The Brunswich Center: The Empty Corridor

A study sketch while surveying a church of Christopher Wren's in the City of London

A perspective sketch from the central foyer of the Barbican Center

World above and below the ground - Canary Wharf

The master plan designed by SOM. turned the deserted wharf to a modern CBD, a second business center of London.

The population difference on the ground floor of Canary Wharf. People work in the offices in the towers. The shopping, catering happen underground. Necessary transportations happen on the ground floor such as the trains and highways. The leftovers space becomes landscapes and plazas. The civic plazas look like islands in the CBD districts, connected by underground walkways.

Site plan of Canary Wharf. (image source: SOM)

From the plan, the entire site is divided into clear rectangular grid. Several distinctive blocks, each with a public garden in the middle. There is no wide street on the site for the reason that the original wharf doesn't have enough area to accommodate circulation and transportation. The other reason is that most movement and activities of the office workers (as well as the residents) are designed to be hidden underground. There is another city underneath the ground floor. Above the ground the predominant program is offices of large, private corporations, on the basement levels almost all the buildings are connected. The entire Canary Wharf can be understood as a large mix use complex, only the first two to three common floors are buried under the ground.

In the past history, London has also gone through similar planning strategies of creating different city trading centers to compete each other. The de-centralization will bring prosperity to a new urban district.

Also, the utilization of the disused industrial zone has always been a popular topic in London as well as other developed European city. From specific industrial building conversion project such as the Tate Modern and the recent housing complex development around the Battersea Power station. The change of program in the regions of city bring about some very interesting phenomena. New programs introduced into the old area will also initiate potential development opportunities for its surrounding neighborhoods. The process of creation and demolition is accompanied in the development of a city.

The neutrality of the original plan and structure means industrial plants has more potential, to adapt diverse public program and social infrastructures in the future. In another word, they are more easily to be converted.