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.

The Steel and brick of the London south bank

@London South bank, Lambeth London

The most obvious, but also the most easy comment about the London south bank that one can give is "fragmented": The entire area can be interpreted as a "layered city":



The waterfront is the first layer. It can be considered as a giant "billboard" with assorted advertisement and ornaments, facing the historical, prosperous city center on the north side. Tourists, or non-residents are usually trapped in the great wall of entertainment and information. There are monumental icons of the entire city such as the London eye, entertaining center such as the Royal Festival Hall, and mixed-use shopping complex such as the OXO Building. For people in the City and the Westminster City, the media wall is somehow, connected to the north bank with the multiple bridges. The first row of buildings are the defensive wall of the city center, segregating the waterfront from the south bank. The Thames River is, to some extends, not separate buildings on the banks, but encouraging the connections between them. Also, it clear the view, provides a visual corridor for the people from each of the banks.

Hidden behind the wall of information and are the region which belongs to large private corporations. This area can be characterized as the "generic", or "grey" area with high level of privacy.

Through the few "slots" between the giant headquarters, people can have a glimpse of the real south bank behind.There is always conflict breaking out on the land of the waterfront of the south bank. The contradictions usually involves the residential housing blocks and financial, giant office buildings. In the past, due to the construction of the Waterloo Station on the south bank, housing projects with moderate and low density were built around the railway station. With the evolution of the London society, currently the territories of residences are gobbled up by trade and marketing business. In traditional residential neighborhoods,

The strange feeling walking on the streets of the south bank. The huge difference in scale between different buildings and programs.

What is the order between the bricks and steel on the south bank? The value of the land? Preservation of the history on the south bank? Architecture or revolution. Should we keep the existing housing project on the south bank?

The Somerset House and the Temple Church

The Temple Church is on my top ten list of the destinations that I must pay a visit during my stay in London. Sure enough, I got the chance to have a glimpse when the professors of the design studio took us on a tour from the Brunswick Center to the North river bank at the beginning of the semester. I was interested in this particular church, oddly enough, due to Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code". The author depicts the Temple Church as the starting point where the modern London City is built from. However, if look at London from the top in the sky, we will discover that the city center (of the North bank) is St. Paul's Cathedral. Also, from the history we can conclude that even before 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London, the two centers of the city have been The Buckingham Palace and St. Paul's in the City: It has never been the Temple. Therefore I'm very curious to find out what is the actual conditions of this mysterious church in the contexts of the present day.

Unlike other major churches in London, the Temple Church is surrounded by parcels of private land that are densely packed with multistory residences and private offices.

Squares in London

I. Paternester square next to St. Paul's Cathedral:

Before the square: 1960s Great London Council project. large office buildings built right next to the ancient church. The modernism thinking: completely ignorance of the context information. In scale, the office complex is nearly as big as the cathedral. Which means the former buildings on the site Formally, it didn't respond to the church. Visually, it decreased St. Paul's impact as the historical icon of the city center.

II. Hidden gardens in the city: Traditional English city gardens before Modernism was introduced. London was consisted of hundreds of small villages. Each has a religious and public gathering spot, like a parish church and the field. e.g Lincoln's Inn Field.

III. Waterfront green belt: south bank walkway: