Farrells designed

the whole September Issue

60 pages

about the future vision for London

20 PROPOSITIONS FOR A BETTER LONDON

London’s Complex Nature

URBAN DESIGN

•  Urban design leads; architecture and town planning

follow.

•  Urban design is primarily scale and territory related.

•  Urban design is a skill.

•  Urban design can be visible or invisible.

•  Urban design is proactive and leads development

control.

•  Urban design can be individual, team or vision led:

there is no leadership rule

PLACE

•  Humans have a sense of place for all places

•  Place can be seen as a culture ‘frozen in time’.

•  What does the place ‘want to be’.

•  Mono-cultural places invariably diversify over

time.

•  Place is always changing

•  In the end nature and global changes will prevail

PLACE AND URBAN DESIGN – Some General Propositions

Make London Understandable - A Mental Map System for London

Mental Map of Greater London including the Thames Estuary

London Underground map Current confusing mapping system New coherent mapping system

Central London – The Big Grid Turning theTube map into an overground map The new Base map Anomalies on the Underground map

Make London Understandable - A Mental Map System for London

Web based tools

Central London cycle routes Major Underground stations Central London communities and places Central London leisure routes

Metropolitan walks Metropolitan walks overlaid on metropolitan open space

Composite layers Metropolitan walks and main bus and train lines

Metropolitan walks and main road

Metropolitan walks and satellite towns

Street Signage

Conventional fold out maps like A to Z

System can be cross-referenced to other detailed maps

Urbanise Motorways - Marylebone Euston Road

Traffic lights favour cars over pedestrians

Sir Terry Farrell’s Doodle (1963)

Parcelation through railway lines

4 Parishes

The New Road, 1799

Traffic Statistics

Re-Think London’s Traffic Junctions

Buchanan Report, 1963

Comparative views looking towards Portland Street Station today and 1960s

Earlier sketches of different options for an abandoned traffic underpass

Six central traffic junctions that could all become ‘a place’

Today Proposed

More Housing in London – Meet London’s housing growth within London

Contrast between Hong Kong’s open space and London’s parkland

Hong Kong’s built-up area and London’s dispersed development

Density of homes built 2001-04 Density of homes granted planning permission 04-05

Life expectancy at brith, males

Borough densities within Greater London Potentials within the London Thames Gateway

Large opportunities for densification within Greater London

Kensington and Chelsea: Notting Hill

Council Estates :Lisson Grove and Church Street

Lost Towns – Rediscover London’s Lost Villages and Towns

1893

1995 1745 1871 1997

1820

2007

1995

1934

Revised road layout with traffic calmed areas to revitalise the town

Redesigned as a town centre linked to surrounding communities

The lost town centre is now a traffic gyratory – rerouted traffic flow gains space for reinstated town centre

The flyover demolished 30% of the green and

the heart of Paddington

New pedestrian crossings,

connections to the Basin and a new green link

which decks over Marylebone Road

Reinvent Nash’s Grand Plan – London’s best urban set piece – ‘Nash Ramblas’

Waterloo Place and Lower Regent Street

New entrance square for London Zoo

Connection across Park Square and Park Crescent

to Portland Street

New squares sizes are still equivalent to Grosvenor Square and Fitzroy Square

Residential uses are the minority

The new Nash Ramblas Today

Aristocracy – The Great Estates

Build on the aristocratic estates’ success in urban planning, continuity and stewardship

Harley Street

Landuse of Howard de Walden Estate

Bloomsbury 10 points masterplan

Byng Place Montague Place

Marylebone High Street

The Fitzrovia Estate – one way sytem, landuse, new north south routes

Put Pedestrians On Top – Eliminate all pedestrian underpasses

Hyde Park Corner Marble Arch Edgware Road

Park Lane

Replace All Pedestrian Underpasses With Surface Crossings

Traffic dominated junctions and real

pedestrian-friendly places

84 principle locations where there are

pedestrian underpasses at traffic junctions and

major roads

Eliminate London’s Hidden Gyratories

The major hidden gyratory systems

Tottenham Court Road – Gower Street

Haymarket / Pall Mall / St Jame’s / Picadilly

84 principle locations where there are

pedestrian underpasses at traffic junctions and

major roads

Create balanced, integrated communities and add more housing to London’s mono-tenancy public estates

Social Housing - Turn The Public Estates Into Vibrant Communities

Public Housing Estates

Private Housing

Norfolk Crescent, 650 hrh

Crawford Street, 1000 hrh Nottingham Place, 800 hrh

Lisson Green E. 402 hrh Church St Estate 427 hrh Paddington Green E. 331 hrh Little Venice E. 480 hrh

higher densities could be easily achieved which could generate 6200 homes

Six new urban village communities turn the area into a diverse and rich environment

Main through routes Wider urban links Permeability

Rediscover Oxford Street as London’s Great High Street

Use the excess capacity of peripheral Underground stations

New emphasis on oases along Oxford Street

Establish parallel routes to ease congestion on Oxford Street

Improve links through squares and create new public realm

Rationalise buses along Oxford Street and in Central London Relocate bus interchanges Improve wayfinding between existing retail destinations

Create connections which promote wayfinding at St. Giles

Eight new principles for the improvement of Oxford Street

South Bank – Consolidate the regeneration of the South Bank

The four character of the Thames

The Globe and Vauxhall Gardens

Historic South Bank with its theatres

The successive urbanisation of the Thames by narrowing and bridge building

The Festival of Britain

The South Bank As London’s Third City Centre

Proposals along the South Bank

The Thames Study, 1991 Hungerford Bridge Study, 1990

Urbanise Docklands – Bridges connect and build communities

Historic settlements along the Thames and the shipping channel

Historic vision of a straight river

Inverted realisation of the vision

The straightening of the Thames over time

Patterns of mud flats and settlements on alternating banks

Deep water channel, built embankment and shallow river bank

Urbanise Docklands – Bridges connect and build communities

Low level bridge which connects communities either side of the river

High level river crossing which connects motorways either side

8 new proposed local bridge connections within the docklands

Different options for low level bridges which would still allow ships to pass

Different bridge heights, their opening times and opening frequency

A New Vision for the Thames Gateway - The Thames Estuary National Park

Four new eco cities within the Thames Estuary Park Chongming eco city island

Reading the landscape – three great estuaries Historic character forms the foundation for the vision

To meet London’s present housing shortage very little outer gateway land is needed

A New Vision for the Thames Gateway - The Thames Estuary National Park

A new kind of national Park A world class landscape for a world city A carbon sink With maximised local food production

To work creatively with nature to deal with the challenges of climate change The best response to economic decline and current travel patterns

Save London for the UK - The Thames Barrier City

A national response to climate change and rising sea level

Renewable energy sources

1. Tidal Power 2. Underwater turbines 3. Offshore wind farms

Underwater Turbines Focus for new industries New habitats to strengthen the area’s biodiversity

New infrastructure to meet challenges of climate change

1. Island reduce peak of tidal surge

2. Barriers raised from sea bed

3. Shipping lanes kept clear

New recreational potential to include: environmental tourism, heritage tourism and enhanced

use of the River Thames

New infrastructure will connect Europe to northern parts of the UK

Politics And Planning

London’s political boundaries do not relate to place or communities

Christopher Wren’s post-fire proposal

The first city: a roman garrison

The real city of London today

Parishes within central London Old (yellow) and new (red) boroughs of London

Major planning areas needing unified holistic approach: compared to Borough boundaries

Typical villages and places within London