Tom de Grunwald

I love the Utopian vision of architects down the ages: somehow, architects can sometimes engage with the Big Questions (the economic, interpersonal, intimate and spiritual dimensions of our lives) with all the ‘can-do’ of the dreamer, and none of the world-weariness or cynicism of the politician. This is not to say that all their ideas are practical, or that Utopias can or will be built, but it cannot be denied that great minds must propose answers for such important issues.

By no means unique, but nevertheless compelling in its sheer audacity is Popularchitecture’s Supertower

The idea is to use a miniscule portion of London’s land to build a huge, hollow, multifunction tower, with spaces to let in air and light and reaching almost a mile into the air. This old meme, despite all the critiques of ultra-ism, phallocentricity, and modernist ugliness, is worth re-iterating. The UK, and London in particular could benefit from high density integrated design, which, if properly realised, could potentially learn from some of the failures of post-WWII urban planning.

I love the completely mad way that in this image, the tower looms over the traditional-density residential London we all know and love (don’t we?). With a wry gesture, one of the firm’s mock-ups (above) provocatively places the tower next to St Paul’s Cathedral, that historic bane of modern architects for its far reaching planning restrictions and the effect they have had on London’s development. One of my regrets for London is that the visionary architect Mies Van der Rohe, the 20th century poet of the scyscraper, never got to build one of his template curtain wall towers here. Even if he was tied in his outlook to the ultra-modernity which he was instrumental in creating, the fact that his project was killed off by the Prince of Wales and his monarchic, neo-traditional mindset never sat well with me. At least the drought of tall and forward looking buildings in the centre of London has now been broken, if only by the wonderfully iconic Gherkin

From their website, the diagram below make a strong argument for building upwards.

I don’t believe that interventions like this should always, necessarily, be built; but I do enjoy the debate they can kick off, and more importantly the imagination they spark.

London is a fantastic place, but increasingly, housing has recently been available only in the margins, for the majority of people I know. Schemes such as this would bring thousands of people right into the heart of the city.

Well, you can dream.