a devastated urban area and as an education led urban regeneration. ARK Schools, an education charity and the founder of the school, believes that education is an important method to cut the cycle of poverty. This charity supports to increase education quality in impoverished areas and has set up 11 schools in UK. Evelyn Grace Academy has been planned for not only a stunning shape of architecture in old affordable housing areas but also finding a possibility to overcome poverty and inequality in Brixton that had no secondary school.
 
 

 

















Image by Networking City / Social housing in Brixton



Secondly, as considering the internal relationships, this school needs to be examined as a small society, furthermore, as a city. Although school (especially university) generally has been understood as a city because lots of students and staffs stay in, Evelyn Grace Academy which has four schools in the building is much more complex and complicate than other schools. Definitely, there should be more delicate considerations to make discreet management system and adequate collaboration between the schools from the early stage of the building design. As a result of the considerations, the corridors of this building, wider than normal school corridors, play a role like streets in small town by variation of visual effects, diverse volumes of internal space and good connection with internal and external space, and it leads more social activities of students.

 


















Image by Networking City / Inside corridor of Evelyn Grace Academy

 


 

 
















Image by Networking City / Spatial Experience in Evelyn Grace Academy



 

 

Lastly, Evelyn Grace Academy is a good example to show how architects fight against the common ideas of ‘school’, one of the most quantificational and standardized architectural type, within limited budget and area with keeping their design ideas and its final quality. There are many regulations and basic standards for the school building like suitable class size, noise and so on. The architects had have to consider how dynamic form and space make a cool relationship with standardized room size, basic class unit and needed clear functionality. Z shape of Evelyn Grace Academy, which is very unusual among school projects, was suggested for complex programs and effective using the site rather than Zaha’s design tendency. (Interview with Lars Teichmann, Project Architect) Architects generally do not want to make Z shape because it is hard to solve functional problems in the plan even though it is a private house. But in this project, Z shape of the building makes a clear distinctive point in contrast to other school projects and the herald symbol showing the change of the most deprived area in the UK.

 

 

 











Image is taken from Zaha Hadid Architects / Site circulation and Composition


Some people have a cynical view for Zaha’s works. I was one of them.

However, after visiting Evelyn Grace Academy, when her project is seen on website or magazine, the project attracts me more than before.




Continue reading »
architecture, ARK, Brixton, Evelyn Grace Academy, london, school, Zaha Hadid Architects

Evelyn Grace Academy by Zaha Hadid Architects – Alternative way to consider the future of our school

Posted on by

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image is taken from Zaha Hadid Architects / The main entrance of Evelyn Grace Academy

Last September, during Open City event in London, Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton was included in the list of the event and it was a nice opportunity to visit recent Zaha’s work. Hundreds of people came to the school and agreed it is an unusual architecture and special experience. After the visiting, it was thought that writing an article about Evelyn Grace Academy would be worth to understand new trend of education buildings in UK and Zaha’s approach for the type of architecture. Therefore, when Korean Institute of Educational Facilities asked to contribute an article about recent UK education building, it was easy to decide topic of the article.

Through the article, there are three main arguments to look deeply at Evelyn Grace Academy. Firstly, from the point of urban policy, this building should be understood as a flagship project in a devastated urban area and as an education led urban regeneration. ARK Schools, an education charity and the founder of the school, believes that education is an important method to cut the cycle of poverty. This charity supports to increase education quality in impoverished areas and has set up 11 schools in UK. Evelyn Grace Academy has been planned for not only a stunning shape of architecture in old affordable housing areas but also finding a possibility to overcome poverty and inequality in Brixton that had no secondary school.
 
 

 

















Image by Networking City / Social housing in Brixton



Secondly, as considering the internal relationships, this school needs to be examined as a small society, furthermore, as a city. Although school (especially university) generally has been understood as a city because lots of students and staffs stay in, Evelyn Grace Academy which has four schools in the building is much more complex and complicate than other schools. Definitely, there should be more delicate considerations to make discreet management system and adequate collaboration between the schools from the early stage of the building design. As a result of the considerations, the corridors of this building, wider than normal school corridors, play a role like streets in small town by variation of visual effects, diverse volumes of internal space and good connection with internal and external space, and it leads more social activities of students.

 


















Image by Networking City / Inside corridor of Evelyn Grace Academy

 


 

 
















Image by Networking City / Spatial Experience in Evelyn Grace Academy



 

 

Lastly, Evelyn Grace Academy is a good example to show how architects fight against the common ideas of ‘school’, one of the most quantificational and standardized architectural type, within limited budget and area with keeping their design ideas and its final quality. There are many regulations and basic standards for the school building like suitable class size, noise and so on. The architects had have to consider how dynamic form and space make a cool relationship with standardized room size, basic class unit and needed clear functionality. Z shape of Evelyn Grace Academy, which is very unusual among school projects, was suggested for complex programs and effective using the site rather than Zaha’s design tendency. (Interview with Lars Teichmann, Project Architect) Architects generally do not want to make Z shape because it is hard to solve functional problems in the plan even though it is a private house. But in this project, Z shape of the building makes a clear distinctive point in contrast to other school projects and the herald symbol showing the change of the most deprived area in the UK.

 

 

 











Image is taken from Zaha Hadid Architects / Site circulation and Composition


Some people have a cynical view for Zaha’s works. I was one of them.

However, after visiting Evelyn Grace Academy, when her project is seen on website or magazine, the project attracts me more than before.




Continue reading »
architecture, ARK, Brixton, Evelyn Grace Academy, london, school, Zaha Hadid Architects

A Tale of Tech City: the future of Inner East London’s Digital Economy

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Earlier this month Demos published a fascinating report on the hot topic of London’s “Tech City” cluster, which has been promoted by the government as a key growth pole for the UK. The report authors Max Nathan, Emma Vandore and Rob Whitehead, put the Inner East London cluster in the context of similar phenomena in … Continue reading »

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agglomeration, business geography, london, policy, Tech City

2007 fps – A London Conversation for the BFI SouthBank

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The 37 minute film below by D-Fuse and Illustrious Company has been commissioned to make a new immersive visual and sound installation, to be presented as part of the opening of the revitalised and refurbished National Film Theatre, BFI Southbank. Designed as a large scale piece of public art, the work will be projected onto […]

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2007fps, BFI, D-Fuse, Illustrious Company, london, London Calling Programme, Southbank

Mapping City Flows as Blood

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Blood is everywhere when it comes to describing cities. We have arterial roads, pulsing transport flows, and cities with different metabolisms. Thanks to great new datasets and visualisation software the analogy of cities with pulsing flows is being increasingly utilised for explanatory mapping. For example the work of UCL CASA’s Jon Reades above depicts the London Underground network …

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blood, city, flows, london, network, pulse, Transport, visualisation
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