In 2014 I was in Europe for a Light & Build Expo in Frankfurt and decided since not often this far away from home, I should visit London. I really wanted to have a look at the Gherkin and Shard buildings in real life. To my surprise, I stumbled on a number of interesting buildings by internationally acclaimed architects, as I worked around a changing, grey and wet city. I started at the London Centre for the Built Environment, located at the Building Centre at 26 Store Street London. The Building Centre’s exhibition was called New London Architecture, explaining through models, imagery and precinct studies, how a new campaign of densification of the city was being promoted in the city. A major change historically for London, new guide lines would allow tall buildings in key regions of the city to be developed, for the benefit of the community.

“Since the Millennium, London has witnessed the construction of a series of tall buildings that have transformed the city’s skyline – from the Gherkin, which gained planning permission in 2000, through to the Shard, which opened in 2012, to the Leadenhall Building and 20 Fenchurch Street which are completing this year. And there are many more to come in the next few years, a veritable tsunami of towers. 236 buildings are in the pipeline, 113 of which already approved for planning.” Extract from London’s Growing Up – NLA Insight Study, NLA London’s Centre for the Built environment, June 2014.

You can read more about New London Architecture here;

New London Architecture

Below is a a video showing holiday snaps, combined with information on the web about the buildings visited. Thank you to Scott and Claire for your help!;