London Field Trip Oct 2012

6 October 2012: The Tall Building studio had a day trip to London, visiting key tall buildings.

We usually start the field trips in the London Building Centre where students can get an overall picture of the city, and see where new building clusters (white models) are being added. We can also see the current exhibitions at the centre. We then moved on to Liverpool St station and looked at Exchange House, Broadgate and the Broadgate Tower. We then walked south along Bishopsgate to the Heron Tower.
   Although our sites are in Rotterdam, Abu Dhabi and Singapore, we can't travel to these and back in a day. It is valuable for our students, especially the overseas ones, to see the capital city.

Broadgate Tower, SOM	Broadgate Tower, SOM
Walking south along Bishopsgate, the Heron Tower comes to view.	We are due for a tour of the Heron Tower and Architect Paul S. of KPF is there to show us round.

Until the floors are all let, the Heron Tower has a floor given over to visitors containing models of the building, and providing wonderful views in every direction.

There are parts of the south facade that do not have PV on, and its possible to get some of the best views in London, looking over the Square Mile towards the Thames.

The Gherkin in the foreground left (which we visited for lunch later) , Willis and Leadenhall in the middle ground and the London Bridge Shard in the distance. 

Model demonstrating the 'village' organisation of the floors in the Heron.

The elevator cores are on the South side and the entire core elevation is dappled with PV cells.

There is an amazingly large fish tank in the entrance lobby.

Looking north and downward view of the typical Heron Tower 'village' atrium.	Typical three storey high 'village' atrium. the glass walls surrounding it can be glass, or if a single tenant takes the entire 'village', the glass can be removed, and an open stair installed.
Construction photo of the Leadenhall Tower (Cheesegrater) by Rogers Stirk Harbour. The Ladderframe.	The east elevation of the Leadenhall tower, showing the latticed megaframe of the office spaces and the ladderframe that forms the north corner.
North elevation of the Leadenhall Tower, the main elevator core.	We walked south, across London Bridge to the London Shard. Looking back north, this is Rafael Vinoly's 'Nokia' Tower going up on Fenchurch St.
	We usually finish up in Canary Wharf, the home of the largest cluster of high-rise in London. We took a waterbus from the London Shard to Canary Wharf, a great way to see the city. At CW, it is also important to see the 'Groundscraper', the vast world that lives underground at Canary Wharf  - the shopping centre and the huge interior of Canary Wharf Jubilee Line station.

Field Trip to London Part 3

Some wonderful juxtapositions!

1 Oct '10: We walked down Bishopsgate and admired the Heron Tower, long since topped out and now being fitted out - still higher than all its neighbours, although not for long if the Pinnacle gets going again. Heron has a photovoltaic south facade. The facade has a megastructure that is clearly subdivided into 3 storey intervals that also reflects the interior organisation into 3 storey high 'villages'. On the entrance and Bishopsgate facade there will be a canopy or arcade to protect pedestrians and relate to the scale of the surroundings, but the south facade just comes directly to the ground, and we wondered why they would bother to extend the PV panels to pavement level in almost permanent shade.
   After a brief look at St Helen's Place, one of the most photogenic locations in London, we looked at the work on the Pinnacle which was a large hole in the ground last February, but seems to be rising quite well now. We walked on, for a good circumnavigation of the Swiss Re, standing (as most circular buildings must) in its own plaza.
    Moving on past Lloyds and Willis, and noting that Leadenhall appears to have restarted, we walked on to Threadneedle St and the infamous Bank underground station with its miles of underground passages.
    Still somehow in one large group, we took the Dockland Light railway to Canary Wharf where we rounded off the day - disembarked at Alsop's Heron Quay, and meandered back past Foster's Jubilee Line station to 1 Canada Square. As it was still raining, the braver amongst us took a quick run around Canada Square, while the fainter hearted took a hot drink and a muffin in the underground mall. Finally, a quick dash across the floating bridge over India Water, towards Cannon Workshops where our bus was waiting.

They built a vast urban area, but forgot a church
So here it is, floating in Canary Wharf.