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World’s Longest Tunnel Slide Opening at Sculptural London Monument

30 Apr

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

arcelormittal slide main

Experience monumental sculpture like you never have before with a new 15-story tunnel slide that spirals around London’s ArcelorMittal Orbit monument, set to be the world’s longest. The UK is really pushing its public art to the next level by adding a record breaker to a record breaker, as the sculpture already holds the title of tallest in the nation. The slide wraps around the sculpture 12 times, and it takes forty seconds to get from the very top to the bottom in a trip through the tube.

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Opening to the public on June 24th, 2016, the Carsten Höller-designed slide features both opaque and transparent sections so riders get brief glimpses of the London skyline before plunging back into darkness. A tight corkscrew section snakes its way around the red geometric structure, ending in a straight run to the ground. The slide’s total length is 584 feet.

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London erected the strange and rather controversial ArcelorMittal for the 2012 Summer Olympics, offering panoramic views of the city from its location in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. Tickets for the attraction are already on sale for £15 ($ 22), with a limited number available each day, and you can book more than one ride at a time.

[ By Steph in Destinations & Sights & Travel. ]

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World’s Tallest Wood-Framed Skyscraper Proposed for London

15 Apr

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

wood tower for london

An angular affair of wood and glass, this proposed skyscraper is designed to reach nearly 1,000 feet in the air and, if it goes forward, will be the first timber-framed tower in London and tallest such structure on Earth.

wood skyscraper design

Stick-framed houses are standard in many parts of the world, but using wood for skyscrapers has a lot of potential advantages, including: lower costs, less embedded energy, more renewable resources and a look and feel scaled to human occupancy.

wood skyscraper skyline

The obvious worry for most people is, of course, fire. However, timber buildings are famously good at standing up to flames – columns and beams will char in an inferno, and that charred surface can actually stand up longer to heat than exposed steel. While steel heats up and buckles, wood first loses its water weight, then chars and resists the flames.

wooden architecture tower

As it turns out, “Wood is one of nature’s most innovative building materials: the production has no waste products and it binds CO2. Wood has low weight, but is a very strong load-bearing structure compared to its lightness.”

wood human factors

Rising 80 stories above the city and providing 1,000 housing units, the London stick tower project is a collaboration between PLP Architecture and Cambridge University’s Department of Architecture. Completed, it would be the second-tallest building in the city next to The Shard.

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Houses & Residential. ]

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Robotic Delivery: 6-Wheeled Drones Set to Roll Out in London

20 Nov

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

drone bots streets london

With all the focus on flying drones, grounded versions can fly under the radar, like the bot driving this latest business from the co-founders of Skype. Facilitating robotic deliveries in London, Starship Technologies aims to advance driverless automation in smaller steps, beating autonomous car companies to getting driver-free wheels on the ground in England.

drone real street delivery

The little driverless electric vehicles that will be making the rounds are six-wheeled rovers just over 20 inches tall and able to be packed with a sizable load of goods for short shipments.

drone on sidewalk

Customers simply select items online, pick from delivery windows, then track progress on an app and tap on their logged-in device to open the lid when their shipment of stuff arrives.

drone open hatch

Cruising at just four miles per hour, it remains to be seen how they will handle even sidewalk foot traffic, let alone road crossings. Its creators also presumably anticipate that a watchful public (and CCTV cameras) will help keep the little drones safe on their journeys. However, the bots can also directly relay distress signals to the police in an emergency or be remotely operated by human pilots as needed.

drone london open

They also come with an antennae that both helps with wireless connectivity but also provides visibility beyond each drone’s natural height.

drone neighborhood deliveries

“Our vision revolves around three zeroes – zero cost, zero waiting time and zero environmental impact,” say the founders. “We want to do to local deliveries what Skype did to telecommunications.”

drone bot delivery vehicle

So far the robots have only been tested indoors (interoffice experiments), but the company aims to hit the streets (or at least sidewalks) next year.

drone remote delivery street

It is in many ways an attempt to solve the ever-vexing ‘last mile’ problem: “The last few miles often amounts to the majority of the total delivery cost.”

drone robot delivery service

“Our robots are purposely designed using the technologies made affordable by mobile phones and tablets – it’s fit for purpose, and allows for the cost savings to be passed on to the customer.”

[ By WebUrbanist in Technology & Vehicles & Mods. ]

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Tube Travelators: Replacing London Trains with Moving Walkways

09 Sep

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

underground

A proposal by an international architecture firm would reduce travel time in the London Underground, not with faster rail cars but by using people movers of the kind generally found in airports. Closing the loop on questions of congestion, this strategy would stop trains in their tracks.

tube congestion reduction standing

Aimed at the congested Circle Line looping through the heart of the city, the design from NBBJ Architects incorporates three parallel walkways moving at different speeds (up to a maximum of 15 miles per hour). That may sound slow until you consider that the top speed of the trains currently running these sections of Tube is around 20 MPH due to congestion.

tube function diagram design

Commuters and travelers would step from the slowest-moving walkway across to increasingly faster lanes, using the replacement paths to connect to work or other (generally faster) lines of the Underground. People walking down the fast lane could actually end up moving more quickly than a train. Others could potentially sit down along one side on fold-down seats (as with an escalator railing, these would speed along at the same pace as the track below).

tube futuristic walkway idea

While the odds of implementation are slim, the data is compelling – the system could accommodate more passengers than the current trains and would eliminate the frustration of waiting in queues. The Circle Line in particular is infamous for delays, with an average of 10 reported per day.

Christian Coop of NBBJ cites a challenge from think tank New London Architecture for the inspiration to create these strange proposal. If nothing else, it might be something to consider for the vast expanses of derelict underground rail space running through the city.

[ By WebUrbanist in Conceptual & Futuristic & Technology. ]

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BIG Plans to Turn 4 London Power Plant Chimneys into Tesla Coils

03 Aug

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

battersea square

Danish firm BIG Architects has a feasible strategy for converting four iconic smokestacks in the center of London into a series of gigantic pedestrian-powered Tesla coils. These would be the tallest of their kind and their visual effect would be nothing short of stunning, generating arcs of energy to bridge between the 300-foot-high towers at predetermined times.

big tesla coil project

Bjarke Ingels Group was commissioned to create a sizable public plaza space adjacent to the disused building as part of a larger redevelopment plan, but announced during a lecture that they had much larger design ambitions in mind. Going public with this plan may have come as something of a shock to their client, who had not yet be apprised of the scheme. In defense of the architects: they wished to make sure what they were proposing was actually possible before any announcement. “We’re working with experts in Tesla coils, looking into how to incorporate it into the chimneys so essentially we might celebrate the transformation from carbon footprint to human footprint.”

giant tesla coils

Currently, the world’s largest Tesla coils are in the 100-foot-high range, so depending on how much of each tower was turned toward this function, these could conceivably become the tallest coils ever constructed (in addition to being the highest-reaching).

battersea power project

Piezoelectric pavement would slowly generate energy from those passing through the square (estimated at 50,000 people per day), which would be collected and deployed in periodic bursts. “We imagine it like Big Ben, when the clock strikes the hour, we can have this celebration of human energy and human life.”

battersea power station

The two pairs of towers are extremely tall relative to their surroundings and arguably an iconic part of the neighboring urban landscape, jutting up out of a power plant complex that is nearly a century old. The Battersea Power Station will be rebuilding the chimneys regardless, so it is just a matter of whether they will adopt this enhancement in the process. Already populated with colorful enhancements and unusual architecture, bolts of electricity arcing across the sky would still certainly stand out in London’s bright nighttime cityscape (tesla coil image by Clarence Risher).

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Linnaeus Tripe photographs of 1850s Burma and India on show in New York and London

13 May

An exhibition of photographs taken by Captain Linnaeus Tripe during a tour of India and Burma is on show in The Metropolitan Museum in New York, and will then move to London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. The collection of 60 images made on paper negatives display historic places, buildings, geology and the infrastructure of parts of the two countries, and were in some cases the first photographs ever to be taken of these sites. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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London Bridge: 12 Contenders Including ‘Flaming Mouth of Hades’

05 Mar

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

london bridge 008

Some of the concepts submitted for the new Nine Elms to Pimlico pedestrian bridge in London are rather – well – pedestrian, while others are so out-there they’ve been nicknamed ‘The Flaming Mouth of Hades.’ Spanning the Thames River, the bridge will link two very different parts of the city, and must be “technically rigorous and beautiful,” cyclist-friendly and well-engineered while providing headroom for river traffic.

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The competition to design the bridge has drawn dozens of entries from around the world, with a shortlist set to be announced later this month and a winner unveiled in July. The design brief notes that “how the bridge looks from afar, as it bestrides the Thames, what it feels like to cross and how it touches land on either shore – and the places that it creates around each landing point – will be critical to its success.”

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Thus far, there’s only a gallery of images to look at, without any supporting information on each design, so it’s hard to tell just what we’re looking at in some cases. The City Metric called most of the entries ‘ridiculous,’ pointing out “the one which is definitely not a bridge,” “the one like a nightmarish Escher painting” and “the one that’s a spoon.”

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london bridge hades

It’s clear enough why the word Hades was invoked to describe the strange violet-and-orange creation pictured above, and it’s unclear how this design would actually function as a bridge. You have to wonder whether some of the entrants are just trolling. But some of the designs are actually quite beautiful, like the one featuring a perforated undulating canopy over a network of paths planted with greenery. However will the judges choose?

[ By Steph in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

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Historic prints from the beginning of photography to go on auction in London

24 Feb

William Henry Fox Talbot prints from as early as 1844 are part of a collection of over 200 photographs that are due to go to auction in London next month. All of the pictures in the sale come from a single private collection which includes a many well-known and important works, and many of the prints were made at the time the original pictures were taken. See gallery

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

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Brutal London: Paper Miniatures of Concrete Architecture

14 Feb

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

brutal london 1

Rendered in minute detail right down to curtain colors, satellite dishes and graffiti, these paper miniatures mimic London’s iconic Brutalist buildings, including the Balfron Tower and Space House. Two housing blocks that have been at least partially demolished are among the 3D cut-out models celebrating and preserving these oft-maligned concrete structures. brutal london 2

brutal london 3

Zupagrafika design studio carefully studied each building, taking photographs from all angles to capture the smallest details. The collection of five models is available for €5 each at their webshop, arriving in a flat pack so you assemble the components yourself. The kits include short notes on the architects, the year of construction and the location of each building.

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The studio previously created paper cut-out models of modernist buildings in Warsaw as well as notable elements of the urban fabric throughout Poland that were first designed in the ’60s or ’70s, including advertising columns, cars, traffic lights and ticket validators.

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Brutalist architecture is one of the 20th century’s most controversial styles, criticized for being too cold and confrontational and nearly always made of raw concrete. Maybe it’s not for everyone, but anyone with a soft spot for its harsh angles and unapologetically utilitarian nature can now create their own little cityscapes on a table or shelf.

[ By Steph in Drawing & Digital. ]

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The Under Line: Derelict London Tube Tunnels as Public Paths

07 Feb

[ By WebUrbanist in Architecture & Cities & Urbanism. ]

under line renderings concept

Tapping unused sections of the London Underground, this bold proposal would create a network of subterranean paths for pedestrians and cyclists as well as spaces for pop-up shops, cafes and cultural events, all situated in stations and subway stretches of rail currently sitting idle and empty.

In the spirit of New York’s proposed Low Line, the plan involves main disused tunnels serving as primary areas for circulation and interaction. Simultaneously, putting existing but unused infrastructural voids to better use, the design calls for old reservoir chambers and exchanges to connect these larger and more open sections of the Tube.

london underline tunnel prospect

Architects at Gensler, the firm behind the idea, developed it to address a series of issues in the densely-populated capital of England, including bicyclist fatalities on surface streets, a lack of public space and ease of movement across the city.

under line subterranean path

As a bonus, special panels lining the interior of these underground spaces would be used to generate kinetic energy from people passing through and walking on surfaces, obviating the need for external power sources. Indeed, the technology for this system already exists, and this would be a great potential application for both cost and sustainability reasons.

under line tube reuse

The development process could also be incremental, moving in stages to make transition and restoration costs more manageable and to test usage patterns. The default plan is to start with voids between Green Park and Holborn, working stations that could provide access to unused portions of the Tube spanning them. In turn, tying these spaces into the existing Underground network would make them more accessible to visitors coming into the city and locals alike.

london underline park idea

Unlike other conceptual projects for London, like the SkyCycle,or serious proposals, like the Garden Bridge, very little would have to be added or displaced for this reprogramming approach to work. The Under Line may also borrow a bit of inspiration from this clever idea to transform Paris Metro stops into event spaces.

360Photography

Posts Tagged ‘London.’

World’s Longest Tunnel Slide Opening at Sculptural London Monument

World’s Tallest Wood-Framed Skyscraper Proposed for London

Robotic Delivery: 6-Wheeled Drones Set to Roll Out in London

Tube Travelators: Replacing London Trains with Moving Walkways

BIG Plans to Turn 4 London Power Plant Chimneys into Tesla Coils

Linnaeus Tripe photographs of 1850s Burma and India on show in New York and London

London Bridge: 12 Contenders Including ‘Flaming Mouth of Hades’

Historic prints from the beginning of photography to go on auction in London

Brutal London: Paper Miniatures of Concrete Architecture

The Under Line: Derelict London Tube Tunnels as Public Paths

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Posts Tagged ‘London.’

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