Global Practices in Architecture & Urban Design (Batch-02)

The eastern side of London was traditionally the poorer side of the city - 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.

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.

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.

Historically, the River Thames has divided London into two contrasting areas. Civic London of the Cities of London and Westminster was to the north. The southern side has played a secondary role as a largely industrial and working-class area.
Beginning with the 1951 Festival of Britain, London’s South Bank has been transformed into a waterfront for arts, culture, and visitors. We will examine how this transformation was accomplished and the major architectural landmarks that contributed to this significant urban reinvention.

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 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 has been created in a location previously a ‘void’ in the city.

A century before the 1951 Festival of Britain, the Great Exhibition was held in South Kensington, showcasing Britain’s Industrial Power to the world. An entirely new district of London was set out for the exhibition centred on the Crystal Palace. The area has developed into a district of Museums, Universities and Cultural institutions. We will explore the architecture and urbanism of this extraordinary London quarter.