One of Britain’s most famous architects has said offices left empty by the
Public Group active 3 years, 1 month agoOne of Britain’s most famous architects has said offices left empty by the crisis could become the residential tower blocks of the future and vacant shops could be turned into urban farms. Lord Foster of Thames Bank, jeepininmidwest.com whose designs include the Gherkin in and Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, , said the pandemic has been ‘an accelerant’ of trends that will reshape global cities.The 85-year-old argued that these trends include the repurposing of buildings for alternative use and the pedestrianisation of larger swathes of urban centres.Lord Foster told the Financial Times that the crisis sparked by the global outbreak of Covid-19 has brought Britain to a ‘crossroads’ in the evolution of the office, millions of which have stood empty for the past year.He suggested that those spaces could be used creatively, including for more housing in city centres, as the rise of online shopping and work from home accelerate the death of the British High Street.And he underscored the importance of designing buildings with the potential to lower the carbon footprint of the built environment as the Urban Land Institute think tank says the real estate industry should take action against climate change.’Perhaps the obsolete office building becomes the residential tower of the future…
If you can relax about zoning, then perhaps the department store which is zoned as retail can be rezoned for leisure, as a cinema, or for industry,’ Lord Foster said. Lord Foster of Thames Bank, whose buildings include the Gherkin in London and Apple’s headquarters in California, said the pandemic has been ‘an accelerant’ of trends that will reshape global cities Terminus House, a disused office building now being used for social housing, in Harlow A closed Forever 21 store on Oxford Street in London, on February 1, 2021 RELATED ARTICLES
Share this article
Share
<div class="art-ins mol-factbox floatRHS news" data-version="2" id="mol-b456db90-6ab8-11eb-861a-e97dde50b591" website Lord Foster's vision for post-pandemic UK
Members
-
joined 3 years, 1 month ago
