10 C O N T E X T 1 0 7 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 8 Tall storeys: IHBC London branch conference Good manners for a recession The IHBC London branch held the fifth of its annual series of one-day conferences in October under the title ‘Tall storeys: do high buildings complement the historic environment?’ As branch chair David McDonald admitted in his opening remarks, the conference was planned early in the year: when Ken Livingstone was Mayor of London, the boom in the construction of tall buildings was still in full flow, and credit crunch had barely entered the vocabulary. Notwithstanding the election of Boris Johnson as mayor and question marks over the viability of several already approved schemes for the capital, the issues posed by this conference remain relevant nationwide. Jonathan Glancey, author and critic, entertainingly and symbolically opened his keynote address by playing with a set of brightly coloured, infants’ building blocks, demonstrating that constructing towers (as well, of course, as demolishing them) is a timehonoured phenomenon inherited from childhood. In the adult world, emerging cities are seeking to define an instant image for themselves. Glancey admitted to not knowing what recession would mean, except fewer skyscrapers. He challenged us to reflect on the motives behind their construction.Who are they for? What are the alternatives? And what is the most suitable built form for any given location: the primordial horizontality of an oasis in the desert, or the traditional, medium-rise, humanly scaled, environment of central London? Glancey concluded by questioning whether we were building intelligently or simply replaying our childhoods. Susie Barson of English Heritage pointed out that it was only since the 1960s that the wave of ever-larger and taller commercial buildings had overtaken the traditional skyline identifiers of the square mile, such as religious, military and commemorative monuments. Rosemarie MacQueen of Westminster City Council emphasised two conclusions of the joint English Heritage and CABE document Guidance on Tall Buildings (2007), namely that the existence of a tall building in a particular location did not necessarily set a precedent for others, and that they were not the only model for high density. She spoke of Mayor Johnson’s timely reflection, as set out in the vision document Planning for a Better London (2008). This – compared to his predecessor’s love affair with tall buildings – placed greater weight on local context, protection and enhancement of the historic environment, and the protection of views of historic landmarks. Several of the speakers challenged the assumption that tall buildings were synonymous with urban renaissance and commercial success, and essential to the status of the City as a world financial centre. Chris Miele of Montagu Evans attracted some ire when he affirmed that the scale, height and bulk of new projects could not be considered irrespective of design, and that it was ‘only sensible’ that the planning system should overrule all other considerations when persuaded of the architectural quality of a project. No wonder the UNESCOWorld Heritage Committee continues to take a keen interest in what is happening in the surroundings and settings of London’s three world heritage sites:Westminster, the Tower and Greenwich. One questioner asked: ‘Where does the IHBC stand in all this?’We still have many lessons to learn from the 1960s, and any recession has not come a moment too soon. Gordon Cullen, in Townscape (1961), encapsulated good urban design as ‘the agreement to differ within a recognised tolerance of behaviour’. Does the attention-seeking machismo of today’s architects and engineers reflect good manners, let alone common sense? IHBC London will not be holding a one day conference in 2009: instead, it is reserving its energies for the organisation of the 2010 Annual Summer School. Dennis Rodwell The Tower of London seen against a cluster of City towers.
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