Global Practices in Architecture & Urban Design

The eastern side of London was traditionally the poorer side—an urban landscape of docks, industry, workers' housing, and communities. For many decades, as London transformed into a largely post-industrial economy, the East End has been transformed. The new financial district of Canary Wharf and the Olympic Games led to the regeneration of the Lea Valley, which is the most striking response to this process of urban change. We will be critically assessing these urban transformations during a series of guided walks and visits.
The themes to be explored will include High-density high-rise London, adapting and interpreting international precedents, event-driven regeneration, the Olympic Games legacy, and post-industrial urbanism.

London is also growing westwards, redeveloping the industrial landscapes of southwest central London. We will explore this vector of urban growth, starting with the restoration of Battersea Power Station, one of London’s greatest industrial icons, and the regeneration of the adjacent lands.
The themes to be explored will include Essential public transport, reinventing an architectural icon, new retail space, 21st-century public / semi-public space design, high-density mid-rise development, iconic overloads, the search for authentic high-rise domestic architecture for London, London’s expanding central area, and repurposing the river Thames.

Having explored the eastern and western urban growth areas, the tour's focus now turns to the City of London, where Roman London was founded in 43 AD. The city is now the economic powerhouse of London and the UK. It is an urban landscape of continuity and change, ancient history and innovation, and architecture from every period of London’s history closely packed together in an ancient streetscape.
The themes to be explored will include the presence of the past, the future of the city, planning and governance, and the workplace of the future.

The 20-year regeneration of 67 acres of the railway sidings and coal yards around Kings Cross and St Pancras Stations is widely regarded as one of the world’s finest urban regeneration projects. The project is a model for transport-related development around high-speed international, national rail and underground services that have gradually been developed around the site since the 1850s. A new mixed-use city district was created in a previously ‘void’ location. Later, we will explore the design and construction of the Elizabeth Line - London’s newest railway.
The themes to be explored will include the origins and development of public transport, creating a system from chaotic beginnings, hyper-connectivity and urbanism, and the challenges and success of building a new railway line through London.

After several days of site visits, today's tour will focus on reflection and discussion about what we have seen. Presentations from several practitioners in London from companies of different scales and various professional disciplines will provide insights into working in London. These meetings will explore professional institutional and practice issues. The tour leaders will advise participants on setting their own individual agendas for the tour's final days.
The day ends with a tour group dinner for relaxation, continuing discussion, and celebration.

Pressure for growth within the City of London has resulted in many new developments around the City boundary. We will visit three of these during this stage of the tour. The Barbican is an example of a post-war utopian vision of city living built on the extensive area of bomb-damaged sites to the north of the city. Broadgate is a 1980s office-led development that pioneered air-rights development over railway land around Liverpool Street Station. Forty years later, the site is again undergoing radical redevelopment and intensification. Spitalfields is an 18th-century Georgian extension of the city and is one of the best-preserved London neighbourhoods from that period.
The themes to be explored will include Modernist utopias, market-driven change, conservation, and preservation.